Transitioning from formula milk to cows milk at 12 months Post Reply

[TrishT]

Hi, my daughter is turning 1 on saturday and i wanted to get opinions as to what to do re giving her cows milk in her bottle feeds. Right now, she is happily having full fat cows milk in cereal and sauces and having Aptimal stage 1 milk in her bottle. She does not like the Apitmal follow on milk.
What did you do? Would you stick to using Aptimal stage 1 while gradually introducing cows milk until it becomes 100% cows milk?
Trish

[kishi]

As far as I know this is fine. A child nutritionist I was talking to (Katie who used to run buggyfit on Clapham Common) said that whole cow's milk is totally fine from 12 months. I started giving it to my elder daughter (now 3) in a cup from her first birthday and she has liked it ever since...my younger daughter will be one next month and I am hoping she can just have whole milk in a cup when I go back to work too.

Good luck with whatever you decide to do!

[Joeyanna]

With both my kids I gradually changed the proportions of formula and cows milk in their bottles over a week or so. Started off doing 20% cows milk and gradually increased it. Neither of them seemed to notice the difference and by the end if the week were on 100% cows milk. Hope this is helpful and it goes as well for you!

[Laura9]

Hello,
I have a 17 month old son, so it wasn't long ago that I was having the same dilemma! My son was having 2 bottles a day of 240mls of Aptamil formula at this point, so I just started substituting 60mls of formula with cow's milk for a few days, then gradually added more in 30 ml increments. He didn't notice any change at all, and carried on drinking it quite happily. I continued this until I had finished the tub of formula I had, and he was having a full bottle of cow's milk by the end of a 2 week period I think. I think by 13 months he wasn't interested in his morning bottle, so he just had a small cup of milk with his cereal which he took to very easily. He's always been a hungry boy, so maybe that helped with the transition. Hope that helps. Feel free to PM me if you want to chat more.

[TrishT]

Thank you all for your help. very interesting indeed and will follow your examples as I have a tub of Apitmal which I want finished.
Take care

[barbie07]

I had problems during the transition from formula to cow's mil.
when my daughter reached 1 i tried to do the transition and she didn't like the cow's milk so i continued giving her formula until she was about 2.
She was on SMA follow on milk and she really liked it. I moved to cow's milk when she was ready.
I hope this helps.

[WannaBe]

We just transitioned to cow's milk, but were cooking it, at a pediatrician's advice, in order to break up the milk proteins and avoid any potential for allergies. Cooking it and stirring it clockwise to be precise!

[TrishT]

thank you. all very helpful.

[coffeelovingmum]

My little fella turned 1 last weekend and so I have just been through this so know where you are coming from.

We went to the shop together and bought some 'big boys (cows) milk' and he carried the bottle home in his buggy. We then opened it and put it into a beaker rather than a bottle. I poured half a beaker to start with and quickly had to refill it - he loved it and drained his beaker both times.

We phased out the left over Aptimil by using it up at bedtimes ( I didn't want to risk unsettling him at bedtime) but within a couple of days we were done.

Looking back just a few short days he has taken to cows milk really quickly and easily and seems to really enjoy it warm or cold.

Good luck