Very confused regarding milk intake

Jude and Zoe still get an 8 oz bottle of formula immediately in the morning after wake-up and right before bedtime. They often finish so they are getting 14-16 oz before anything else, which has really helped their weights. They drink water (which they LOVE) with meals and get 2 straw sippies of 6 oz of milk through the day. Zoe would drink a gallon of whole milk if I let her, Jude will hardly touch it lately, although she was drinking it. They eat 3 meals a day and 2-3 snacks. We are dropping the formula at 15 mos. With them getting that formula in, should I be less concerned now with pushing those milk sippies during the day on Jude? So hard to think about decreasing milk (or formula for that matter) after obsessing about it for months...LOL.

 

Since you are planning to drop formula at 15 months, I would still try to have Jude get some milk in. I would let her take it at her own pace though...one the things I did when my two decided for some reason that they didn't want milk was flavor it a tiny bit with syrup. Since weight is concern for our two (they need to put more on), we always add Carnation Instant Breakfast to their milk. She can also get dairy in other ways eating yogurt, cheese, pudding, etc. Good luck!

 

We were concerned about weight for a while too, so we always offered milk with every meal and snack (5 times a day), and added Carnation Instant Breakfast mix to the morning milk sippy. After 1 year, most nutrition should come from solid foods, so milk is just a calcium supplement/hydration vehicle. I have heard that outside of meals you should only offer water (because of potential cavities), but that's something you should probably ask your ped about. We do water or water/juice (because of constipation issues) between meals for thirst.

After you drop formula, I would focus on highly nutritious table foods, and boost their milk with Carnation if they need some extra calories! :good:

I agree, that it's so hard not to obsess about milk/formula after worrying about it for the whole first year!

 

You've gotten some great advice and I totally ditto the flavoring of the milk and the instant carnation breakfast. We've done both and they have both worked well. GL!

 

So just to clarify, at this point, you ladies do not do a bottle any longer for morning or night? It is just milk with meals/snacks and water other times of day. So certainly by 15 mos I can move toward forgetting those bottles. If I have interpreted this correctly, this is going to be a bit of relief!

 

My ped is very old school and told us to get rid of the bottles at 12 months. We kind of ignored that because I was still nursing Nate before bed, so we gave Jack a night-time bottle. At 13 months we ditched the bottle and went to sippies. I can tell you that I do not miss bottles one single bit! We still (at 21 months) give them a warmed sippy of milk at story time (before they brush their teeth and go to bed).

We do milk with meals/snacks and water or diluted juice in between times, because that is easiest for us. But everyone is different and you may find another way works better for you.

 

We were done with bottles by 12 months except their night time one that we got rid of around 13 months. At 12 months, we switched to milk and honestly I can't remember if we did that in the night time bottle or if we still did formula just for that last bottle. They had sippies the rest of the day and we weaned that bedtime bottle. Our pedi said that 16 oz. of milk a day is what they wanted us to get (not too much more) and that water or diluted juice could make the rest of any liquid they might need/want. My twins have never been big formula or milk drinkers, so we didn't have any problems going over the 16 oz.