1 Year Old Having Hard Time off Formula WHAT DO I DO?!

Why are you cutting her off? Just because she CAN have milk now doesn't mean she SHOULD. My kids continued breastfeeding until they were 18-22 months old, don't formula fed babies get the same care?

What has she been drinking for the last 3 days? She could be dehydrated or getting there.

Put her back on formula and then slowly mix the milk in over a few days or 2 weeks slowly replacing one ounce of formula with one ounce of milk. Some kids don't like the milk because it is cold vs. a bottle of formula.

If she doesn't want milk, let her have formula in a cup. There is no rule that children MUST have cow's milk. Keep offering her soft food as well.

Give her formula. Turning 1 year old doesn't automatically mean she is ready to transition to a table-food only diet.

Formula is food while cow milk is a beverage. Milk is not a replacement for formula. If she isn't able to eat a balanced diet just yet, then she needs the formula for good health.

Let her have the formula, just give it to her in a sippy instead of a bottle. We kept giving our daughter formula for a couple of months at least after she turned a year old. There's no reason she has to go to straight milk just because of the date on the calendar, plenty of people nurse past a year.

When I began taking my kids off of formula I did a transition over a few weeks time so the taste difference was gradual. I would put her back on formula, and substitute an ounce of milk for formula over time until you get to a full milk bottle. This will also help her system adjust to the milk proteins without any difficulty. I never went cold turkey on the formula, too much of a taste difference. It may take a few weeks but it's so gradual she will adjust to the taste easier. Good luck!!

I'm not clear why you've taken her off formula entirely. There's nothing magical about the 1 year mark. If she's not getting a balanced diet on solids, what is the reason for removing formula? You can substitute a comprehensive powdered supplement, but you've got to get nutrition in her. Noodles and mac/cheese aren't going to do it. And actually, there's nothing magical about milk - its not a necessary nutrient, not that it's harmful, but it is far from complete as a food source.

Have you been mixing formula with milk to slowly wean her off it? Are you mixing it in cereal to get her used to other textures and tastes and still give her some nutrition?

And how much of her fussing has to do with wanting a bottle? I'm not clear if you've taken her off formula to get her off the bottle.

Some kids can drink out of a straw and it makes them feel like they're sucking on a bottle. If a sippy cup won't do it for her (sometimes the shape of the mouthpiece gets them rattled), try a straw. You'll have to do a spill-proof cup of course, but sometimes the "method of delivery" can ease the transition.

If you're taken away her comfort item, the bottle, as well as a familiar food (formula), and if she's not fully nourished because of her limited diet at this age, that's all completely normal and it's an awful lot for a 1 year old to adjust to.

Are you giving her baby food (store-bought or your own pureed versions) to give her an array of tastes and also some new textures? At this age she can easily handle foods that are not totally pureed but are chunky - that gets kids used to new textures and to chewing (or just "gumming" before they have enough teeth) and sets them up for real foods.

In any case, milk is not a complete food, and neither are noodles or cheese.

Maybe go back a little and don't make her go "cold turkey" on everything.

Put her back on formula and SLOWLY transiston her off of formula over a week or two.

It sounds like you have her still drinking out of a bottle. If I were you, I'd continue the formula in a CUP and get her off the bottle. Put the bottles away so that you can't get to them. Make sure her food has plenty of "wet" in it while you do this.

Once she is used to drinking out of a cup, put an ounce of 4% milk into the cup and as she gets used to drinking it, add more milk until she is used to the milk, and you aren't having to use formula anymore. She will get used to it.

But get her off the bottle first.

Put it back and transition slowly.

Some babies make the jump to regular milk just fine, others take a little more time to get there.

As for regular food, one is not a magic age, it's a recommendation. Mine don't get any real teeth until about the age of 2, yep 2, they are very late in getting teeth, but food has never been an issue. It's amazing how much those gums can chew up.

You tried switching her cold turkey and that can be quite a jolt.
Put her back on formula for a week.
Next week mix it 1/4 milk with 3/4 formula.
Next week mix it 1/2 milk with 1/2 formula.
Next week mix it 3/4 milk with 1/4 formula.
By the 4th week she should be ready for total milk.
There's no set time table to be off formula - there's no reason you can't take your time in switching her.
As far as other foods go, there's nothing wrong with cereal (Cherio's are great) - stay away from the sugary stuff.
Also try well cooked carrot sticks (they should be limp so she can gnaw on them), zucchini sticks, baked French fries (try sweet potato fries too) and mashed stuff.
Try her on vanilla yogurt and jello too.

Give her a bottle of formula. Like most of the other responders have said, there is nothing magical about 12 months old that means any sudden changes are necessary. My daughter drank formula, gradually mixed with milk for several more months. She was mostly BF for her first 11 months, then went to formula, then gradually switched to milk at about 15 months (or so, my memory isn't that detailed).

Also, there is no rush to remove bottles at exactly some pre-determined age, either. All can be gradual changes as she and you are ready for them.

And, babies with few teeth can eat most foods. Of course she couldn't chew steak, but she can be eating most cooked vegetables, fruit, breads, eggs, meats, just cut up into small pieces.

