They have the sippy cup down, now what?

After trying several different cups, they have finally got the sippy cup down! :yahoo: I didn't think they would ever transition to the cup!! Anyways, should I continue giving them their formula in bottles (they take 4 bottles a day between meals), or try to switch them over to forumla out of the cup only? We usually give them sippies of water or a little watered down juice with meals and snacks.

And another question, when you transition to whole milk, do you still give them as much milk as you do formula, like in between meals? How does this whole milk transition thing go?

 

This is how I do it. I'm not sure if this is the "expert approved" way of doing it but it works for me.

I usually start giving them milk in their sippies, then slowly increase that amounts of milk sippies they get and decrease the amount of formula bottles they get. I give my guys about the same amount of milk as formula for awhile until it seems like they crave more solids and less milk. I do believe the minimum amount of milk they need is 16oz per baby per day, but my kids always drank more milk than that.

 

I gave them cold formula in sippies with each meal and snack and got to 3 bottles. At 12 months, I switched the cold formula in the sippy to milk, kept formula in the bottles. Started cutting bottles by adding another snack. At 12.5 months we were done with bottles, therefore done with formula.

I think it is recommended that they have 16-20 ounces of milk a day, and my girls food consumption has gone way, way up. Lily would drink a good 30 ounces of milk a day if I let her, so I started giving her half juice/half water for one of her snacks, and water for the other. She easily gets to 20 ounces of milk with just 3 meals.

 

I do it exactly the same way Jenny does it. I also decrease the amount of formula in their bottles. 50-50 mix in the beginning and then eventually just milk and then just sippies. WTG babies!

 

I am at the same point as you with the same questions! I switched to whole milk cold turkey. My babies were getting 3 8oz bottles of formula and now they are getting 3 7oz bottles of milk. They do good with a sippy, but I haven't swtiched them completely yet. I still give water in sippies at meals and they get an AM snack with a bottle and an afternoon snack with a bottle and then a nighttime bottle. I think next week I'll do the sippies only during the day and just give them a night time bottle for another month or so.

 

I switch to milk cold turkey (at 11 months), and my girls did fine. But I think every baby is different, and mine didn't care for formula to much. I would switch the afternoon bottles to sippies and see how that goes and go from there. When I did it my girls were having 3 8oz bottles a day so I took the afternoon bottle away a replaced it with a sippy of milk and a snack. Then I ran out of bottle lines and didn't want to spend the money on buying more so I just stopped offering the bottle and gave them sippies. They did amazingly well, I had to rearange the feeding time and add another snack but they do good and never fussed for the bottle again. Good luck I hope you have a easy time with it.

 

If they have it down... I would take the bottles away, no looking back.

I transitioned mine to whole milk at 11 months, and they liked it so much better... believe it or not, they gained more weight on it... because they drank more.