Changing from Formula to Cow's milk

Madeeha - posted on 04/16/2009

i was told frm the pediatrician to just dilute the cow milk with water..

Madeeha - posted on 04/16/2009

i was told frm the pediatrician to just dilute the cow milk with water..

Madeeha - posted on 04/16/2009

i was told frm the pediatrician to just dilute the cow milk with water..

April - posted on 04/14/2009

I started to try the switch, but came to realise my daughter is lactose intolerant, when i went to my childhood nurse she told me that she indeed is lactose, but that the world health organisation recommends to keep breastefeeding or formula feeding until they are 2. which i will probably do until i get this lactose sorted out.

Marina - posted on 04/06/2009

My son didnt like it at first but since ive been warming the cows milk up a bit he drinks it fine usually about 2-3 bottles a day.  U could try to put some sugar free strawberry milkshake in with it i know ive tried this and he loved it .

Caroline - posted on 04/04/2009

I first gave my son cows milk in a cup at lunch time and kept with the bottle before bed until he got used to it, after a few days we replaced the before bed bottle with warmed up cows milk and haven't had a problem with it. Now he has cows milk with lunch and before bed.

Celia - posted on 04/03/2009

we started off giving whole milk as the mid morning drink so it didnt matter if they refused it but they didmt so after a week we gave it to them at bedtime warmed up in a bottle so they knew that was the night drink and they have been fine buit they only have one bottle of whole milk a day now so im making sure they have lots of yougarts and chesse etc during the day i can only suggest that warming it up might help which im sure you allready tried as for constipation i used to give them a say 24oml in a bottle a quater of that would be water as well as getting them to drink water throughout the day hope it helped a little bit

Katey - posted on 03/27/2009

This is the perfect post! We just tried whole milk yesterday - disaster. Wouldn't drink it for breakfast (in a sippy - no problem with formula in the sippy) so finally we decided to do 4 oz formula with 2 oz milk and he drank the whole thing up. I am going to try this and wean off the formula. Sounds like it worked for many of you so I hope I have the same luck!!

Jennifer - posted on 03/26/2009

It seems as though mixing the formula and homo milk is doing the trick. My daughter now has no trouble, yet...Thanks for all the suggestions :)

Anne Marie - posted on 03/25/2009

We did a hard transition right after his birthday and Liam hasn't had a problem! We make his morning and bedtime bottles to be about 3/4 water and 1/4 whole milk and he gobbles them up.

Alyn - posted on 03/21/2009

The first week of march, I started mixing formula and cows milk. At first I did only a little bit of cows milk. As each week passed, I increased the amount of cows milk and decreased the formula. Now it's the last week and he's on cow milk only. He doesn't take too well to it still. He tends to like it room temperature so I usually make one ahead of time and leave it out for 30min before giving it to him.

Soktheary - posted on 03/18/2009

im currently switching my daughter to cows milk too, my pediatrcian suggested i mix half formula and half cows milk, it seems to be working, shes taking it, and i dont think she can tell the difference

Vicki - posted on 03/18/2009

I started a few weeks ago switching my son from breast to whole milk. i've never been able to pump, so i didn't have to worry about him refusing. he had no problem adjusting...sorry if that doesn;t help... i used a sippy cup..

Shandal - posted on 03/17/2009

my son did just fine going to whole milk.. But I only offer it ina cup! no bottles!

Angela - posted on 03/17/2009

I was lucky with Alexis. She took to the cow's milk quickly. I will still dilute a few of her bottles and she could care less. She loves it. I am glad I'm not the only one starting mine early.

Christina - posted on 03/17/2009

My daughter took to cows milk instantly. We have her a bottle of it and she refused formula after that.

On her first birthday we took away bottles and started with just sippy cups. She wouldnt drink her milk from a sippy cup so i started adding a bit of chocolate milk and she got hooked. I slowly added less and less chocolate milk and now shes just straight milk again and loves it.

Cows milk isnt a meal for them, its just a drink. It took awhile for us to get used to that cause we were so used to giving her a bottle of formula between meals like a snack.