The transition was too abrupt for her. She does not know that she turned 1 and should all of a sudden change. Go back to the formula for a bit then gradually introduce whole milk. Her nutrition is suffering at this time and that is the most important factor. Some children need change to be slower so go with her pace M.. I assure you she won't go to school still drinking formula.

Give her formula. Her one year birthday is not some magical day that she can suddenly tolerate cow's milk. The recommendation for breastfeeding is to go as long as mutually agreeable, and transition to milk slowly. I believe the same would apply to formula.

Warm it up, put in a sippy or bottle & call it something different like "moo" or "yumster."
Worked for us.

Go ahead and give her formula for awhile still.

My youngest would not drink milk at all at 12 mos, and he also wasn't eating what I felt to be adequate amounts of food so I kept him on formula until about 14 mos or so, then switched to stage 2 formula until 15 months. When I tried milk again, he was willing to drink it.

You could try toddler formula instead of regular milk. She probably would be more willing to take it as it tastes more like formula and has iron & vitamin C (which are lacking in regular milk). Toddler formula is a great option to "normal" milk. Drinking enough milk/toddler formula is important at this age as they provide calcium, and also essential fatty acids for brain/nervous system development. My son is 1 year, and only has 1 tooth, but I cut up steak very very small for him and he eats it. It's actually a great source of protein for them! He also eats scrambled eggs, shredded chicken, cheese, baby yogurt (whole milk only), cereals, cooked veggies w/ some butter on them, berries, bread, pasta, etc. :-) Good luck!

So let her have formula. She can eat anything. My grandaughter eats EVERYTHING with two teeth.

My son hates milk (he's now 2). I started trying to make the switch from breastmilk to regular milk at 1 as well. He wouldn't have any of it. Tried mixing it with breastmilk like others have suggested but nope, wouldn't go for milk in any way in a cup. Our pediatrician said that as long as he gets plenty of other forms of dairy (cheese, yogurt, etc) that I shouldn't worry about it. So we don't! He gets a dairy product every meal, plus calcium enriched orange juice with breakfast. There are also lots of other foods that have calcium, just start checking labels. When picking out yogurts, look at the labels and compare. Surprisingly, the yogurts that are marketed as "kids" tend to have less calcium than the regular kind (we get Yoplait greek most of the time). Studies have shown that there is no difference in development in children that are fed full fat milk, skim milk, or no milk at all the first year, so don't worry about her not getting the "good" fat in milk that many think they need. I did continue to nurse until about 17 months, so he was still getting breastmilk a couple times a day, but since he's been weaned it's just one glass of OJ and water to drink. He's healthy and perfect! Try not to stress about it too much!

When my kids were going from formula to milk (11.5 months), our dr said to mix their bottles half and half. With my son, that meant I threw the whole bottle out. So I did one bottle with milk and the next with formula. He would take either but not if mixed so I did the same with my daughter. The one thing that helped at first was a teaspoon of light Karo syrup in the milk. After a day or two, I would reduce the syrup and after about a week and a half to two weeks, it was straight milk. Daughter did not require the syrup.

Mash potatoes or vegetables (cut very small) are great options too.

Our pediatrician told us to mix formula & milk so our girls could get used to it. We were able to start our oldest a little earlier than our youngest. Our youngest had to be on soy formula so we had to wait a little longer to introduce dairy products. When we did, we mixed regular milk with formula. Our pediatrician said that sometimes little bellies have a hard time digesting dairy but sometimes grow out of it by 1 year old. Good luck! I know it stinks having to buy formula again, but it won't be for long!

You need to start out by mixing the formula with milk. Then slowly, over time increase the milk and decrease the formula.

As for food, I don't know what you're trying to feed her, but you can puree anything you make for yourself for her. "Real food" has so much more flavor than baby food.

B is correct. That is the proper way to transition a baby off formula.

Kids should be off formula by age 1, that means that when they're about 11 months old you start the transition by adding some whole vitamin D milk to their formula then go half and half then to mostly milk with a small amount of formula. It takes weeks for their system to get used to whole milk.

I had a parent who was on WIC, she was very low income and WIC was the ONLY way she could afford formula.

She mistakenly thought she had another month of formula coming when she went to the health department to pick up her vouchers. She didn't.

She had to go cold turkey to whole milk. Her baby got so sick because her little system couldn't handle the whole milk. Her poop turned white and stank so bad I was gagging and holding a trash can for my puke any time I had to change her.

The M. had no choice because she had no money at all. The baby suffered for several weeks but eventually got used to the milk.

I agree that you should give her back her formula, and slowly wean her off it.

You might try almond milk, or another substitute. They have plenty of nutritional value, and are often used when kids are dairy intolerant. Maybe your dd will like the taste better.

As for other foods, there is a whole world of foods other than noodles... Steam veggies until they are tender, same with most fruits. Bananas, avocados, watermellon, etc. you can also give her yogurt, toast, crackers, eggs, tuna fish, etc.

Wholesome babyhood.com is an excellent resource for feeding your baby. There are recipes for teething biscuits and other introductory finger foods.

When that happened to my son it was because he was lactose intollerant and I didn't realize it. He was on a milk based formula, but could not handle straight milk. He dehydrated. I put him back on formula until he was better and then on to soy milk. He can do the regular milk now, but h-a-t-e-s the taste of it. Good luck.