Time to switch?

Question

My daughter is ten months old. Since birth I have given her formula. But the trouble is that for the past four weeks she has shown little interest in drinking it. In fact she likes to drink lots of water but whenever I mix up formula bottle for her, she will drink only one or two ounces and then throw her bottle down. She eats rice cereal for breakfast and has two jars of baby food for lunch and dinner (all together 4 jars). She drinks about 25 ounces of fluids daily. She weighs 23 lbs and is very active, crawls and pulls herself up. She also has two teeth. The question is, is she trying to tell me that she is ready for regular cow milk?

Answer 1

to me it sounds like she has developed likeing for certin foods rather then others so i would try cow milk but go whole milk for the good vitamins it has

Answer 2

No, only the doctor can tell you she is ready. Most doctors say 10 months is too early and around 12 or more months is appropriate. Try a cup....she might be sick of a bottles, especially with teeth. She's not underweight, so let her drink what she wants. Make her two ounces at a time every hour or so. Our daughter is STILL on formula at 15 months, but that was our choice, we got the okay at 13 months for cows milk. But the formula is closer to breastfeeding, so we switched to stage 2 formula and she's doing fine! She weighs about 22 lbs at 15.5 months, but she doesn't eat as much as your daughter, but she's never had a big appetite. Good Luck!!

Answer 3

No, hold off on regular cow's milk for another 2 months. I think she is trying to tell you she is ready for LESS formula. Just put 2 - 4 oz. in her bottle. She can have water, she's obviuosly eating well! Its OK to have less formula when her dietary needs are being met by food. OR, put the formula in her sippy cup - she be telling you shes had enough of the bottle, (which would make you the world's luckiest mother)

Answer 4

Throw the bottle away and start giving her milk in a sippy cup. She sounds ready to get off formula. Keep in mind I am not a doctor and most doctors say to keep babies on formula until 12 months old. I on the other hand stopped giving my son formula a 10 months old because he done the same thing as your child.

Answer 5

At only 10 mos old she really needs to still be getting breastmilk or formula, not cow's milk. Cow's milk is for baby cows. :-)

Try putting the formula into a sippy cup instead of a bottle.

Answer 6

Talk to your pediatrician. It sounds like she's ready for regular milk. My daugther refused formula at 10 1/2 months, and the pediatrician ok'd it. Now she's 2 and she's doing great. The minute I gave her regular milk she would gulp it up. Then she lost interest again, and I added some Ovaltime to it and she's still loving it! Good luck :-)

Answer 7

i'd say talk to her dr. she may jsut be thirsty and i drinking the formula becasue of that. my daughter quit the bottle at 10months all on her own, she refused it. but i was still b-feeding though. so she got the nutrients. you could mix formula in with her cereal so she still gets the benefit of it. but baby's tummy's are not ready to digest the protein in cows milk until 1 year. you wouldn't want her to have an allergic reaction either.

Answer 8

Hold off on the milk. Most likely her system is not mature enough to property digest it. Sounds like she is getting plenty of nutrients from the baby food. My son did the same thing around her age. I gave him water til he was ready for milk (btw I use the organic whole milk). Actually at that time, he was also done with the bottle. I gave him cups with the flip up straws.

Answer 9

That is exactly what she is telling you. Time to switch to whole milk. She may get stomach cramps the first day, but stick with it.

If you have ever tried the formula, you will know why she isn't drinking it anymore. Our kids all quit drinking the formula between 9 and 11 months.

Answer 10

Cow's milk can cause anemia. Maybe try a different brand of formula, but frankly all formula tastes nasty.