Moving Over to Cows Milk

[WelshOneEmma]

Emilia will be one in 5 days (OMG! where did the time go?!). At one of our recent weigh ins, they said she could move over to cows milk at 12 months (but then have vitamins?). I still have a few tubs of formula left so not thinking about it yet, but just curious if we do, do you literally just replace the morning and night time bottle with cows milk?

Also, do you really need to? Or would she be better on formula?

I don't mind either way, just want what's best for her. She seems to eat most things I give her and when she has cereal she already has that with whole cows milk.

Maybe being stupid, but if you need to supplement a diet with vitamins once they move onto cows milk, are you not better just keeping up with Formula?

 

[sequeena]

You don't have to move her over. If she is happy on formula and you are happy to keep buying it then keep her on it.

You don't have to give vitamins if you decide to switch. If the child is eating a good varied diet they get all the vitamins they need from their food.

We switched our son just before his first birthday. He preferred cows milk over formula. We gave him vitamin drops for a while as he wasn't a great eater but he now has a wonderful diet so we don't use them.

 

[WelshOneEmma]

You don't have to move her over. If she is happy on formula and you are happy to keep buying it then keep her on it.

You don't have to give vitamins if you decide to switch. If the child is eating a good varied diet they get all the vitamins they need from their food.

We switched our son just before his first birthday. He preferred cows milk over formula. We gave him vitamin drops for a while as he wasn't a great eater but he now has a wonderful diet so we don't use them.

I did say to the HV about just keeping her on it, seeing as you then don't need to give vitamins and she looked at me like i had two heads! I guess they are more used to mums putting them on cows milk too early as they don't want to buy formula (in my area, not in general!).

 

[sequeena]

You don't have to move her over. If she is happy on formula and you are happy to keep buying it then keep her on it.

You don't have to give vitamins if you decide to switch. If the child is eating a good varied diet they get all the vitamins they need from their food.

We switched our son just before his first birthday. He preferred cows milk over formula. We gave him vitamin drops for a while as he wasn't a great eater but he now has a wonderful diet so we don't use them.

I did say to the HV about just keeping her on it, seeing as you then don't need to give vitamins and she looked at me like i had two heads! I guess they are more used to mums putting them on cows milk too early as they don't want to buy formula (in my area, not in general!).

Just ignore your HV, I do a lot of the time The follow on milk should be perfectly fine!

 

[MindUtopia]

Yep, you'd just replace a feed here and there with cow's milk and then do it more regularly and then do it for every feed. I've started already occasionally replacing the small afternoon bottle (at snack time) that she has with cow's milk. My daughter likes it just the same. I'll add in another feed next month with the plan to be off formula at 12 months.

You can certainly use follow on milk if you want. But I think why spend the extra money when cow's milk is just as good? There's also been some research come out recently that follow on milks are linked with tooth decay in younger children because they're more sugary than cow's milk. But it's definitely your decision. I personally can't wait to ditch the formula! It's a pain to use and expensive.

 

[Loui1001]

I switched my ds to cows milk at a year & he didn't notice, it made no difference to his intake at all. To be honest it was so much easier than making up bottles

 

[biglebowski]

My lo will be 1 in 2 days (eek!!)and Ive been slowly adding cows milk to his feeds the last 2 weeks. Started with just an oz, and gradually increased. Tonights bottle was 3oz formula, 4oz milk. Hes been taking it fine. Im not a fan of the follow on milks also as Ive heard they are quite sweet and have added sugars. My lo eats like a bucket, and has a very varied diet. No concerns re: extra vitamins at the moment, although would be open to them if his approach to food changed and he started to limit his fruit / veg etc. Also cant wait to get rid of formula, so expensive!!

 

[WelshOneEmma]

well we tried giving her some cows milk this morning - she spat it out! Funny thing is she has it with cereal and is fine, and had a baby chino which hubby said she loved, so maybe it was too cold?

She's only on 2 bottles of formula a day as it is (morning and bedtime) and has fruit, veg, yogurt etc for snacks.

Will see how we go. it is a pain mixing up the formula, but then she has the room temp, to warm.

Lets see how we go, not going to hurt is it?!

 

[Midnight_Fairy]

I have never used follow on milk, Just tried cows milk once a day and went from there x

 

[greats]

Rylee prefers cows milk to formula so the switch was a lot easier for us than I was expecting. We also did vitamin drops for a while b/c she was a picky eater, but she has been a lot better the past few weeks so I stopped the vitamin drops for now. But they won't hurt if you decide to give them, it's like a safety net just in case. And if you're fine with formula still then stick to formula, it's totally up to you!

 

[WelshOneEmma]

Rylee prefers cows milk to formula so the switch was a lot easier for us than I was expecting. We also did vitamin drops for a while b/c she was a picky eater, but she has been a lot better the past few weeks so I stopped the vitamin drops for now. But they won't hurt if you decide to give them, it's like a safety net just in case. And if you're fine with formula still then stick to formula, it's totally up to you!

my mum is adamant vitamins will not be needed. this baby eats everything. She actually took a piece of toast with duck pate on from my dad today, and ate it. then tried to take another!