Transition from Formula to "Real Milk"

I would wait on the Almond milk just for the sake of allergens (my 100% breastfed no known nut allergies in either side of the family 7yr old developed an Anaphylactic nut allergy...weird eh?)

As long as the Soy/Rice milk is fortified it should be absolutely fine for him to drink.

If you want to give him milk for the necessary nutrients because he isn't eating a full, well-balanced diet of solids, then you'll need to choose either soy or dairy. Almond and rice milk are mainly for flavor; they don't have all the nutrients found in the other two. If you don't need the milk for its nutritional value, than you might consider just gradually weaning him to water. It's not like the rice milk or soy milk taste anything at all like breastmilk/formula anyway.

If you are concerned that dairy could be harmful for him, don't forget about organic milk (hormone free, etc.). Meijer's has its own brand of organic milk and it's not any more expensive than soy.

By the way, don't stress over weaning him. I kept procrasinating when my son hit 12 months, but when I finally did it, it was a breeze. I just eliminated one feeding per week and my son never had any problems with it. He was thrilled to be drinking out of a sippy cup and never missed nursing.

If he won't take straight fortified soy milk out of a cup, you could mix it with his formula and gradually increase the amount of milk as you decrease the amount of formula. Happy birthday to your baby, good luck :)

Hi J. -

When I weaned my now almost two-yeat-old son off of breastmilk, I would supplement with soymilk. I don't care for cow's milk, for health and other reasons, so soy was all I consumed both while I was pregnant with him and during breastfeeding. My husband, however, still likes to drink cow's milk (2%), so from time to time we'd let our son try it. Well, the cow's milk messed up his little tummy so bad! Ugh! Come to find out, he was lactose intolerant. He could handle all the other dairy products I ate while pregnant/breastfeeding, like yogurt, cheese, etc., but he couldn't handle cow's milk. We've since been working with him, offering it to him repeatedly in small quantities, and even though soy is his first choice, he can tolerate cow's milk much better now. I think that introducing it to him at such an early age (about a year old) helped him become accustomed to it, thankfully, so I don't have to worry when he consumes cow's milk now.

Just for shiggles, since we're now pregnant with baby #2, I've made it a point to drink a little cow's milk ever so often, so the baby can get used to it in utero. Hopefully that will save us from having to go through the same thing with them as we did with our first child.

Hope this helps, and good luck!

PS--> I was worried about what I had heard about the effects soy might have on my son, being a male and all...But do you know how much soy a male has to consume in order to experience negative side effects? Let's just say, a LOT. Research it. :) You know back in the day there was a scare regarding lavender and negative side effects on males...Same thing. They would have to be exposed to a lot of lavender to experience the effects. I mean, if male vegetarians can consume all the soymilk and tofu and edamame they want and not grow breasts and have emotional problems, I seriously doubt drinking a glass of soymilk a day would do any harm. Just make sure your soy product is non-GMO certified, meaning the soy was grown w/o the use of genetic modification or engineering.

(I was just poking fun at male vegetarians, but seroiusly, soy is okay.)

Hi, J..

My suggestion would be to have a back-up plan in case Plan A doesn't work as planned. I had a slightly different situation with my daughter when she was a year old. She only wanted to breastfeed and wouldn't take a bottle from me. She would only take a bottle if I wasn't home. So, at a year old, I tried to add an ounce of milk to her 8-ounce bottle of breastmilk. She instantly had bad diaper rash. The alternate plan was to wean her to Carnation Follow-Up and then milk. That worked much better. And, of course, talk to your doctor about any questions or concerns you have. I'm sure that you have a 1-year well child check-up coming up and that is just perfect timing. And, way to go, Mom! You are doing a great job!

D.

I would stick to real milk. Forget the fake milk that has all the additives. I worked in formual for years and it is made of 98% vegetable oil, like liquid crisco basically and 2% vitamins. Your better off to get a vitamin for the baby and forget the formula all together. Also it is great that you breast feed so you may want to express enough milk for the next year or so.

Hi J.---All of those milks are very healthy options. In fact, you can get hazelnut milk and oat milk as well. Each does have a little different nutritional make-up, but not enough to make that a show stopper.

Be sure that the soy milk is organic. I guess I would with the rice milk as well. Soy is usually genetically modified so you want to avoid that.

You might end up trying different milks to see which one he likes best. My daughter likes to drink soy milk and I do not because of taste. I prefer almond milk as it has fewer carbs.

I applaud your decision to look at something other than cows milk. I used to drink tons of milk until I started taking wellness classes from a Naturopath. I was surprised to learn that yes, cows milk has lots of calcium, but that it's not easily absorbed. You get more calcium and fewer calories from green leafy veggies, such as kale, bok choy and broccoli. But you should check it out and confirm your own decision. Go to www.strongbones.org for more info.

Call me if you have any questions. I'd be happy to share what I've learned. And yes, soy is perfectly fine for boys. In health, D. ###-###-####

I breastfed and I would look to get rid of the bottles, continue to breastfeed whenever you can, and just go with solids and whatever milk he can tolerate in a cup. Are there dairy allergies or lactose intolerance in your family? You could start with something other than cow's milk if there's a problem. If not, I'd try it and see if he does OK on it. I don't think I'd continue the bottles unless whoever cares for him while you work can't handle it any other way.

Hi, I don't know if you've heard any of the controversy involving soy? Alot of health specialists are saying it is harmful for you. You can google search soy and children, or just soy dangers and find numerous articles. Here is one that I found.
http://hubpages.com/hub/The-Dangers-of-a-Diet-that-Replac...
It's kind of scary. My doctor told me not to eat anything soy. She said it has compounds that resemble birth control pills. So it can mess with your endocrine system. My advice is to try the almond or rice if you don't want to go with organic cow's milk. Just thought I would let you in on what I heard. As for me I just started at 1 yr. giving my baby a cup of cows milk with dinner. Then I nursed her until she was 16 months. She doesn't really like milk. So she eats alot of yogurt. And I still offer her milk with dinner. Good luck.

I would discuss this with your doctor-- I'm not sure about the health implications of almond or rice milk.

You need to go by onces so instead of 8 oz make a 6 oz formula than add the milk to the formula if he does well cut another ounce out the next so forth till he has a full ounce bottle. Some still have issue you may have to flavor it. Mostly all my kids did well going from formula to milk but after they now like choco milk