Hey Mamas,
My son is 11 1/2 months old and has been on formula since he was born (didnt BF for personal reasons). Well I was getting close to the bottom of the container this past weekend and decided that we would buy him whole milk. We transitioned our oldest son at this age, he is now nearly 4. My question is how many ounces of milk should he be drinking in a day ideally? I know it is less than formula, he was drinking 4 6-8 ounce bottles when he was on formula, but he has only had about 10-12 ounces of whole milk in a day thus far. I know he has to get used to it and work up to more, also he does drink water so I'm not worried about a hydration issue. He eats strickly table food and eats well.
At 12 mos I had DS strictly on adult food, so I would give him his milk in a sippy 2x/day. Usually first thing in the morning, and then with dinner. So 16oz. (Or doc recommends 16-24oz/day, and DS is perfectly happy with water through the day.)
So by that point, I had him off of the concept of bottles and timing those throughout the day. We were doing regular snacks between meals instead.
My pediatrician said to give 16-24 oz of dairy TOTAL (including whole milk, yogurt, cheese, etc.). So we usually give my 1 year old about 16-18 oz of milk, 4 oz of yogurt and some cheese during a given day. Any more than that and you could be filling your kid up with milk so that he doesn't eat other foods and get an iron deficiency.
My son was on formula as well since he was born. Our pediatrician recommended the switch to whole milk at 12 mos., averaging 16-20 ounces a day. We give him 4 oz., at each meal and one at bedtime. He actually doesn't drink the entire 4 oz. We didn't have any transition problems, however, the dr. recommended to wean him off it if he didn't take to the whole milk, by mixing part formula to part milk and gradually decreasing the amount of formula, etc.
remember any milk you mix in his cereal or anything else counts towards his milk total
I would say a minimum of 16 oz. per day.
My son was formula fed and transitioned to whole milk around 1--I mixed it w/formula in the beginning and he still wanted his nighttime before bed bottle to be a little warm! :-)