She eats many little meals throughout the day now. In the morning she has either a bowl of cereal and a cup of milk, or a bowl of dry cheerios and a cup of milk, couple hours later a cookie and half a banana and some juice, then she'll have lunch. Couple hours after lunch she'll have another snack with a cup of milk. Then comes dinner, couple hours after dinner another snack, then before bed a bowl of cereal and a cup of milk.

Cathy - posted on 03/17/2009

i just started switching today (mixing formula and homo milk) but my question is now how do u go out with it?? do u have to keep the milk in a cooler bag? cuz u can't let the milk go warm right? how often are ur babies still drinking milk?

Stacy - posted on 03/16/2009

my daughter didn't like cows milk at first but i kept giving it to her and after a week or so she's drinking it fine.. in fact she won't even drink formula anymore..

Megan - posted on 03/15/2009

when i switch my son, i did 1/4 cow's milk and then 3/4 formula. every week i would add more cow's milk and less formula. He had no problem and did just fine. you also have to remember to use vitamin-D milk ( whole milk).

Joanna - posted on 03/14/2009

We switched our daughter over to homo milk at 11 months old. I just put it into her bottle and she took to it and she hasn't had a bottle of formula since. She loves the homo milk whether its in a bottle of a sippy cup. I am still warming it up - luke warm though... perhaps thats why she didn't have a problem with it? I don't know.. but I never sis the half anf half thing.

Sarah - posted on 03/13/2009

I just read all thes eposts, and wow there are so many different children!! My son is off formula and on whole milk, luckily my husband works for a great dairy! He takes sippy cups, two or three a day, and two or three bottles a day, 6-4 oz at a time. Somedays he doesn't want very much milk, but loves water or a little juice. As long as he eats a variety of foods that are healthy, I am not stressing over it. I think the reason he is so healthy though is because he had breast milk only for the first 5 or 6 months and then slowly introduce foods and formula to weane. good luck.

Shannon - posted on 03/12/2009

I just started the transition a few weeks ago with my son. I started with half formula, half milk. Did that for 2 weeks. Now he is only drinking 2 oz of formula and 4 oz milk in his bottle. I tried the sippy, he wont drink anything other than water and juice. Next week ill drop it down to 1 oz of formula and the rest will be milk. Then hopefully he will drink just milk. Good luck!

Sarah - posted on 03/11/2009

My daughter turns one tomorrow - we are on day 5 of cow's milk (she still nurses or gets pumped milk morning, nap and night). She isn't digging it, and I know it's not because of the cup - she's all about the cup, as long as it has breast milk or juice in it. How often are y'all offering cups of milk? If they won't do the milk, how much dairy are we talking?

Donna - posted on 03/11/2009

i ran out of formula so just started giving my boy cows milk he loves it you would think he had been having it the whole time

Tina - posted on 03/10/2009

I have been tring to just give my daughter cows Milk when she is eating lunch and dinner but with my younger daughter we ended up haveing to put a little bit of strawberry in the milk the doctor said that was fine and if she wouldn't drink alot then to just make sure that she eat cheese and yogurt.

Michelle - posted on 03/10/2009

Don't mix them. Try just whole milk. Maybe slightly warmed if that helps. Also it might help to give it in a sippy cup instead of a bottle. Hope it helps!

Jennifer - posted on 03/10/2009

Hi Just wondering if you had any problems with constipation when mixing homo milk and formula? It seems as though many ppl do what you're doing..

Susan - posted on 03/10/2009

I put Nevaeh on Homo milk a couple weeks ago. I didn't do any mixing are you supposed to do that? Instead of giving it to her in a bottle I put it in a sippy cup. She liked having the new big cup than the bottle. I have been giving her water since she was 6 months old out of a sippy cup so she knew how they worked. I also gave the milk after any food.

I think that I read it is best to try new things when they are not as hungriest. For Nevaeh that was lunch time.

