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!
- 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!
- 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!
You can find this milk at Walmart and save with this rebate HERE
This post was Sponsored by Horizon Organic| But all opinions are 100% my own!!
This is so interesting. Do you know anything regarding raw milk and toddlers? I feel like there’s actually a lot of controversy surrounding milk drinking past breastfeeding age.
All great tips to introducing milk to a breastfed baby. The bottle definitely makes a difference. xo ~ Megan The Fashionista Momma
We dont have such brand in Singapore but seeing this is organic, I really hope we have this in Singapore. It seems baby in the pictures enjoyed it so much. Didnt know toddler at this age can start the cow milk already. In Singapore, toddler at this age still drinking powder formula till 6-7 years old.
This is a great post! Having no kids myself, I never realized that there is a bit of a process from transitioning them from breastmilk to cow’s milk. This brand look like th perfect way to help ease that transition, though!
These are some really great tips! For us what also helped was to give it the same temperature as whatever they were used to having (I have 4 kids, and each was different). So if they were used to warm breastmilk, then we would warm up the regular milk and gradually get them used to a regular tempeature for milk.
This is informative. I don’t have kids of my own, but remembering my childhood I hated to drink cows milk in general. Still don’t 😀
There are a lot of great ideas here for moving onto cows milk. I liked the idea of half and half.
This was the same way we had introduced cow milk was by doing in 50/50 and slowly taking out from the breast milk until before we knew it it was just cow milk. I’d say this is the best way because it such a instrumental transition to make for a child.
For someone who doesn’t have any experience about having kids, I could only say. Breastfeeding is the best but if the mother is facing difficulties it’s good to have some alternatives. Organic Cow milk would be ideal.
The big switch to milk can be stressful…thanks for breaking it down so nicely.
Such good points! I’m sure it’s different for them in texture and flavor, and you make some fab suggestions!
I remember the days of switching. We definitely took it slow and substituted cows milk gradually. You’re little boy is super cute, by the way!
This post is going to be very helpful for the mothers transitioning from breastfeed to cow milk or for introducing the cow milk to breastfed toddler. My younger one is all transitioned to the cow’s milk now and I remember there were so mixed feelings, even scared when I was thinking to start the transition and introducing something other than the breast milk.
You provide a lot of great tips for helping with this transition. This is a very helpful post for new mothers.
thank you!! I was hoping it would be clear and informative!