[AniLand]

I just feel so overwhelmed sometimes. My husband doesn't really offer any help, I feel like I'm doing this all on my own.

Will is going to turn one in 4 weeks. I am going back to work two days before his birthday (I'm a teacher). So he will be returning to daycare. With that in mind, I would like to start the weaning process before I return to work, in case he has any dietary issues with it.

I don't know where to begin.

- He is formula fed, from a bottle.
- He eats finger foods 3 times a day, but the formula is still his main source of nutrition.
- He drinks water from a sippy cup during those 3 times a day that he has his finger foods. So, he can drink from a sippy cup, but he still prefers his formula to come out of the bottle.

I would like to be able to bring him to the babysitter in 4 weeks with some sort of a routine. But I don't know what that routine should be. Should he be on milk? Should he be drinking it from a bottle or a sippy cup? I honestly feel like throwing my hands in the air sometimes because I feel like all I do is guess. I try to research it online and I get a million different opinions.

And I can't call his pediatrician because they will just tell me to wait until his 1 year well-check, but like I said in the beginning I want to start the process before I go back to work since it's the same week and I won't be able to take any time off if something goes wrong.

I'm sorry, I realize I don't have a direct question but is anybody else in the same boat? Can you offer any suggestions?

[mandy5586]

I know a lot of people on here will say that you don't have to start him on whole milk, if you don't want to.

This is what we did (Brynlee hasn't showed any signs of any allergies)...We started by just giving her a little bit of whole milk in her sippy cup. She really loved it. Then we just slowly gave her more and more.

So this is her "Schedule"...during the week (she is in daycare), she gets ONE bottle in the morning but it's whole milk. She doesn't get formula at daycare anymore. Then she eats food and milk or water (in a sippy) all day. She eats our dinner and has milk with it. She gets a night bottle of formula before bed. If she wakes up in the middle of the night, she normally has a bottle (of formula).

My pedi's advice was to start slow. We started giving her a sippy cup of water a long time ago so she got used to it. You could even do half in half in his bottles. Part formula, part regular milk. Or Will may be like Brynlee and give him milk in his sippy and you find out that he really likes it!

[~Rae~]

Xavier was on 4 8 oz bottles of formula a day. I simply gave him a bottle of milk instead of formula one day, and continued to substitute milk for formula every few days until he was only having milk. He took it well, so I could have taken him off cold turkey, which is what I did with Layla. I had left over formula though, so I weaned him instead so I could use the formula up.
I'm weaning him off the bottle now. Right now he gets milk in his cup once a day, & I'll continue substituting until he's completely off bottles. That will happen this month. These bottles have to go!

[marieks85]

I agree with the other ladies. If you have 4 more weeks, I would just start substituting now and that way he is completely on milk when he goes to daycare. Tristan is doing great with whole milk. He still BF's at night but during the day at daycare and in the afternoons he likes to drink milk out of his sippy. It must taste as good as BM because he makes the same nom nom nom noises when hes drinking lol!

[tricia_16_]

We did it by ounces. She got four eight oz bottles a day, so we would do 2 oz milk 6 oz formula for a week, then 4/4, then 6/2 and finally all milk.

We recently took away her lunch time bottle and just let her eat what we eat and she drinks milk from a sippy.

There is no tight or wrong answer. Just do what works for your family

[joonzgurl]

^ I agree! Don't worry, just do what works for you! :-)

My suggestion would be to first worry about the transition off of formula (I would also do like tricia and just put some milk in the formula, and increase it slowly until it is 100% milk) and then once he is on milk, start working on the sippy cup.

One thing I think I am going to do with my little one is give milk in a different kind of sippy than water. She takes water really well in a soft spout sippy. I think I am going to give her milk in a straw sippy, as to not confuse her. Perhaps I should give her more credit, I am not sure. But that has been what I am planning.

[mandy5586]

Brynlee hasn't quite figured out her straw sippy yet, but I also think we don't give that one to her enough. We have 4 or 5 different sippies that we use and she drinks milk or water out of all of them. She doesn't seem to care.

[AniLand]

Thank you everybody!!! Honestly, I feel a little better just reading this thread. I am going to incorporate more and more milk and less and less formula. Also, since he's used to drinking water from a sippy, I will start putting the milk in a sippy during the day, to get him used to it. These next four weeks are going to go by fast, so I want to make sure I stick with it.

Thank yhou!!

[w292737]

I leave bottles for formula, and she gets regular milk in her sippy with meals. this is an easy way to see how she will tolerate it.

I plan on her being off day time bottles with in the next 1-2 months, the night time one is another battle for another day, but that will still be formual or water, not milk.

[MarieJ]

we planned to do half whole/half formula, which lasted a day and then we realized we'd run out of formula so we went 100% whole milk and he was fine, that was June 5th. He refuses to use a sippy so we're going bottle. Dental says no to bottle, speech says no to sippy, lol. We can never win

[FallinWoman]

With DS#1, I switched from formula to milk, and then once that was ok I worried about getting rid of the bottle.

To switch to milk, I did 1/4 milk and 3/4 formula for 3-4 days. Then half and half for another 3-4 days. Then 3/4 milk and 1/4 formula for an addition few days. It worked very well for us.

[AniLand]

This is all very helpful you guys! Thank you!