Weaning from Formula?

I know I have a little while to worry about this, but I was wondering how you wean your babies off of formula?? Mine are 8 months...when should they start taking less formula?

Thanks!
Alli

 

[SIZE=12pt]Well my kids right now are at 2 8 oz bottles of 1/2 formula and 1/2 2%milk per pediatrician instructions after their 1st birthday. [/SIZE]

 

I began to introduce regular milk with their formula at 11 months. For the first few days, I think I did 2 oz of reg milk with 6 oz of fomula and then wach week increased and by a year they were on regular milk.

 

My ped gives the go-ahead at 9 months for regular milk. 9 months is also the point at which he recommends that babies need to start relying more on solids/table food for the bulk of their nutrition.

 

I started weaning for all of my children at 12 months. It took me about a month or more because I did it very slowly. I would start by giving them 2 ozs of whole milk and the rest formula. Then the next week I would up it to four oz of whole milk and the rest formula. I keep increasing by 2 oz every week until they were totally weaned. Watch their poops. That will tell you if they are tolerating the amount you are giving them. If they are beginning to be very loose or very hard, then you may have to back off a bit. Some people are able to switch completely with no weaning at all, but I was too afraid that it would be too hard on my kids, so I did it slowly.

 

For my girls I started at about 11mths and did half whole milk and half formula. I did that until I was out of formula and then when to all whole milk. I think it took about two weeks or less. But for my son I just waited until I was out of formula and went straight to whole milk at a yr, I didn't do the milk and formula mixed together and he did just fine.

 

I've been thinking about the same thing. My babies are 10 months old now. I've been thinking about how to transition them to whole milk and whether I should put it in sippy cups or continue with bottles for a little while. My pedi suggested having them off bottles altogether by 12 months, 15 months at the latest. But so far they're not efficient at all with sippies, even though we've been giving them with solids since they were 5 or 6 months old. They only ever take an ounce or so (no matter what I put in there - water, formula or juice) but maybe that will improve over the next couple of months? Evan loves his bottles, but James has never really loved his. He does love sitting in his high chair and feeding himself though.

Anyway, I'm sort of thinking that if they don't become more efficient with their sippies over the next 6 weeks, I'll start mixing their bottles of formula with some organic whole milk around 11.5/12 months. Maybe I'll do 25/75, 50/50, 75/25 over three weeks or something. I have a feeling Evan is going to want to continue with bottles for several more months while James might end up doing okay with a sippy by a year old. If they don't seem ready to transition to milk yet I'll at least switch to "regular" formula, the kind without the DHA/ARA. The fancy formula is so pricey and I figure they can get enough of those omega whatevers from fish, flax, and egg yolks after a year old.

 

11 months I started to incorporate a few ounces of regular milk into their formula until it was all regular milk by 12 months and my boys were lactose intolerant as infants. They were fine until about 3 weeks ago and I just found out they are having issues with lactose again..it sometimes creeps up again at around 2. You shouldn't have a problem good luck I think if you wait until after one though it may be a little harder.

Also we transitioned to Nubbys which you can get at Walmart they are great for kids who are not good with the sippies just yet as mine weren't either but they are still close to the bottle type so it's not a big change. By 13 months I had them on sippys.

 

This is something you should definitely talk to your pedi about during your 9 month appointment. I thought ours would give us the go-ahead to start weaning before 12 months (so they would be on all milk BY 12 months), but she said no. We will be on formula 100% until our 12 month appointment and then we'll figure out how to wean. I know some pedi's are more conservative than others, and I think it also has to do with adjusted age. I didn't think that mattered a whole lot since my girls were only 6 weeks early, but apparently my pedi is conservative and I trust her so we'll wait.

As for less formula, my girls are just starting to take a little less a day... we are adding (trying!) a third meal and an afternoon snack as per our pedi's recommendation, and they also always get a sippy of water at all meals so they are just not as 'hungry' for their bottles all the time. BTW, the girls are almost 10 months old and this has only happened in the last week or so. I'm trying to follow their lead on this... GL!

 

They'll start naturally taking less formula as their solid food intake increases. When it's time to switch to milk you can either go cold turkey or make a gradual move by replacing 1 oz of their formula with 1 oz of cold milk every day or so. When they are on milk, they'll be drinking about 16-20 oz a day and you can offer water at other times they are thirsty.

 

We went "cold turkey" with the formula. We went straight from formula to whole milk once we got the thumbs up from our ped.