Bottles - How many?

How many bottles does your toddler have?

Oli is curently still on formula, he spits cows milk out (the little monkey!) and he has a bottle after lunch, then one at bedtime, but he is still having one in the middle of the night too (so 3 in total). I just wondered how many is normal at this age? Also any tips for transitioning to cows milk?

 

We were lucky with Caden and he took to cows milk right away. He has a bottle in the morning and one at bedtime(about 220mls each bottle) and then in the afternoon, usually in that witching hour before dinner/bedtime routine he has some milk in his sippy cup.

When we put him on cows milk we started off with just some in his sippy cup in the afternoon to see if he liked it, which he did, then I started giving him formula in the morning and cows milk at night, then after a few days he was having just cows milk. So he is completley off formula now.

Have you tried doing half formula and half cows milk? and then each bottle give him less formula and more cows milk until you arnt giving him formula anymore.

Liam has just the one bottle of cow's milk before bed. He took to cow's milk without any probs so we were lucky there. Definitely try mixing the formula with cow's milk as Sheena said. He might just need a bit of time to get used to the new taste.

I got the impression from our Plunket nurse at Liam's 15 month check that we could start phasing out bottles (not that we have yet!). She suggested a milo before bed & it would make the milk taste nicer too I guess. I haven't tried that though...

Same as us Liz, Caden has his bottle before breakfast and it definitly doesnt stop him scoffing down his toast and fruit lol!

No bottles here anymore Sam - Luke changed at around 18 months. he has a cup of milk when he gets up (around 120-150ml) and the same at night before bed. He wouldn't drink formula from a cup, but took cows milk fine so that solved it for us.

[QUOTE=arohanui] Changing from formula to cows milk, we did the mixing thing... started off with 150mls of formula and 50mls cows milk mixed. Then 100mls of each, then only 50ml of formula and 150 cows milk, then eventually just cows milk. Transitioned over a couple of weeks.QUOTE]

Thats what we did for the transition too!

Lauren has 1 bottle per day of 200mls just before bed in the evening. Sometimes if she is knackered from Playcentre I give her 100mls of milk in her bottle and put her to bed for her sleep at around 12pm, then when she wakes she has a late lunch. The small bottle is just so she will have a good sleep and not wake up after 30 mins because she is starving.

Edited by peachy

Kalz has 2 cups of milk a day, 1 with breaky & 1 after bath

Brae was a bugger to take cows milk, I ended up putting a bit of milo with his milk- then he liked it Now whenever he hears the jug boil he'll say " I'll have a cuppa too, Mum"   LOL So that might not have been such a good thing

Lilia only has one bottle of formula just before bed. Plunket suggested it at her 15 month check up as she eats REALLY well and is off the chart for her weight (right at the top for her height too). We haven't tried transitioning to cow's milk yet, but will do the part cow's milk, part formula thing when we do.

Ollie was still having 2 bottles of formula at the same age, however he didn't (doesn't!) eat as well as his sister.

Emily's been drinking cows milk since 13 months. I did try her with a sachet of toddler formula as soon as the last tin of infant formula ran out, but she didn't like it all. So I just filled her next bottle after that with cows milk and haven't looked back since. I think she actually preferred it over the formula. So sorry not much help there with transitioning.

She was on 2 bottles (200 ml) since 14 months - one late morning before her day nap, then one before bed. Just recently we've dropped it down to 1 bottle (150 ml) before bed. She does have though her much loved banana & blueberry smoothie in the morning after her 2 pieces of toast, about 150 - 200 ml of that (made up with yoghurt and milk). Or if we don't have a smoothie it's porridge with milk. Then 150 ml of milk in her sippy cup with or after lunch. She'll also have cheese and yoghurt during the day too so gets plenty of calcium throughout the day from various sources. At other times she drinks water - first thing in the morning, throughout the day and with dinner.

With the middle of the night bottle, maybe you could try offering some water instead of the milk. I only had to do that with Emily a few of times and it worked. How is he with sippy cups? Maybe at first offer some warm water from the bottle and see how that goes, then if all well move onto water from a sippy cup, until eventually he might decide he'd rather just sleep through instead. Sometimes I found it easier just to leave a small bottle of water or the sippy cup in the cot, then if she woke during the night thirsty (it was summer) she could just help herself and then go back off to sleep.

At that age I think they say 2 milk drinks ( or equiv to 200 - 400 ml) is usually enough, as long as they are eating a varied diet including dairy e.g. cheese, yoghurt etc.   I would think Toddler formula is fine if he doesn't fancy cows milk just yet - it still contains the calcium and nutrients they need so I wouldn't worry about it. But if you really wanted to switch to cows milk (it is soooo much cheaper than formula) maybe try gradually introducing cows milk in his cereal (if you haven't tried already) and see how that goes. Or maybe like some of the others have suggested, try milo in his daytime milk drink, or mix a bit of cows milk in with his formula and then gradually increase the ratio until it's just cows milk. Or you could always try making a banana smoothie (banana, youghurt and cows milk) and have some with him. They always want to have what you're having - that's how Emily came to drink smoothies with me in the morning. Good luck.