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Daycare Center and Family Home Forum>breast milk to cows milk
Unregistered 07:19 AM 07-23-2014
What is the best way to get 1yr old off breast milk and on cows milk? So far he doesn't care for the cows mik but takes a bottle of half breast milk half cows milk fairly well. Suggestion please.
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midaycare 07:23 AM 07-23-2014
It sounds like you're doing it right. Slowly start giving him more cows than breast with each bottle or each day, however you prefer.
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spud912 07:28 AM 07-23-2014
I have found that when you put cows milk in a cup, they treat it as a different type of beverage. I wouldn't force it on a child though. Serve it with meals....if they drink it, fine; if not, it won't kill them .

I always stopped the breast milk/formula pretty much cold turkey and went onto milk.
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KSDC 07:57 AM 07-23-2014
When DC infants turn one, I get rid of the bottle cold-turkey here. And switch to whole cow's milk at the same time.

I do start introducing cups a couple of months before the baby's birthday. By the time baby turns one, she already knows how to use a cup. I have never had a problem...

(Now, for my own children, I continued to nurse until around 3. But, they were drinking cow's milk at meals.)
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MarinaVanessa 08:05 AM 07-23-2014
I think you have the right idea, just keep at it. Sometimes it takes a bit to get them to switch.

My DS will be one in a week and I started introducing him to cow's milk 3 weeks ago. I never really pushed it and just offered it. I did introduce him to a sippy cup (just a regular toss'n'go cup, nothing fancy) earlier though so he knows how to drink from a suppy. I started with water just so he could practice and get used to it.

All I did once he was sort of used to the sippy cup was to put milk in one cup and have water in another cup. During meals I started to put the milk cup on his tray while I served him his food. At first he'd taste it and just set it back down again, sometimes it would end up on the floor etc. I never made a big deal about it and just put it back on the tray, if it became a game I'd just put it back in the fridge and bring it back again at the next meal. At first when he refused the milk I would give him the cup with water but every week I'd wait longer and longer before offering the water to him, this week I don't offer him his water during meals at all. He's not super excited to get milk which is fine by me since he drinks and likes water and I'm not a great fan of the kids drinking milk anyway, I prefer kids drink water.

If I only offered him milk I'm sure he would be used to it by now but he likes water better. I do the same pretty much with the daycare kids too. If you keep offering it they'll get used to it. If you don't offer anything else they'll get used to the milk faster.
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mamamanda 08:10 AM 07-23-2014
My kiddo did better with it in a cup as well. Just keep increasing the amount of cow's milk and decreasing the breast milk. You might also try a different type of milk if he doesn't take to the cow's milk. My son would drink soy milk, but not cow's milk. I think the soy milk is a thinner consistency more like the breast milk. The dr. told me that was fine as long as he was getting his dairy elsewhere. We did a lot of yogurt, cheese, etc. during the transition.
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Chellieleanne 11:44 AM 07-23-2014
Both of my own boys had issues with cow milk so we did almond milk and they just got lots of yogurt and cheese for the first 6 months or so after they turned a year. They actually both prefer almond milk but with how they drink it, it is expensive. I never bottle fed my oldest (breastfed only and it was a pain sometimes!) so I can't comment on that experience, but he took to cups easily since it was different than breastmilk. With my second ( started breastfeeding but switched to formula) I started around 10 months with giving cups and he preferred it becuase of older brother being the role model. By the time he was a year he didn't want bottles anymore.

I know this may not be best practice but DH and I would mix a little chocolate or strawberry powder to get the boys to drink cow milk when we switched from almond. Then slowly phased that out and made it weaker until they drank straight milk.
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AmyKidsCo 01:30 PM 07-23-2014
I take about a week to switch them over, first day 1/4 & 3/4, then slowly doing more cow and less breast milk until it's 100% cow.

Sometimes the issue is temperature so I try to get them used to cool breastmilk ahead of time.
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