Transition to milk and all sippies

I'm sure this has been discussed to death here on 1-4, but I really need some advice. I hope the poll works since I've never created a poll before.

We are still doing 2 bottles a day and a sippy of formula at lunch. I figured we'd change the formula lunch sippy to milk and then start transitioning wake and bedtime bottles after that.

Our pedi said we can either mix the two together gradually building up the ratio of milk to formula or just go cold turkey. I don't know what to do. There is no reason to think they have a dairy allergy since they've been eating yogurt and cheese for about 2 months so I don't know why I would mix formula and milk together especially in the lunch sippy.

My girls do drink formula cold or room temp and they do drink well from sippy cups.. so I don't know why I'm stressing about this! ACK!

Advice for a stereotypical first time mom? Please?! Thanks!!!

 

I did it one transition at a time, only because my two didn't want a sippy at 11 months when we did switch to milk. I did the formula to milk gradual. They were on three bottles at the time {6oz each} so the first two days I did 1oz milk/5oz formula....2 days 3oz milk/3oz formula, etc. I think I could have gone quicker with the switch, but that would have meant throwing away formula, :nea: Luckily they loved milk. As for the sippy, with my dd I just went cold turkey, went from all bottles to all sippies and she did not mind at all. My ds, well, today is his first day with no bottles. :blush: They "might" not drink all their milk at first from the sippy, so give it a few days. Good luck!!

 

I actually went cold turkey for both at the stroke of their first birthday. I guess I was feeling brave. They both already knew how to drink from sippies so I just started giving them sippies of milk at each meal. Ben had no problem with it at all but Adam was confused and wouldn't drink much. At first I thought it was the sippy he was protesting but it turned out it was the milk. I spent a couple of days mixing formula and milk in decreasing ratios and by the third day he was drinking only milk from the sippy cup.

I guess the moral of my story is that if one of them doesn't drink it, you won't know which thing they don't like, the sippy or the milk. Perhaps transitioning one at a time maybe a week apart would solve that.

 

While we were transitioning we mixed formula and milk together until the formula was gone. Once the formula was gone we switched to sippies. Liz is right though, it does take time to get used to the sippy and they probably won't drink much at first until they are used to it and realize they are not getting a bottle. The only time I put milk in a bottle was the bedtime bottle, which we gave up at 15 months. Other than that, they were off formula and bottles (except bedtime) at 12 months. I was so ready to get rid of both. Good luck making the change. Sounds like they are on the right track since they take a sippy of cold formula at lunch.

 

Mine went on bottle strike at 10 months and so we pushed the sippy HARD, lol!!! I was still bfing on my days home but on the days I worked they got all sippies except for a bedtime bottle.
When I weaned them mainly to whole milk we did it slow adding in about 3oz's every week or two, as mine got bad diarrhea from it. We did not have to deal with the bottle/sippy thing as they were already mainly on sippies and we dropped the bedtime bottle at 15 months and they then got thier last milk sippy at 3pm and still do.

 

Cold turkey and only in sippies.

It took them only 1 week to transition.

 

We slowly replaced each bottle with a sippy of milk. So for the first week, they got a sippy of milk at say lunch time, then the next week the breakfast bottle was replaced. The last one to go was the bedtime bottle. With the twins they were 13 months, with Liam it was the day after her turned 1. Basically, when I ran out of formula, he was done. I have never put anything other than formula in a bottle. All water and milk goes in a sippy (and Liam doesn't get juice yet and won't for quite some time).

 

Thanks guys!!! We are going to do milk in a sippy today for lunch and see how that goes. We'll do that for a couple of days and then I'll tackle the morning bottle. I'll leave bedtime bottle for last.

As much as I'm anxious about the transition ("are they getting enough nutrition?!?!"), I'm MORE than ready to not deal with bottles anymore. And I'm very excited about the big $$$ I'm going to save from not buying formula! Thanks again everyone!

 

QUOTE(moski @ Mar 20 2008, 09:25 PM) [snapback]680258[/snapback]
We slowly replaced each bottle with a sippy of milk. So for the first week, they got a sippy of milk at say lunch time, then the next week the breakfast bottle was replaced. The last one to go was the bedtime bottle. With the twins they were 13 months, with Liam it was the day after her turned 1. Basically, when I ran out of formula, he was done. I have never put anything other than formula in a bottle. All water and milk goes in a sippy (and Liam doesn't get juice yet and won't for quite some time).

This is what we're doing...still have the morning bottle but have replaced meal time bottles of formula with sippies of milk (started with dinner bottle then lunch) and they have sippies of water for snack time.

ETA...mine would not drink cold whole milk from a bottle...I tried it because ped recommended it, and the boys just looked at me like I'd lost my mind (they liked their formula warm in the bottle) so when I put cold milk in the sippy, they did fine.

 

we dropped a bottle of formula a week.. As needed we added in more food at meal times and snacks as well as sippies of milk...

 

I voted Other.


Mine were exclusively BF. They went to whole milk gradually in cups as we didn't do bottles. I never mixed it with BM - wouldn't want to ruin the good stuff

 

I mixed the formula and milk for a few days, not because of the concern for tolerance, but because I'm sure they have two totally different tastes. After a few days of mixing and putting less and less formula in we just did milk. They had a hard time with regular sippies because they wanted to walk and drink at the same time. So we switched to straw sippies after a few days and it was no problem. Good luck!

 

I marked other since with my girls we mixed formula and milk for a little while in their bottles (we started when they were about 11mths old) but for my son we just went straight to milk no mixing. Once they were all on milk only we threw out the bottles and only had sippy cups.

 

I picked other since we did milk only in sippies, and formula in bottles. We did milk in cups for snack for a few weeks probably to get the hang of it, then took about a week to a week and a half to get rid of the bottles. They were doing well about a week after all the bottles were gone.

Good luck!