Seeking Advice on Formula Weening

What I did with both my daughters that worked well was to mix in milk with the formula gradually. Here is the schedule I followed:
week 1 - 3/4 formula & 1/4 milk
week 2 - 1/2 formula & 1/2 milk
week 3 - 1/4 formula & 3/4 milk

Hopefully this works for you, good luck.

Here's some info that I hope that you might find helpful...

http://www.askdrsears.com/html/0/T000100.asp#T031014

Best wishes,
J.

My son wouldn't take milk from a sippy (would take it from a bottle, though). I also tried offering chocolate milk, too, but my son wouldn't take that either. He drank water out of a sippy without any problems, so I offered milk in a different sippy than his water cup because I think he was only used to drinking water from that particular cup. I ended going cold turkey from formula and bottles and offered milk in a sippy with meals. It took a couple of days, but soon he was drinking milk when he realized that was the only way to get it. My pediatrician gave me a thumbs up for going cold turkey. He also said some kids just might not be milk drinkers. If that's the case, find other calcium sources. Hope this helps, although my approach might seem a little harsher than mixing and a gradual transition.

Have you tried mixing his formula with milk? Little by little 1/3 milk to 2/3 formula at first and slowly on from there. Shouldn't take long until he gets it. You can also try things like yogurt and shredded mozzerella cheese introduced into his diet to replace what maybe he isn't getting from the milk.

Hi A. Just be patient with him. He still very young. He sounds like he's good about trying other foods. Have you tried mixing the milk with his formula?

I suggest gradually mixing milk with the formula. Soon he will be drinking milk.

Our doctor told us to do it gradually, at 12-13 months old - by mixing whole milk with the formula as follows: Our baby did 3 bottles a day at 7oz each, and a 4-5 oz bottle in the evening before bedtime.

SO--The doc said just start mixing whole milk with the formula as follows: Week 1-- 1 oz milk & the rest formula.
Week 2-- 2 oz milk & the rest formula, Week 3 - 50/50 milk & formula. Week 4 -- 1 oz formula, the rest milk. Week 5--ALL MILK. Our son seemed to notice...but never really made a big fuss, and continued to drink his bottles.

After week 5 - we started removing bottles, and replacing with a flexible straw cup. First the morning bottle, then a couple days later, both morning & lunchtime bottle. Then a couple days later, and all mealtime bottles were straw cups. He never seemed to balk. He likes being a "big boy" and using straw cups.

We still have the night time bottle 2 months later -- 4 oz of warm milk...because he had surgery and our doctor told us to put off removing this one a little longer, for emotional reasons...but he's completely well now...and we're about to start removing it. I've heard to start mixing water with the milk, little by little until it's just a bottle of water...then switch it to a sippy cup of water, and a cracker as a before bed snack, then brush their teeth...and do the bedtime routine as normal (stories, cuddling, songs) and they should get used to it.

Hope this helps!

A.

what are you putting the milk in? a cup? bottle? it could be the container he doesnt like not the milk. try a different container. id try to stay away from the chocolate because he may never have reg. milk if you do that. also think about the temperature could it be a drastic difference in temp. than he is used to with the formula? is the milk very cold right out of the fridge where the formula was not as cold? just a few thoughts. good luck. he'll get used to it.

Though my son made the switch w/o any fuss, 1 thing I did do was warm the milk 4 some period of time. Advice I was given if that didn't work was to do half formula half milk then u do less n less of the formula over time til its jus milk he's drinking. Hopefully that'l work for u. -B. m

Hello A. I work in a Daycare and well we deal with this very often I can suggest try half formula and half regular milk and c how that work then gradually decrease the formula and more milk . We have had some our parents ask there Dr and they say it is fine but you may want 2 run that by your childs Dr but let me tell you it work very good .

make a 1/4 of it mlk 3/4 formula for a week then 1/2 and 1/2 of each then 3/4 milk it works

Comibine the 2 until he gets used to the taste. Try slowly adding milk and reducing formula in his bottle. You can start with 6 oz formula and 2 oz milk, just to gradually get him used to the taste. then gradually increase the milk to 4oz and formula to 4oz, and continue to do that until you can remove all the formula. This is how several parents I know were able to successfully wean their children. Good luck!