Jennifer - posted on 03/09/2009

Hi..I am now trying to switch my 11 1/2 month old to homo milk. I tried it today, gave her formula in the morning and at lunch tried the homo milk in her sippy cup.She took a few sips and that was it..Then she wouldn't drink anything else, formula or water (what she was drinking previously to trying the homo milk)...Any suggestions?? Is mixing the homo milk and formula the solution??

Annette - posted on 03/09/2009

I just recently switched me one year old to cows mild. I was lucky because she took to it very well. I started by mixing 4oz of formula with 2 oz of milk and used that mixture for 3 days. After the 3 days I would switch to half and half for 3 days. Then I went to 2 oz of formula and 4 of milk until I was just to strictly milk.

Jenny - posted on 03/09/2009

Hi Shilpa,

I did the same thing when I switched Ruby to Cow's milk. I just reduced the formula amount little by little. At first she got a little constipated, but I gave her a little prune juice and she was fine.

Good luck!

jenny

Kristy - posted on 03/09/2009

My son gets about 4 ounces of milk with lunch and then again with dinner(in a sippy cup). He does fine with it. I am glad because he was on a hypoallergenic formula until he was 9 months old. My husband wanted to just switch him totally to milk but he's not 1 yet and I have been some what of a freak with this baby(since he has reflux). We bought another can of formula(since WIC switched his checks already) and when his can is gone he should be 1 by then and will be fully on milk.

I see half and half seems to be working for you right now :o) As far as sippy cups, I was told to use hard tip ones instead of soft tips, which I like better. We have a soft tip one that just leaks all over him anyway. We use take n toss cups(you can get at any store), they don't have a no spill valve like some but not much spills out anyway(in my opinion).

Good Luck!!

Shilpa - posted on 03/06/2009

The mixing seems to be doing the Job!! I'm on 1/2 and 1/2 now. She is really not taking to her lidded beaker. so I think sippy cups is next. Which one do you use Jennifer?

Jennifer - posted on 03/05/2009

I had started to transition my twins to cows milk a few weeks ago and I was doing the 2/3 formula to 1/3 milk and they didn't seem to mind it too much. Then when they were on day for I switched to 1/2 cows milk to 1/2 formula. Day 6 they came down with a stomach bug that I thought was an allergy to the milk so I stopped the milk. The bug lasted for 6 days so I knew it wasn't an allergy. While they were sick I had the oppertunity to do some more research on transitioning. So today we decided that we we not going to mix the formula and milk. We only gave them two bottles 7oz bottles of formula and the rest of the time if they were thirsty we offered them homo milk in thier sippy cup. They ended up drinking 8oz. I don't use standard sippy cups because they don't like them, instead i use 8oz rubbermaid straw cups. I was shocked that they actually drank the milk from thier cups because I had tried them with just formula (because I wanted to get them off of bottles altogether) but they took one sip and that was is. I also found it strange that they drank the milk cold but they will only drink the formula heated. I don't know if you have tried offering a sippy cup instead of a bottle, but so far so good for us.  Guess we will see how day 2 goes.

Elise - posted on 03/05/2009

I too am starting to transition from formula to cows milk. The first time i gave it to my son, he seemed not to be able to tell a difference but now he refuses it.  I havent tried mixing it yet, is that the secret???

Shilpa - posted on 03/05/2009

  She didn't take to half and half at first but is taking the 1/3 to 2/3. I'll gradually dilute out the formula with cow's milk.

I think formula is just sweeter and heavier. She seems to be more hungry since i've started mixing  cows milk.

Antonia - posted on 03/05/2009

Maybe it's just a case of persisting with it?? I'm lucky my son loooves cows milk much more than he likes formula, but it took him well over a month to accept the formula after breast milk. at times he wants cows milk only but i still have formula in the cupboard and dont want to waste it so i will put half and half which he accepts

Jaime - posted on 03/04/2009

i was just wondering is that working because at the moment im am trying to switch my daughter on to cows milk and doesn't matter what i do she just wont ddrink it i have tried going half and half with formula and then just water, still wont have it. i even tried making chocolate milk which she would drink off a teaspoon but not out of a bottle. i just swap bottles for food and she seems quite happy with that i try just to ensure that she has heaps of dairy