How Often Baby Needs Milk?

I have always been a demand feeder. When my kids are hungry I feed them, if they are not I don't force food just because of a feeding schedule. I also gave my daughter Rice milk instead of Cow's milk.

You sound like you're in a very similar situation! My daughter is 11 months old and I'm planning on weaning her at 12 months because we want to have baby #2 shortly afterwards. I don't plan on using cow's milk, I've never used formula, bottles, or sippy cups.

Here are my thoughts:

Cow's milk is totally unnecessary. There are plenty of good sources for the only 2 nutrients it really has going for it: protein and calcium. I don't think you need a substitute for cow's milk, because it's not an essential part of anyone's diet (just look at people in other parts of the world, or other parts of history, who didn't have cow's milk for three meals a day every day). However, in our culture, people do use whole milk as a primary source of fat for toddlers, so you'll want to make sure there are other fat sources in the diet (nuts, seeds, avocado). Those are better fat sources because they are lower in saturated fats, and provide bonuses like fiber and micronutrients. Incidentally, cow's milk has 4 times as much calcium and 3 times as much protein as human milk, so there isn't really any evidence that babies need as much of those things as cow's milk provides.

For fluids, I give my baby water on demand. She drinks from a cup that I hold, so it's not a comfort thing. Sometimes she gets thirsty with a meal, but mostly she's just fine with the liquid she gets from my milk and from her diet. We also do smoothies quite frequently, with fruit and spinach in them, so she's getting good liquid and nutrition there. Commercial fruit juice is just empty calories and kids drink when they're thirsty without having to sweeten their water with juice to tempt them into drinking.

When I totally wean her, we'll probably offer unsweetened soymilk in a glass with one of her meals every day. It's got fiber and fat in addition to protein and calories, and I think it's fine in moderation.

Just my 2 (or 3) cents. :)

i weaned my toddler at one year. for 3 months prior to that, she only had breastmilk in the morning & before bed. we did not supplement with formula (per pediatrician's recommendation). i believe he is getting most of his nutrition from the solid food now. once she was weaned (we did it in one day...just said "goodbye to mama's milk" & never gain in if she asked for it...within 2 days, she was over it), anywho, once she was weaned we gave her 4 ounces of vitamin d cow's milk with each meal in a sippy cup. she had been drinking water out of a sippy cup for a few months already, so she knew how to use it.
that's just our experience...i think you should ask your pediatrician b/c it may be different (maybe your son needs more milk...my daughter was in the 90% for weight & height, so she didn't need more calories during the day as some kids might).

I think that you should start supplementing with either whole milk or formula. I weaned my daughter from breastmilk to whole milk at around 11 months. With my son I weaned him to formula and then when he got older I started giving him Enfamil Next Step. It is for older babies and toddlers 9 to 24 months. The difference I saw on the label from regular enfamil formula and the next step is the next step had more calcium in it to build strong bones! Hope this helps. Also, when I was weaning my son I mixed formula with breast milk in the bottle for awhile. With my daughter I didn't do that because she refused to take formula so she just went straight to whole milk.

I think children his age are supposed to be getting around 25 ounces of formula/breast milk a day.

We are still giving our 15mo DD formula. She is slightly lactose intolerant and will get diharria if she drinks too much milk. She typically gets about 24 oz of dairy a day. This is usually a combination of formula and yogurt. We started with YoBaby and switched to plain yogurt and add our own fruit so we know she isn't getting too much sugar.

I too am in the process of deciding when to wean and how to do it. I have a soon to be 12 month old - birthday on Sat. the 29th. She goes to day care and my breastmilk supply was never huge, so I've supplemented with formula for several months during the day. I pump once at work - but usually only get 3-4 ounces. Anyway, I am now using Enfamil Next Step formula and we nurse morning and night. My doctor said at 12 months she can have Whole Vit D milk and that is what we will do. I also asked my cousin who is a dietician in Indy and she advised the same thing. She has two kids of her own and said as long as a baby eats solid foods well, there is no reason to keep giving the formula. (That is good since it is expensive.) So, I'm probably not a big help for your questions as I love cow's milk. My Grandfather had a dairy farm and I still drink whole milk myself 1-3 times a day. My girl drinks out of a bottle and sippy cup and will sip out of a regular cup with help. She really enjoys the sippy cup because she can do it herself. She is also learning to hold a spoon which can make it difficult to feed her because yet again she wants to do it herself even though she can't right now. Probably every other day she gets 4 ounces of half juice half water. Much more than that and she gets diaper rash due to the acidity of the juice, but we've battled diaper rash ever since she was 2 weeks old. I read in Parents magazine that too much water for an infant can cause seizures which is why I started supplementing with formula and not just water alone. See the website below.http://www.hopkinschildrens.org/newsDetail.aspx?id=4844
Good luck.

For me, I would make my daughter a cup and keep it filled through out the day. At this point the milk is just for when he's thristy, he's not getting his main nutrition from the formula and milk anymore, but of course he still needs the calcium and fat from the milk.

