Talk to me about transitioning to milk

I THINK I will have enough BM to get Ryan to his first birthday, but I'm not sure (some days it dips and I get barely anything). So, since he is almost 11 months, I might start the transition soon.

A few questions?

1/ When did you transition?

2/ How did you do it?

3/ How long did it take for DC to get used to it?

4/ If you give pumped BM warm, did you also warm the milk?

5/ If you nurse, did you continue to nurse after milk was introduced? My hope is to give milk during the day and nurse a.m. and p.m. still.

6/ Not necessarily a transition question, but for BF moms, do you know if you can take fenugreek when pregnant? I'm TTC now and wonder if I'll be able to continue my BF regiment if I do get pg in the coming months.

TIA

Message edited 2/11/2009 1:07:22 PM.

Re: Talk to me about transitioning to milk

A few questions?

1/ When did you transition?
just before one year

2/ How did you do it?
mixed it with BM in a sippy cup

3/ How long did it take for DC to get used to it?
he had no problem getting used to it at all

4/ If you give pumped BM warm, did you also warm the milk?
I did give BM warm and when I started adding regular milk to it, I kept it cold and he was fine.

5/ If you nurse, did you continue to nurse after milk was introduced?
Yes, right when he woke up and right before bed until he was 13 months old.
HTH

Re: Talk to me about transitioning to milk

Thank you Helene! Now my other problem is that I can't get DS to drink from a sippy - I've tried 3 different cups

Re: Talk to me about transitioning to milk

A few questions?

1/ When did you transition? We did the transition after he was 1 year old. My dr however asked at our 1 year appt and said we could have done it sooner if we had wanted.

2/ How did you do it? At first we just started doing 1 bottle a day of whole milk. But 2 days in he started rejecting that bottle, so then we started doing 2oz of milk with 3-4 oz of formula.

3/ How long did it take for DC to get used to it? We did a slow transition because we had alot of formula left but after 4 days DS would take a bottle of whole milk with no formula added.

4/ If you give pumped BM warm, did you also warm the milk? We heated his forumla up and also heat his milk but DS will take it cold as well

ETA: DS used to take formula from a sippy but now he wont do it....he will take water but no milk. I am just waiting and will keep trying. I dont mind now if I throw out the milk as much as with the formula so I just keep offering him the milk and figure eventually he wont throw it at me

Message edited 2/11/2009 1:09:50 PM.

Re: Talk to me about transitioning to milk

Re: Talk to me about transitioning to milk

Posted by SweetCaroline

Thank you Helene! Now my other problem is that I can't get DS to drink from a sippy - I've tried 3 different cups

Re: Talk to me about transitioning to milk

Posted by Helene718

Posted by SweetCaroline

Thank you Helene! Now my other problem is that I can't get DS to drink from a sippy - I've tried 3 different cups

You can do it in the bottle, but I didn't want to have to eventually wean him off of the bottle later so I went right to the sippy. I used the Nuby ones because they have the soft top. Those seemed to work best. It took a while for him to get the hang of it though. He still can't figure out the hard top ones! Now we use straw cups.

Re: Talk to me about transitioning to milk

We transitioned to milk cold turkey about 2 weeks after DD's 1st birthday (just b/c that is when her checkup was). She wasn't super happy with her first bottle or 2 of milk (she took a few sips and then threw her bottle - lol), but after that, she was fine.

Be aware of a big change in poops!! DD's poops got gross for a couple of weeks after switching to milk, and she got a bad diaper rash from it for almost a month!!

Now that she has been on milk for a bit, I have started putting it in her sippy cups (she usually would just take water or diluted juice from it). Now, she is drinking the entire sippy filled with milk! We use the Gerber ones that are either pink/purple or green/blue.

Re: Talk to me about transitioning to milk

** DS was on sippy cups already

1/ When did you transition?
The week after DS 1st b-day

2/ How did you do it?
started out day 1 with half milk, half formula in the sippy cup, the next day a little more milk then formula since both days he drank it right up, on day 3, i just gave him all milk

3/ How long did it take for DC to get used to it?
he had no problem getting used to it at all

4/ If you give pumped BM warm, did you also warm the milk?
n/a

5/ If you nurse, did you continue to nurse after milk was introduced?
n/a

Message edited 2/11/2009 1:34:52 PM.

Re: Talk to me about transitioning to milk

Posted by SweetCaroline

Posted by Helene718

Posted by SweetCaroline

Thank you Helene! Now my other problem is that I can't get DS to drink from a sippy - I've tried 3 different cups

You can do it in the bottle, but I didn't want to have to eventually wean him off of the bottle later so I went right to the sippy. I used the Nuby ones because they have the soft top. Those seemed to work best. It took a while for him to get the hang of it though. He still can't figure out the hard top ones! Now we use straw cups.

I tried the Nuby but he just chews on the top - using it as a teether. Same for the straw cups

Re: Talk to me about transitioning to milk

Re: Talk to me about transitioning to milk

I wish i had answers. My ds is 13 months old and won't drink cow milk, not from a cup, bottle, straw nothing. Well only off the spoon when he eats his cereal with milk. I still nurse him once a day. I only have enough milk for the one feeding. I got sick and my supply plummeted I couldn't get it back up. But the ped said as long as he is getting calcium from yogurt and cheese he will be fine. Oh and I have a freezer stash that now he won't even drink from a bottle.

Re: Talk to me about transitioning to milk

We switched right before 11 months, cold turkey. We still warm her milk and she mostly drinks it from a cup (she only likes the Munchkin sippy, hates all others) She did great, she loves her milk. Her BM's were totally gross for a few days.

Re: Talk to me about transitioning to milk

what i did for my daughter i will do for my son. im planning on stopping at 11 months and transitioning over till 1 year. this is how my doctor told me to do it. it takes 4 weeks.

week 1 3/4 bm 1/4 whole milk
week 2 1/2 bm 1/2 wm
week 3 3/4 wm 1/4 bm
week 4 all wm

i did this and had no problems. put it into a regular bottle. once my daughter was fully transitioned over i slowly started sippy cups but wouldnt change too many things all at once. good luck.

Re: Talk to me about transitioning to milk

1/ When did you transition?

I started adding 1 oz of whole milk to his bottles the day he turned 10 months.

2/ How did you do it?

I will be adding an additional oz each week. At 12 months he will be drinking only milk.

3/ How long did it take for DC to get used to it?

So far so good.

Message edited 2/12/2009 8:45:52 PM.

Re: Talk to me about transitioning to milk

1/ When did you transition?
I tried right before his 1st birthday

2/ How did you do it?
I eliminated his afternoon nursing session (he never even missed it!) and gave him a sippy of milk (he was already drinking from a sippy for water and refused a bottle)

3/ How long did it take for DC to get used to it?
He drank the milk fine the first time

4/ If you give pumped BM warm, did you also warm the milk?
Nope

5/ If you nurse, did you continue to nurse after milk was introduced?
Yes, I continued the other nursing sessions, I planned on eliminating one session per week, then leaving the first AM and PM feeding for a bit longer---but he got sick, so we haven't moved forward yet. I am not trying to force it, using the "don't offer, don't refuse" but we are also thinking about #2 and I would like a bit of a break in between

6/ Not necessarily a transition question, but for BF moms, do you know if you can take fenugreek when pregnant?
Sorry, I don't know