When starting my 11 1/2 month baby on cows milk, do i heat it or give straight from fridge? How much is a feed

Question

I have only breastfed my daughter - she will not touch formula nor a bottle. She drink from a sippy cup/tumbler. I have tried cows milk watered down and warmed a little but she wasnt really interested

Answer 1

I would try straight from the frig as that is how she'll be drinking it most of her life. I breast fed my youngest daughter until she was 14 months old. She never had formula and a bottle of expressed breast milk only occasionally. I used to give her water or juice in a sippy cup beginning when she was about 9 months old. She wasn't too keen on cow's milk at first so I would mix a little in with some expressed breast milk and put it in her cup. It only took a couple weeks of increasing the cow's milk to amount of breast milk and she was drinking straight whole cow's milk from her cup at meal times.

Answer 2

I always begin mixing cows milk with warm formula or breast milk - about 3/4 formula/breast milk and 1/4 cows milk. Then as time goes by, I decrease the temp of the formula as well as the amount. By the time we reach a full bottle of cows milk, we are able to use it straight from the fridge.

This whole process takes about 2 weeks.

I have found this helps our babies adjust to the new flavor and tolerate the milk much better and they are slowly adjusting to cooler and cooler milk as well.

Works for us!
Hope that helps,
Mom of 5 with another on the way

Just read your additional details, from what you said, then I would pump your breast milk and put it in a sippy cup and follow my earlier suggestions, maybe even making it more breast milk and less cows milk and slowly change the balance. She will not even notice the difference as you make the change and by the end she will be drinking all cows milk.

That is awesome that she is going right to a sippy cup!!

Answer 3

The problem is the heavy amount of iron in cows milk can be hard for them to digest. Try giving her some at one feeding and then watch her poop to see how it reacts. If your really worried about it you can just go with a formula for the remaining month, normally doctors recommend starting cows milk at 1 year so by then its sure to be fine. You'll also want to make sure to go with whole milk because she needs all of those calories. It isn't like honey with the bacteria issue, its more what her digestive system can process. So if you introduce it slowly and keep an eye on it it Might be okay. Still, there's always formula to be on the safe side. (It isn't as good as breastmilk, but its not terrible for the child either, pretty comparable to cows milk, better in a lot of ways.)

Answer 4

I usually take it out of the fridge 5 min before I give it to her, so it is cool but not cold.
If you are just weaning, she won't drink much to begin with, so just fill half the cup and let her take as much as she wants... at first my daughter did not want to drink cow's milk, so I would pour some in a bowl with cut up pieces of her favorite fruit and feed it to her in a spoon like cereal. In a couple of weeks, she got used to it and starting drink milk from the cup.

Answer 5

Cows milk isn't recommended until 12 months of age. But I suppose your baby is only 2 weeks off. I usually heat it, about 8oz (210 ml) for a feed. Be on the look out for any allergies or intollerances as it is quite common in cows milk.

Answer 6

If it was originally made as per health standards (boiled water for formula milk or fresh milk) room temp be ok. To clam baby down warm milk will help - boots body to send baby to sleep. Cold milk for much older children/ adults who can regulate their core body temp better. Don't ever reheat milk after use - can cause a form of food poisoning & or other physiological problems r/t. to bugs in the milk. Freshly made is best (breast milk/formula).
Cheers. 99

Answer 7

let hem decide

warm one up and leave the other one cold

give them the cold one, then the warm one, and see which they prefer

at 12 months, mine always wanted cold milk

at 12 months old they need more than milk to sustain them. At this point milk is a drink and not the sole source of nutrition

Answer 8

My 15 month old has been drinking her milk right out of the fridge since her birthday :)

Answer 9

Try giving it to your child cold, in his/her sipper cup. Since he/she should be eating food at this point you could also be offering juice and water...all as a beverage like you would have with your meal.

Answer 10

It needs to be about body temp. Try heating in the microwave for 40 seconds or so, shake it *then leave for a minute or two*. test it youreslf first.