Cow's Milk

[alotofyarn]

When do you start transitioning your baby from breastmilk/formula to cow's milk? I'm having another bad pumping week, with only 10oz left in the freezer (though I'll probably have to defrost one tonight for tomorrow's bottle), so I'm yet again convinced that we're not going to make it to a year with the 10oz of pumped milk/day. I was thinking about starting at 11 months (next week) adding in 1oz/week of whole, organic cow's milk into her bottles. So week 1 would would be 4oz breast/1oz cow's, week 2 would be 3oz breast/2oz cow's, etc., although if I have enough breastmilk, I can delay it, but I want to stop pumping shortly after a year and want to ease the transition. She eats lots of cheese and yogurt, so I'm not worried about a dairy allergy or lactose intolerance. Is this a bad idea? Should I just wait and see how it goes?

[Pollyanna]

We typically started around 11-11.5 months. Milk during the day and continuing to nurse in morning and evening if baby was interested.

[TulipsAndSunscreen]

We started/will start at 11.5 months. Mixed feelings about mixing it. If she rejects it, you've wasted that milk. I might try to just switch her one whole bottle (the one she cares about least and sometimes doesn't have) with some food on hand (while milk yogurt) if she gets pissed.

[MrsK]

12 months here

Sent from my SCH-I545 using Tapatalk

[Thirteen]

We never did - we do however make "smoothies" in the vitamix with spinach.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[GreyhoundsRUs]

We started transitioning around 11 months or so, but it was more driven by formula consumption at that point (use up what we had, didn't want to buy more).

[alotofyarn]

We started/will start at 11.5 months. Mixed feelings about mixing it. If she rejects it, you've wasted that milk. I might try to just switch her one whole bottle (the one she cares about least and sometimes doesn't have) with some food on hand (while milk yogurt) if she gets pissed.

This is a good point. She nurses maybe half the time these days when we get home - the only reason I haven't cut that out altogether is because if I can get her to nurse on one side and trigger letdown, I can tandem pump the other side and get an extra ounce or two, but sometimes she's just too distracted to actually sit and nurse long enough to get letdown. I may try a little bit plain for that session for a week or so, just to see how she tolerates it before switching anything about her daycare bottles.

[MrsC]

We're just starting now. Delayed it a month because he was having a rough time with teething and had lots of formula left. He won't drink whole milk on its own so I'm mixing it.

[ladymoreta]

I would supplement with formula until she's one year old, and then move on to cow's milk. I know it's *just* a month, but one month can be a pretty big developmental time frame at their age.


http://www.mayoclinic.org/healthy-li.../art-20045782:

Why use formula instead of regular milk?

Commercial infant formulas provide all the nutrients that most infants need. Milk from animals or milk substitute from plant sources doesn't contain these nutrients in a healthy balance for an infant. For example, infants younger than age 1 who drink cow's milk are at risk of iron deficiency.

[alotofyarn]

I tried one brand of formula a few times, and she wouldn't drink it. I'm not about to buy a bunch of different brands with one month left, just to see if she'll drink a one of them. Her pediatrician said it was fine if she only got one bottle at daycare instead of the two she's getting now if I do run out, and I shouldn't worry about supplementing, so it's not an issue of her not getting the nutrients she needs, more just starting the transition.

[ladymoreta]

Ah ok! I'd just go with what your pediatrician said then! Good luck - cows milk does taste better than formula, so she'll probably do great with it.