Well the time has come that we need to start thinking about transitioning Kiya to whole milk. One problem is, I have no idea how to do that.
1) Do we still warm it up?
2) What if she hates it?
3)Do we mix it with formula at first?
4)Do we go cold turkey?
5) do we give it to her in a sippy cup or a bottle?
Kiya has never been a huge fan of formula. She on a good day will drink 15-17oz of formula but averages closer to 12-13oz. I know shocker. I got some raised eyebrows from some friends who thought I should be concerned and we should talk to our doctor. She should be drinking according to them 20-24oz of formula a day. Not going to happen. Kiya's doctor is well aware and not concerned and neither are we. She is a FABULOUS eater so why mess with a good thing. It just isn't a battle I am willing to fight.
Kiya will eat just about anything. She LOVES cheese which is great since we live in Wisconsin. She also LOVES yogurt. We aren't worried about her calcium levels. And she eats a wide variety of fruits, veggies and meat.
As for the bottle vs. sippy cup. Well Kiya will currently only drink water and maybe some watered down juice from a sippy. She loves water and juice is a treat at daycare every so often. We have tried to put formula in a sippy cup and that was a no go. It was like she knows it is in there and is like "no mommy". She is strong willed that's for sure.
This is something we will start working on in the next week. She just learned how to feed herself her own bottle so we don't want to take that away from her just yet. She is so proud of herself. You can see it on her face.
My baby girl is getting so big.
8 comments:
When we switched to whole milk, we did it in the sippy cup. Tyler would drink a little bit of water in a cup at that point, but never formula. We gave it to him cold. I think real milk cold, must taste like a completely different thing, because he actually drank that. I have heard you can mix it to ease them into it - we didn't have to do that. It took awhile for him to drink a lot of it, and actually figure it out - but we stuck to the cup. Mainly because they say at 12 months you should quit the bottle too. There were some things I followed the "rules" on, and for some reason that was one of them. I was very worried about switching and getting rid of the bottle all at once, but I think that was the best for us - it was just like he was getting bigger and he was done with one thing, and moving on to another.
We used a bottle & experimented with the sippy cups a little bit at first (my theory is ease into one thing at a time-but that's me). We also warmed it up at first, and we still do (she just went off the bottle a month ago). But you definitely have to see what is good for the baby, she is the one that will let you know what to do!!
Nubby cup is great for transition period. Don't warm it b/c you will be warming it for the next 10 years. Noah still needs it warmed ... seriously.
Good luck and we will be thinking of you.
When our little one turned 1, we switched to whole milk cold turkey, and she did fine. We contunued with the bottle, for the closeness, and because I nursed both of my boys until well after their second birthdays, and I wanted her to have the same quality time with me! She will be 2 at the end of the month, and she still takes a bottle, and we still warm it up for her.
The doctors do tell you to get them off of the bottle at 1, but in my humble opinion there is no rush! Just my 2 cents! She will do great with whatever you choose!
We just had Milo in for his 1 year check up. Our doctor told us to just go cold turkey. We actually did that for Lexi when she switched to milk. We haven't given it to him yet but I am planning on putting it in a sippy cup (just to see if he'll do it) and if he doesn't he can keep the bottle, I don't really care. I am going to keep it cold. He prefers the formula cold so my guess is he'll like the milk cold. We do have a whole can of formula left and we're planning on giving him that at night, watering it down more and more to wean him off the 1 am bottle.
Lizzy never really used a sippy. It is not so good for speech reasons. We used to use formual but slowly added Whole Milk until it was just all milk in one of those toddler no spill cups with a straw.
So -- we did the transition using 1-2 scoops of formula in each bottle of whole milk for about 1-2 weeks (literally just to get rid of the formula.) Sam didn't like formula either but LOVES milk and will chug down 40+ oz in a 24 hour period EASY. Sometimes it's up to 60 oz. He is a milk drinking machine!
He won't do milk in a sippy, but doesnt' really like water or juice in the sippy either. He wants either a bottle, or a "big person" cup, so he can spill it everywhere.
good luck w/ your transition!
I had the same concerns, Cathy. But Isaac is insane about his milk! The first week we transitioned him by mixing 1/4 milk 3/4 formula -- then 1/2 and 1/2 -- then 3/4 milk 1/4 formula -- then 100% milk...straight and cold from the fridge and he LOVES it. I started him using a sippy (really playing with a sippy) with just water around 10 months. He didn't use it regularly. But a few weeks before his birthday I started giving him water with his meals and the bottle in between. He didn't have any trouble transitioning off the bottle cold turkey. I think I had more trouble because we would give him a bottle at midnight. But it turns out that right around his birthday he decided he didn't need that anymore (maybe because we were watering it down) and he started sleeping through the night like a champ! Good luck with the transition and just do what you think is best for Kiya. Every kid is different and amazing! There shouldn't be any hard and fast rules.
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