How did you transition your daycare baby to whole milk?

[Anonymous]

My baby is eleven months and I'm able to pump 4-5 oz per day despite all efforts to increase it, and I am close to using up my freezer stash. I have my DD's doctor's permission to start her on whole milk when we're ready for it, so I'm just wondering how I should do it? DD is in daycare 4 days a week and gets bottles then. On her days home, she gets milk via nursing. I'm just wondering when/how I should introduce whole milk? In a sippy cup at home on the weekend? Mixed in with breast milk at daycare? In a sippy cup at daycare? What worked for you?

[Anonymous]

This sounds horrible, but I put a touch of Nesqick in it. My pediatrician didn't see a problem with it. SHe was exclusively breastfed and wanted nothing to do with regular milk. SHe is now a healthy four year old that will drink regular milk.

[Anonymous]

I swapped out an ounce per day of breast milk with whole milk the first week. Two ounces per day the second week. Four ounces per day the third week. Slowly continued until baby was fully transitioned.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I swapped out an ounce per day of breast milk with whole milk the first week. Two ounces per day the second week. Four ounces per day the third week. Slowly continued until baby was fully transitioned.

So you made full bottles that were breast milk and whole milk mixed and sent them to daycare?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I swapped out an ounce per day of breast milk with whole milk the first week. Two ounces per day the second week. Four ounces per day the third week. Slowly continued until baby was fully transitioned.

So you made full bottles that were breast milk and whole milk mixed and sent them to daycare?

NP here, this is the part that confuses me. Do I keep sending bottles until DC is completely onto cow's milk? What about the common advice to give cow's milk only in a cup (sippy or otherwise) rather than a bottle? I'm just unclear on the mechanics of getting from 4 bottles of BM or formula to 4 -- or fewer? -- cups of milk.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I swapped out an ounce per day of breast milk with whole milk the first week. Two ounces per day the second week. Four ounces per day the third week. Slowly continued until baby was fully transitioned.

This is what I did as well for both my kids. You can send it in a bottle or a sippy, whatever you prefer and your daycare allows. Using this schedule, I stopped pumping at 12 months and I dropped to nursing only once at night (before bed) until both kids were 14 months old. Then I quit.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I swapped out an ounce per day of breast milk with whole milk the first week. Two ounces per day the second week. Four ounces per day the third week. Slowly continued until baby was fully transitioned.

So you made full bottles that were breast milk and whole milk mixed and sent them to daycare?

NP here, this is the part that confuses me. Do I keep sending bottles until DC is completely onto cow's milk? What about the common advice to give cow's milk only in a cup (sippy or otherwise) rather than a bottle? I'm just unclear on the mechanics of getting from 4 bottles of BM or formula to 4 -- or fewer? -- cups of milk.

These are two separate transitions--one is bottle to cup, and the other breastmilk to cow's milk. For the latter, we just swapped out over a week or so, as PPs noted. For the former, we started with water in an open cup at home and sippy at daycare. Somewhere 13-14 months-ish, we started offering milk in a straw cup at daycare and open cup at home. I wouldn't worry about trying to align the two changes; in our case, our daycare provider did not want to be handling breastmilk extensively so did not want to be pouring/transferring it if possible. That was fine with us and she didn't start pouring till DC was on cow's milk. We sent the combo bottles, and once transition was done, a half gallon of whole milk every other week. The cup transition did not end up being a big deal at all for DC, but I'm sure that varies.

[Anonymous]

Honestly, we jus gave them milk.They drank it just fine. Try the easiest approach first.

[Anonymous]

My DD hated cows milk, sadly. I wished that I had gradually mixed cows milk with the BM and transitioned that way as my pediatrician recommended. I think she'd likely have taken it.

We did a pretty immediate transition and she wasn't game. Even used Quik (chocolate and strawberry - horrible, I know) and she was having none of it. To this day she doesn't drink milk and I have to be pretty creative to ensure she gets enough calcium / vitamin D

[Anonymous]

We offered a few teaspoons of cow milk when she expressed interest and was just a few days from her first birthday. That went well so after her birthday, we sent 2 bottles of BM and 1 of wcm. That was fine in terms of her willing ness to drink it but a disaster in terms of her skin's reaction. So I continued to pump and used goat milk to supplement for several more months. We then tried WCM again and she was better able to digest it then.

I never mixed milks - didn't want my milk going to waste. So goat milk bottles were only given after other bottle(s) was finished. I'm glad I hadn't fully stopped pumping by the time she was one because that would have limited our options when we realized she had a cow milk issue.

[Anonymous]

Try the easiest way first before worrying about keeping track of how many oz of milk you're mixing in.
When my dd was 11 months old I filled her bottle with whole milk and she gulped it down, no problems at all. Maybe you'll be lucky as well.

[Anonymous]

OP here, thanks! So it sounds like most of you kept giving cow's milk in a bottle for a couple months before transitioningg to a sippy cup? My DD takes water out of a straw cup, but I don't want to give her milk in one yet because she still spills a lot, and her sippy cup gives her gas because she takes in a lot of air.