As you know my pediatrician gave Kye the okay to introduce whole milk at 10 months old. I’m so glad I didn’t do that! I have heard from many people since then that their pediatrician also okay whole milk at this age. I think it must be a trend or something?!? I decided to keep Kye on formula until after the wedding. His birthday fell the day before we left for the trip and I didn’t want to have to mess with milk while we were there and worry about how he adjusted to it.
When we got home on Monday I put 2 oz of whole milk mixed in with 6 oz of formula for his 3:00 (liquid only) feeding. I’m not sure how people mix the milk and the formula but I made a 6 oz bottle of formula then a 2 oz bottle of milk then poured both of them in the sippy and shook them up! Ta-da! Kye wasn’t feeling very well (seemed to be teething maybe? TONS of snot) so I wasn’t sure how it would go and since it was the last little bit of powder in the tin I had Zach buy another big thing of formula on his way home. Here is Kye’s first sip of the whole milk mix!
He wasn’t overly interested in it but I wasn’t sure if it was due to the milk or to the not feeling great so I just put it back in the fridge and offered it to him at 6 and he downed it, no problem. The next morning I did 4 oz formula and 4 oz milk and he downed that no problem either! I wanted to stab myself b/c I had Zach buy a big thing of formula thinking it would take us awhile to get him to transition to the milk and he could have done it in one day!!! In order to not waste the formula I decided to just keep going with the 4/4 mix for awhile.
On Saturday we had Kye’s one year pictures (post to come!) and afterward we ran by Seth and Crissy’s house to drop off some of their stuff we had. We stopped by at about 5:30 and they asked if we wanted to stay for dinner. I didn’t have anything with me for Kye for dinner! No sippy, no food, nothing. The typical Emily would have said “heck no!” to staying but I don’t always want to be uptight haha. I asked Crissy what they had and she said they had plenty of whole milk and they were giving Stevie chicken nuggets for dinner. Well Kye hadn’t ever had a 100% milk sippy and he’s never had anything fried so I was a little nervous. But I thought we’d try it out and worse case we could always go home! (I know this STILL shocks me that I was that easy going) I had his sippy in the car from his 3:00 feeding so I just cleaned that out and gave it a go! Here’s his first TRUE milk filled sippy:
he LOVED it!
here he is with his first chicken nugget meal
AND I even let him eat a cookie that Stevie had off the floor (am I a “cool mom” or whhhat?!?)
So yes, he LOVED the whole milk! No more formula for us from that moment on (and thankfully Seth and Crissy have a friend who took our left over formula so it didn’t go to waste)!!! It’s a pretty big deal. It may not seem like it would be, but it totally is!!! I am so glad that it was an easy transition as I hear so many horror stories from people about it. I think it helped that we waited as in the weeks around his birthday and especially after it he has started to drink less and not wanting to sit in our laps to drink. I’m SO sad those days are gone though 🙁 I used to love nursing him, having our special time in the chair and then when that ended I enjoyed still cuddling him while he drank his sippy in the chair but now feeding time means straight to the high chair! He started wanting to drink with his food not just before it and I think that’s a good sign of being ready for whole milk.
I also think something that helped was that we weaned him from heating his bottle. Since breast milk is naturally warm I had to always heat any pumped milk as well as the formula for him. Once I quit nursing then ran out of pumped milk and he was on straight formula I slowly heated it less and less until I just made it at room temperature. Then we bought a new filter for our fridge water thing and so we quit using nursery water (which we kept in the pantry so it was always room temperature) and started using the water thing in the fridge which comes out cold. I have heard that a lot of kids have a hard time adjusting to whole milk simply because it is so cold, but Kye was already used to cold sippys!
I LOVE milk (although all I drink is skim!) and I hope that Kye continues to love milk as well. Growing up our choices were either milk or water and I plan to raise my children the same way as now, as an adult, I rarely drink soda and will crave milk!!! 🙂
Those of you who wonder about how much to give? I’m in the same boat you’re in!!! With formula Kye was still drinking almost 32 oz a day…but he’s not supposed to have that much whole milk a day right? I’m not sure how much to offer him? I’ve just been giving him 8 oz in the morning then what he doesn’t drink (he typically only drinks 2-3 in the morning) I offer him the rest at lunch (which he has been finishing) then I offer him 8 oz at 3:00 and let him finish the rest at dinner (sometimes he drinks the whole 8 at 3:00 so I give him a fresh 8 at dinner). Is that okay? Is it too much? Babywise doesn’t go much into this and it does talk about giving them 1/2 a sippy full before they eat then offering them the other 1/2 after they finish so they won’t just fill up on liquid and not eat but Kye doesn’t need this. He literally takes sips while eating and it hasn’t slowed him down AT ALL in the eating department! Any advice from you veteran mothers? Thanks in advance!
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I just went for Kaedon's first year appointment yesterday. My doctor to me that he shouldn't have more than 24 ounces of whole milk in one day….
Don;t take my advice for anything because I don't research I just go off of instinct. Macy drinks 4-6 oz in the morning on the way to my moms and 4-6 oz at night right before bed. The rest of the time she drinks water (she looooves water) I think my mom may give her a 4-6 oz bottle during the day too, but not every day. Macy is pretty chunky, I would think giving her more milk would make her fat??
My doctor also said no more than 24 ounces in a day. I shoot for no less than 16 oz. I am so glad he loves whole milk. Brody couldn't stand milk for a long while. We had to heat it as he was used to having everything room temp. Kate LOVES it, and we don't have to do a thing to it. I give her a cup with breakfast, one for snack around 3, and one with dinner. If we are around the house, I throw one in for lunch. I say do whatever works for you as long as he is getting a solid amount of dairy.