Switching to Milk and Sippy Cups

My LO's turned one this past Saturday!!!! Their one year check up was yesterday (Monday), where the pedi said no more formula.. He said 4oz of whole milk 4 times a day in a sippy cup. I figured I would introduce in a bottle first and then transition to a sippy after they were use to having milk.

Aiden seems to be taking to the milk fine in a bottle. I haven't tried it in a sippy yet, but I'm sure he will do fine with it.. (They have sippys throughout the day with water in it.. ) But Landon is totally refusing the milk. I tried warming it, putting it in a cup, doing half formula half milk.. and he just wants nothing to do with it.

Just looking for some advice and ideas of how to get him to take to milk!! Also wondering if you all did 4 4oz cups of milk a day, when, with each meal and before bed???

 

Congrats!! Mine turned 1 on Saturday also!! We're working on this, too, so just a couple of ideas...

You said you tried half formula, half milk - maybe try even more gradual, like 1/4 milk, 3/4 formula, and then slowly build up.

Try giving it to him a different way. Mine love when I put my finger on a straw and dump the liquid in their mouth for them to drink. If he likes that because of the novelty, maybe he will develop a taste for the milk.

Also, timing - we are going to do what you said. Our 12-15 mo pamphlet we got at the check up said milk with every meal, so that's when we'll give it, and before bed.

Good Luck!

 

My girls wanted nothing to do with milk when they turned one. I was frantic trying to get them to drink it, so I finally broke down and bought some ovaltine. It has very little sugar. I only put 1 tablespoon per 10 oz (my girls drink two 10 oz cups of milk a day). This worked wonders. After a few weeks, I tried for plain whole milk again and they still didn't like it. I finally switched them to Silk soy milk, which a bit sweeter, but still not a lot of sugar and they gobbled it up. It has one gram less fat than whole milk, so they are still getting the fat they need. Some babies just don't like the taste of whole milk...I didn't, my husband didn't and we still don't.

 

When we made the transition to milk, we started with half milk and half formula and then decreased the formula until they were on all milk. My kids were on the 5th percentile for weight, so our pedi wanted them to have 24 oz of milk at that time. At 12 months they were still on bottles, so they had a bottle of milk in the morning, before the afternoon nap and before bedtime. When we dropped the bottles at 15 months, I dropped a bottle a week starting with the afternoon nap, then the AM bottle and then PM bottle.
I also give Carnation Instant Breakfast with the milk for extra calories. Good luck!

 

This is related but slightly off topic:
We switched our boys over to milk by doing a mix of toddler milk and cows milk and gradually building up the levels of cows milk. However, one of my boys then started suffering with really bad constipation. I mean, in agony every time he needed to go. We were really trying to focus on doing all the things you need to do to tackle the problem (diet, plenty of water) but were having no luck. Found out my niece's wee boy had the same problem when he switched onto cow's milk. So we went back to toddler milk and the problem went away. I'm now working on introducing cow's milk again, but just to say this can be a problem for some babies/toddlers.

 

We made the switch two weeks ago. Neither of my guys really like whole milk. I did half formula for 3 days and now I add Ovaltine and they drink 16-20+oz a day (I do 2tbs per 32oz, I make it up each morning).

I'd also suggest trying a different cup, both of mine like using the Munchkin soft straw cups; but I had to try like 6 different cups to see what they liked best.