If you were warming his formula, maybe it a temperature thing for him. My daughter did room temp formula so she didn't like the super cold cow's milk (she now has a milk allergy and is on rice milk and soy yogurts/vegan cheeses). We would warm it just the slightest before giving it to her and gradually decreased that over a week till she loved it cold from the refrigerator. She fell in love with cow's milk so it was really sad when he found out that was causing all her skin problems (very very bad eczema) and had to find an alternative -- we never could get her to take soy milk. I don't like it either. We tried chocolate syrup but she doesn't like chocolate either.

Oh- and we did stick the cow's milk in bottles for a week or so till she would take it and then switched cold turkey to sippy cups and hid the bottles.

There are Next Step formulas as well you could try but they are pretty expensive when you compare them to the price of milk! Good luck!

I have a 4 year old and a 16 month old. I was able to wean them both off of formula successfully by gradually replacing the formula with milk. For instance, if I was using 8 oz of formula, I would make a bottle with 7 oz and 1 oz of milk, do that for a few days, then increase the milk to 2 oz (formula decreased to 6 oz), do that for a few days, then increase the milk to 3 oz (formula = 5 oz) and so on. It worked well both times. Good luck!

Hi A...........as long as he is eating healthy foods there are plenty of vitamins in whole milk.....to get him used to milk maybe mix the formula & milk & gradually use more & more milk.....he doesnt need formula at all.....if the only thing he has to drink is milk or water he eventually will drink it......so dont give him options......keep sippy cups or bottles in his reach and he will drink it........one thing that i learned with my 4 kids is NOT to use sugars like chocolate syrup to get little ones to eat or drink because that is a hard habit to break because thats what you introduced them to first.....just like with baby foods you should start with vegetables for a while because if you start with the yummy sweet fruits they wont eat the healthy veggies.....good luck & congrats on your wedding

Hi A.:

Ok, so this is a little unconventional, but sometimes I have to utilize all resources. :-)

When I weaned my son from breastfeeding last month I had the same problem. What finally worked was mixing with a little bit of juice that he liked with the milk and he took it like a champ. (Also, helps with constipation that cow's milk can cause if you use apricot or pear juice.) Then I gradually reduced the amount of juice and now he drinks plain milk without a problem. You could try a milk, formula, juice combo and see what happens.

Good luck,
A

I would start with 90% formula and a dash of milk and then gradually move the mix to less formula and more milk. He should n't be getting any juice as there are really no nutrients in it. Good luck.

A.,

My dtr also was not enthralled with cow's milk. I like you tried everything and nothing worked. So I just decided I would give her a sippy cup with milk everyday and eventually she started drinking it. At first just one or two sips and then up to 2 cups a day. In the meantime I gave her yogurt and cheese as well. Sometimes it just takes some time.

Wow, you've already gotten a lot of great advice! I would recommend, as I am also experiencing this with my son, is to warm the milk. My son always took a room tempurature bottle and when we switched to milk he did not like it ice cold. Keep in mind that once you warm the milk it needs to used right away and don't use it for more than a half an hour. Milk doesn't stay as long as formula. I hope this helps, good luck!!

try half formula half milk...

My ped recommended adding milk to formula gradually. Week 1 2oz milk 6oz formula. Week 2 4 oz milk 4 oz formula etc. It worked like a charm with both of my kids.

Hi-my daughter will be 15 months old-when I weaned her off of formula to whole milk I started with 6 oz formula 2 oz whole milk-did that for a week-then I did 4 oz formula 4 oz whole milk-did that for a week-then I did 2 oz formula 6 oz whole milk-did that for a week-then we were completely on whole milk after that-it was actually an easy transition for her-i don't know if it was the way I did it or if she was just ready to give up the formula-good luck-hope this helps

Here is what I did with both of my son's and had no problems with it. I slowly weaned them off my mixing the formula and milk together. At the time, they were drinking 8 oz bottles so to start, I would make 6 oz formula and 2 oz milk. I would then do this for a few days and make sure that their bellies were fine handling it. Than I would increase to 4 oz formula and 4 oz milk for a few days. I even did 2 oz formula and 6 oz milk for a couple of days.

At first I did try just switching completely but they weren't used to it and it upset their stomach to much. So I slowly weaned and it worked great.

Good luck!

C.