February 23, 2018

Introducing Cow Milk to Breastfed Toddler

We’re going on 15 months of breastfeeding, but in the past month my husband has been giving my son half breast milk half cow milk, when I’m out running errands or when I work 2 nights a weeks. My milk stash is diminishing, so slowly we’ve been introducing cow milk. We thought the transition would’ve been difficult because my first son ONLY drank cow milk if it had strawberry syrup in it, that was the worst! And my 2nd son, took like 2 months to really accept cow milk, which was also a nightmare because my milk stash was gone and I had stopped pumping.

So with Joel, we figured this would be the most difficult transition, and it wasn’t! He drank the milk like he’d been drinking cow milk from birth. So he completely caught us off guard!

Here are some tips for introducing Cow’s milk to your breastfed One year old

Give it to him/her in what they’re use to drinking exposed breast milk from: So if your one year old still drinks milk from a bottle, try offering the cow milk from a bottle. I know they say after one ditch the bottle, but introducing another type of milk is life changing enough, keep the bottle if that’s what your little one is use to, don’t break them away just yet. To read about how to wean from the bottle CLICK HERE!
- If for some reason that doesn’t work, try the opposite. Offer the cows milk from a sippy cup. Some kids like it the total opposite!
Offer half cow milk, and half breast milk: This is what worked with Joel. We also wanted to get his tummy use to a different type of milk. So when we first wanted to introduce cow milk, we would mix the bottle with 75% breast milk, and 25% cow milk. Then a couple days later, 50/50. And then by the end of the week 25% breast milk and 75% cow milk. Then by the middle of week 2, it was 100% cow milk.
- Another tip to get their tummy use to cow milk was adding it into their daily diet. For example, using cow milk in his oatmeal. Or giving him bites of my cereal (that has cow milk), or letting him take sips of cow milk from my cup. For some reason kid’s love any food that’s not theirs, so having them take bites and sips of yours is a great way!
Do your research on the best milk possible: You want to make sure that the milk you’re giving to your little one is the best, and not only the best, great value, because this is something you’re going to be buying for a LONG time. We only give our boys Horizon Organic grassfed milk and the Horizon Organic Milk with DHA Omega-3 (I took pictures of my older son’s 2% milk). You probably remember DHA Omega-3 from your prenatal vitamins, but believe it or not, it’s so important to have that in your little ones daily diet. It’s important for brain, heart and eye health. With each glass of Horizon Organic Whole milk, you’re giving your little one 8 gms of protein and 30% calcium! Calcium is needed for growing bones, and healthy teeth! Also the cows are grass-fed. That’s another important thing to look into when purchasing milk because if you look at store brand milk, I guarantee you have no clue what those cows are eating!