Basically, if he can handle a cup or a bottle on his own, just make sure it's filled through out the day he'll likely come back and forth to the bottle/cup all day when he get's thirsty.

Good luck!

I feed my baby formula in a straw cup 3x a day right now w/ breakfast, lunch and dinner and she does one early morning bottle. I also give her water w/ a midafternoon snack. I plan on weaning her into whole milk by the beginning of the year.

If he is ONLY nursing in the morning and at night, he DEFINITELY needs other fluids to make up for the loss. It's great that he's doing so well on solids, but he needs hydration as well. You could do water and juice (diluted, of course) between nursing sessions. I don't really know what other liquids you should give as I didn't wean my daughter until she was over a year and starting on milk. I don't plan on weaning my son until that point as well.

You can do soy milk or goat's milk instead of cow's milk. I know someone who gives her entire family goat's milk because it is better than cow's milk. It is not processed the same way and does not lose nutrients like cow's milk does. I don't really know all that much about it though because I don't drink much milk period, lol. I also want to say that I have heard of some people drinking coconut milk. I've only heard that once or twice though, so I might be mistaken.

In any case, your little guy needs to be drinking something throughout the day. I guess you could go with formula, but I don't really recommend it. Especially since you have breastfed this long. I'm sure you will get some more good responses from mamas who have more experience in the weaning area. If you need to wean at this point, I would just say to be sure to give plenty of water and one or two servings of juice/water. I also did yogurt drinks, but my daughter wasn't gaining weight and that is what was recommended to us.

I transitioned my daughter to cow's milk at 11 months. My dr. told me to give her whole milk. I gave her this for breakfast, lunch, and before bed. I usually gave her a juice/h2o mix at dinner. I usually give her V8 Fusion (fruit/veg juice, natural sugar, 1 daily serv of veg and 1 of fruit) at dinner. I research the milk thing too, and found out that if obesity runs in the fam, to put your little one on 2%. Neither my daughter's grandparents nor my husband or I are obese, but my aunts and uncles and grandparents are. So, the dr. said it was fine for her to be on 2 %.

hello-J., I would try giving him milk in a cup during the day-when you are not nursing him- If you have frozen breast milk- or you could pump some for him- to put in a cup. Also after he is a year old- A wonderful substitute to cow's milk is goat's milk. It is more like breast milk- easily digestable, aznd has a different form of iron in it. My daughter- after I weaned her couldn't drink regular milk- she was getting sick all of the time- so we put her on goat's milk- she loves it and has been fine on it. You can find it at Wal-Mart, usually right by the Evaporated and Condensed Milk. It is called Meyenberg Goat's Milk- it is in a can- you have to make it half milk-half water. hope this helps, Good Luck

A Little about me- Stay at Home Mother of 4 children- ages 8,7,2, and 6 1/2 months- and hopefully more

You can probably start encouraging him to adopt a typical 'three meals, two snacks' routine: breakfast, snack, lunch, snack, dinner. At meals, my son drinks milk and at snack he drinks water. Although other people feel differently (and that's fine) we have not given our son any juice and he's managing to survive just fine without it. We didn't feel it necessary to give him extra sugar. We give our son cow's milk so I don't have any suggestions for that. At 12 months when we cold turkey weaned the bottle, we also cold turkey weaned the pre-bed feeding. Surprisingly enough, it went so smoothly. We did the same routine of diaper, massage, pajamas, turn on music, but instead of sitting in the rocking chair to feed we just put him in the crib (which is what we did at naps), and he went to sleep without an issue.

I was told 3 8 oz cups of milk a day. From what my ped said, that's whether it's cow's milk or soy. And if it's cow's milk, make sure that it's Vitamin D. Your child needs the fats.

Hi! Congrats on a great year of breastfeeding! If you haven't introduced a bottle to him yet - don't! :) It is one less thing to wean him from later! Just begin to intro other liquids (milk, watered down juice)in cups and make the transition that way. At this point, there is no need to bring in formula. He will be getting liquids from the foods he eats too, just like we do, so he should just fine on a combo of solids and drinks. My first son weaned at 11-12 months, and we just took him straight to drinking, eating meals and snacks compatable with our meals. My second son weaned later than one year, but we still introduced solids and meals the same way - just combined them with nursings. They never used a bottle (didn't know what one was when they saw it) - it was great to not have that weaning battle to deal with! Your son has a great start with a solid year of breastfeeding - he thanks you!!

Usually, with early weaning you would want to supplement, but since you're only a little early, you could probably either start milk or do something in between like soy or almond milk. Our pediatrician said no more than 16 oz a day at a year.
I think the best idea is to give him lots of milk products such as yogurt and cheese for the protein, calcium, and vit.D. Give him lots of water so he doesn't get dehydrated.
If you continue with the morning and night nursing, he will get all the antibodies and good stuff he needs from you :) Breastmilk is awesome and changes according to how you feed!