do you kids drink water? what about the transition to milk?

Eugenia - posted on 10/02/2009

As long as my kids were drinking formula, i didnt give them too much water. I switch them to 2% milk on their first birthday pretty much cold turkey from the 9-24 month formula so i think it helped with hte transition

Summer - posted on 09/27/2009

When I transitioned my twins as well as my older son from formula to milk, I did it gradually. With my older son he was drinking only whole milk by 10 months, but he was a very large child (always has been in the 90th percentile). With my twins however, they are smaller for their age (10th percentile) as most twins are, so I waited until they were a year old before I started the transition, and by almot 14 months they were on only whole milk. I did it by mixing up a bunch of formula (like a days worth) in a pitcher. Then I would give them 1/4 whole milk with 3/4 formula for two weeks. If they were tolerating that, then after 2 weeks I changed it to 1/2 formula 1/2 milk for 2 weeks. Then of course we went to 3/4 milk and 1/4 formula and finally completely to whole milk. All my kids did really well with this and never had any reactions, fussiness, gas, constipation/diarrhea, or rashes. However my sister-in-law tried this same method with her youngest daughter, and she started with 1/4 milk but it made the baby fussy and constipated. She had to do a more gradual transition starting with an even lower concentration of milk to formula. Every child is different. My sister just went straight to whole milk and never looked back with my nephew and he was fine with it. I know doctors say you don't have to warm a baby's bottle anymore, but I always did anyway. It seemed to be more satisfying to them. So I continued to warm their bottles for two more weeks after they had switched over to whole milk, then we went straight to cold milk right out of the fridge. Hope this helps.

Seonead - posted on 08/05/2009

do you split the milk and formula up like 50/50 milk/formula? or just give them milk in small amounts throughout the day until they are back up to their normal amounts?

Kristina - posted on 07/13/2009

I have 20 month old identical girls - and all the time they are playing they have tippy cups they can drink from full of ice water. - 4 times a day I give them 4oz of "milk". to get 16oz down them a day. You will know if your kids are lactose intolerant when you start to give them milk. It will give them upset tummies and they will be crabby. usually within the first couple of cups. However, like in my case, my kids cant process the milk proteins so they got diahrea and horrible rashes on their bottoms that were bleeding before the 2nd day. - We had to stop the milk and give soy pediatric drink to them (also failure to thrive so we needed those calories) when they get bigger they will be on soy milk. - also watch for flu like symtoms when feeding juice to your kids.... I have had the experience also of malabsorbtion of fructose, and fruit juice has the highest and most concentrated amount of fructose.... but, back to the water issue - when I first started to leave water out for them, they did not like it much, but when they get thirsty, they will drink it and they will start to ask for more, it is a great habit to start anyways!

Hope this helps a little at least

Kristina

Catherine - posted on 07/10/2009

I put a few ice cubes in my sons water and he loves to jiggle the cup around and hear the ice slosh around. He always drinks his water when there is ice in the sippy cup/ bottle!

Liz - posted on 07/10/2009

My twins are 13 months old ( 11 and a half months corrected) They really don't like their water. We give them some juice and my son loves his whole milk. Since my daughter doesn't really drink her milk we've switched her to pediasure and she's doing fine now. As for how we transitioned them we started to give them 4- 5 ounces once a day during lunch, and gradually increased it until they were completely on whole milk.

If they are on regular formula and haven't had any problems with it then they should be fine with the milk.

Kayra - posted on 07/10/2009

My kids didn't have any problem drinking water. If yours don't like the flavor, how about diluting some juice with water? that way it will have some flavor.



As far as lactose intolerant, is the formula they are on regular formula? If it is, and they haven't had any problems, they probably won't have any with the milk