Switching to cow's milk at 12 months?

Question

Should the switch be gradual? Like mixing a bottle 1/2 formula and 1/2 cow's milk? Or can you just do away with the formula one day and immediately start cow's milk the next? I will be asking our pediatrician at my daughter's checkup in a week, but I was just curious what you guys have been told?

Answer 1

I was tod told to go half cows milk half water then up the portion of the cows milk, just to see if they have a sensitivity to it just at the start.

But i would make sure with your health nurse as well before to make the switch!

Well done on making it to 12 months!!

Answer 2

I gradually switched my daughter for the reason i tried to go cold turkey but she hated it. I also gradually switched from warm to cold by not warming it as long each time. It took about a month but eventually she was drinking straight cows milk cold.

Answer 3

As a veteran child care provider, I don't think mixing is a great idea but offering half of what your baby normally takes in full fat milk and having half a bottle of formula may work well. Most children do fine switching cold turkey but it never hurts to wean children from one to th

Answer 4

we just switched cold turkey for our children. im not sure what the doctors are saying about it these days though. i know our family friend does 1/2 milk and 1/2 of the next step formula. she has also given the baby soy milk.

Answer 5

Depends how old your daughter is.  Some people keep their kids on formula for the full 12 months.  Some stop cold turkey and start at 10 months.  When my daughter threw her bottle away at 10 months that is when I switched to whole milk.  My other two kids took a little longer.  They were 12 months old.  You have to be careful though because she needs her vitamins that she was getting in her formula.   Your doctor can recommend what you need to do.  

Answer 6

We did it very gradual, because I was afraid that my son would hate milk (I don't like milk at all). He loved it though. We did 1 oz milk with 7 oz formula and every couple of days we would reduce the formula by an oz and up the cow's milk by an oz. Good luck!  

Answer 7

I just switched right to cow's milk when the formula was gone, I didn't mix it or anything.  None of my 3 kids seemed to notice or mind the difference in taste, but they didn't like that the cow's milk was cold when they were used to having warm bottles, so I just warmed the milk in the microwave and then they were fine with it.  

Answer 8

I mixed it for about two weeks and slowly got him used to it.  He really  liked formula and was resistant to milk by itself at first.  So, mixing it in gradually helped.  

Answer 9

Yes, make the switch gradually, to accustom baby to the different taste AND accustom his digestion to the different proteins.  

You could either mix formula and milk in his bottles/cups, or gradually offer increasing amounts of milk in a cup, while you gradually decrease the number of bottles.