Weaning My One Year Old from Formula to Regular Milk

I have a 3 yo daughter. My PED advised mixing 1/4 vit D milk to 3/4 formula, a few days later 1/2 milk/formula etc til all the way switched. stay on vitamin D milk until at least 2yo.

K.

I went to the 12 month check up and the PED said there were not more food restrictions, so I alternated vit D & formula until she ran out of that can of formula. No problems.

C.

When my son was one he didn't like the Vitamin D milk. He preferred the formula. I ended up putting him on the Step 2 formulas for babies 9 months and up until he was almost 2. He then started drinkinig 2% milk like it was nothing. I asked the doctor if the step 2 formula was okay instead of the D milk and he told me if my son wanted to drink it that there was no reason why he shouldn't have it.

Hi S., i am a mother of three. I found the best way was completely stop the formula and give your child vitamin D milk. They will enjoy it more than formula. Once my little girl had her first taste she was in love w/ it and would not take the formula. And if your child is not off the bottle this may help you by placing the milk in a spill proof cup. Keep your little one on vitamin D milk for one year, your child need thier vitamins until they are three yrs of age. After three you may put them on 2% milk.

You can mix the formula and milk if you prefer transitioning your baby slowly. However if your baby will drink the straight Vitamin D whole milk you can do that too. Some kids are used to drinking formula so that is the reason for mixing it. Also, if you have your baby on Soy Formula you might want to start out slowly to make sure there isn't any kind of allergy to the cow's milk. If you have your 1 year old on a cow's milk formula you shouldn't have any problems switching to whole milk. You really need to give your 1 year old whole Vitamin D milk. The reason for that is that the extra fat in it helps with brain development. They are supposed to have whole milk until age 2. After that you can switch to lowfat or skim. I switched my son to skim at age 2 because that's what we drink in the house and I figured he gets enough fat from other sources. Good Luck!

Hi S.,

Just want to let you know that a couple of days ago I just switched to 2% milk from formula. My son will be 1 on the 23rd, and he loves the milk!! :). And I'm sure your baby will love it!!

Most 1 year olds go from formula to milk fairly easily - afterall, we all know that real milk tastes a thousand times better than formula! If he has been drinking a whey (or milk) based formula with no reaction, then you know he has no milk allergy and can go right from the formula straight to the milk. My pediatrician told me that children need to drink vitamin D (whole) milk until they are two, as the brain needs the extra fat in the milk to develop (all that extra fat doesn't go to actually making the baby fat, but to building cells all over the body!) - next time you give him a bottle, offer him milk instead of formula. If he seems fine with it, well there you are! If he still prefers the taste or formula, dilute the formula bottles with milk little by little until he is only on milk.

Its not hard to go from formula to milk - its the weaning off the bottles thats the hard part!

My son went from formula to milk very easily. One day I put some in a bottle and he drank away, then a few weeks later we went straight into a sippy cup, it was such an easy transition. The first bottle I gave him was Vit D whole milk, but now he drinks 1% milk because his body can't handle the thickness of the other milk's. He gets stuffy and constipated, but my pediatrician says all is ok with that as long as he gets vitamins, and he take them everyday. Just be patient and just try it one day to see how it all goes, that's how you will know what to do next. Just watch for allergies at first. Good luck!!!

My doctor said to start mixing the formula with Vit D milk. Do half and half. See what kind of reaction the child has -- then as time goes by cut back on the formula. Pretty soon it will be just milk. I would also start transition to a sippy cup with the milk eventually so you can also get rid of the bottles. It worked for my son.

When my daughter was a year old and ready for milk instead of formula this is what I did. She usually had about 5 bottles per day, so I started removing one bottle per week until she had none left. I started her on whole milk and she took to it pretty well. I was fortunate considering that she was drinking soy formula and not regular formula.

I put my daughter on the enfamil next step first, then gave her regualr milk ..Try mixing milk into her formula at small intervals until it is more milk than formula. Eventually phase out the formula completly. Try also giving a sippy with regualr milk every so often and see how it goes. If he/she takes it no prob then your weaned. If not keep mixing milk and formula. Good luck.

What I did with my son (now 3), is just past his birthday, I started substituting 1 oz. of formula with milk each day. So for example Day 1 5oz formula/1oz milk for all feedings; Day 2 4oz formula/2oz milk for all feedings, etc. That seemed to transition him gently without any tummy upsets. He was kind of a dairy fiend anyway (cheese, yogurt, etc.) so the change wasn't bad at all for us. I would check with your peds if you still have questions.

When my daughter turned 1 we put her on whole milk and she LOVED it! Formula is gross and so she loved drinking regular milk. We just switched her one day and she was fine with it

hi S.! well, i just recently weaned my daughter on to milk, since she just turned 1 year old 2 days ago. for one whole week, i would make her bottle 1 part milk, 2 parts formula. then the second week, i made her bottle 2 parts milk, 1 part formula. and than finally the third week our bottle was 3 parts milk, no formula! this was suggested to me by another mom and it worked out great because it got my daughter slowly used to the taste of the milk, and it got her stomach slowly used to it, too. we had absolute success, it was almost as if she never even noticed i was switching her onto something new. AND we used whole milk. its supposed to be the best for your babys brain growth and development or something of that sort. good luck!