Cutting out formula... how? And what to give instead?

[Sanne Panne]

Short version:

How to stop giving 3 bottles of formula a day to a nearly 16 month old?

Long version:

With our first we stopped giving formula at about 12 months, she happily went straight to cow's milk in a straw cup. She didn't need "feeding to sleep" as she was such a dummy addict that knowing that the dummy was waiting for her in her cot was enough to happily get her to bed.

With our second, who is almost 16 months now, things have been a bit different. She's not keen on cow's milk and it's not great timing to switch now as she's had a few bugs and currently doesn't tolerate cheese very well so I'm not too keen on milk. I know milk isn't as great as we used to think anyway, organic or not.

She still has 3 bottles (2 full and 2 halves spread over the day) per 24 hours. I'm not against formula but it's expensive (we use ready formula from Hipp... too lazy to do the water boiling, mixing etc ritual) and I know it's not good for the palate to drink from a bottle for too long.

What's the best strategy? We'll cut the daytime ones out first and wait a bit with the bedtime one. Also not sure how to get her to nap in her cot without the bottle. We don't literally feed her to sleep, she goes to bed mostly awake but the bottle in a dark bedroom is such a part of the ritual. She doesn't need it when she naps in the buggy Mon-Thur.

And what to replace it with. She nearly gags on Rice Dream, pushes Oatly away and doesn't care for cow's milk.

Maybe formula in a straw cup during the day, mix it with one of the above "milks" and slowly reduce the amount of formula? And do the same with the bedtime feed but give it in a bottle for another while?

And which product would you pick, milk, rice dream or oatly? Or just give water? I'm not keen on soy in large amounts especially for kids. I have the idea she needs some kind of white drink for the calcium. She doesn't like yoghurt much but she'd eat a pound of cheese a day if we let her (currently cut out due to wet poos).

Any tips for a smooth transition welcome!

[nunheadmum]

I would mix the formula with water, gradually increasing the amount of water, and give it in a different cup like a straw cup or sippy cup. When we did that with our LO she lost interest as the milkiness decreased, but it wasn't too major a change to cause all out terror at night. Maybe change the cup in the day first, so it's more familiar. And perhaps give the drink while doing something else like reading or singing - so gradually that becomes the focus of the time rather than the milk.

It does mean that you need to consider how to replace the calcium but there are other sources. You could even keep a cup of formula during the day if your LO likes it and then you know she's getting some easy calcium - but from a sippy cup perhaps rather than a bottle.

[Sanne Panne]

Good idea, I think we'll start by cutting out the morning (immediately after waking up) bottle entirely because that's just our habit, not something she asks for. So she'll have more breakfast.

Then at lunch time, give formula in a sippy cup.

At bedtime, formula in a bottle. And one night just try giving it in a straw cup. I would prefer not giving anything at bedtime because of the sugars on her teeth. I'd like to move to formula or liquid porridge after bath time, then tooth brushing, and then some way to get her to bed happily without the bottle. Maybe it's worth diluting the bedtime bottle so it becomes less interesting but she still has the association for a while. Hm.

Thanks for the feedback, all other/complimentary ideas welcome, we'll take the best of all worlds :)

[nymom]

I don't have any advice, just wanted to say that we have seen the dietician at kings for a different reason, and she said that rice milk is not recommended for child under 5. My son who is three drinks oatly. He also drinks the chocolate oatly occasionally, which he loves. As said above, you need to watch the calcium intake. My son also has a glass of the tropicana enriched with calcium every day.

[Sanne Panne]

Interesting, why no rice milk? For the salt?

[Fidgetsmum]

Um just a thought, but why focus on milk as a drink at all now? My daughter had a fairly serious cows milk protein allergy from 8 months to 2yrs old. She was breastfed until 16 months but in all honesty, from 12 months, it was one small feed a day, and she wouldn't tolerate any formula at all (including the non-dairy ones). So she gained all her nutritional needs that she would have got from milk from other foods instead - calcium from pulses like lentils, iron from green veg and meat etc etc. There's tonnes of information on t'internet.

Dietly speaking, there's very little that cows milk gives you that you can't get from solid foods. People continue to want children to drink lots of milk because it's an 'easy transition' from bottle/breast feeding but in fact, according to our dietician at Kings, there's no loss if you don't have it in your diet at all, as long as you ensure the rest of the diet has what it needs.

Just a thought. I know we HAD to avoid milk, but my daughter has missed nothing and indeed is 98% centile for height and 75% for weight. And she seems fairly normal, mentally!!!

[Fuschia]

Re night time and teeth, you could still have milk in the dark in bed then brush teeth in the bed, using a little cup

We used to do that for ds1 at one point, after his story in bed with warm milk

[Sanne Panne]

Great feedback thanks so much Fidgetsmum and Fuchsia. I'm pretty obsessed with tooth brushing so it would make me very happy to know her teeth are clean when she goes to bed ;)

S loves cheese so much that she will almost certainly get enough from pulses/veg and cheese if we skip milk altogether but do give cheese. I'm tempted to only do goat's cheese for a while as she's had wet poos for a few weeks now and neither GP nor paediatrician could find anything wrong - they suspected a temporary lactose intolerance as a result of a few consecutive bugs and teething.

Hm, so... just water and a bread based breakfast or oatly-based porridge in the morning, then a cup of formula with lunch, slowly mixed in with and then replaced by oatly or even water. Then water with dinner and a bottle of formula at night, diluted at the same rate as the lunchtime cup so she doesn't find us out heheh and then tooth brushing, and one day replace the bedtime bottle with a bedtime straw cup and then.. one day... a straw cup after bathtime and no more bottle at night. By then she'll be 12 and telling me she doesn't need a bedtime story anymore either ;)

Seriously this should be doable over the course of a month or maybe two. I hope.

Still open to more input, but nice to have a bit of a plan already!

[malwood]

My 22 mth daughter is also addicted to formula milk in bottles. I had cut it right back, but was unable to breastfeed younger brother (7 mths) for long and now she either steals his bottles or throws a huge tantrum if she can't have one too. Sigh.