How to introduce cow's milk?

[Adallae]

* I don't consider DD to be a toddler just yet, but I figured I'd get more responses her than in the babes section*

DD will be 1 in about 2 weeks, and we are ready to introduce her to cow's milk. It will really only be used by DH when putting her to bed (she still nurses all day and night with me). Any tips on how to do this? We put some in a bottle last night, and she wasn't interested. She does eats lots of solids and loves water, but BM is still her primary source of nutrition.

Maybe we should try something else - like almond milk? How long did it take your little ones to adjust?

[Carhootel]

My ds is 14mo and still breastfeds a lot also, I give him rice or almond milk occasionally and he's never had cows milk to drink - just in food stuff. I think if your DD is getting most of her nutrition from BM you should keep it that way - it's so much better for her than cows milk so why not have DH give her a bottle of BM at bed time?

[KatWozBlue]

I have both my kids cows milk after their first birthday, not sure when, I introduced it a bit warm in a sippy cup in order to start transitioning them off the bottle. It was at mealtime and little by little they would drink more and more. I never used it in place of bm until they stopped nursing. Good luck!

[Adallae]

I'm having a hard time pumping enough milk for bottles, with the m/s and pregnancy exhaustion. I don't have a freezer stash, unfortunately.

Is rice or almond milk healthier than cow's milk? She'd only be getting a few ounces maybe 3 times per week.

I'm planning to tandem, but afraid that my milk will dry up and she will reject all substitutes until it comes back.

[Mal85]

Has your LO been using a cup of any kind? DD started using a sippy w/water in it when she was about 6 months old. When she turned a year old, I started giving her one cup a day with just a little milk in it. She wasn't very interested in it at first either, but I kept offering it. It took her a few weeks, but now she loves milk. I still only give her one sippy of milk a day and the rest of the day she just has water to drink, but she gulps the milk down now!

[JMJ]

As long as she is breastfeeding, you really don't need to introduce other milks. Many breastfeeders don't introduce cow milk until 3 yrs or more. If you do introduce it, it's more like another food to try than something that you need to get her to eat. If she hasn't taken a bottle before, it would be really hard to introduce one at this point, and even if she is used to a bottle, you'll want to be careful about milk pooling around her teeth while sleeping because it could cause cavities. Most bottle feeders are encouraged to start weaning off the bottle for sleep times at about a year old because of this. Breastfeeding does not have the same issues since the milk does not usually touch the teeth.

That said, for a baby who is used to sometimes going to sleep with Daddy and a bottle of breast milk, and Mommy wouldn't mind giving over some of the pumped milk-producing responsibilities to a cow or goat, I would recommend adding increasing amounts of other milk mixed with breast milk in a warm bottle. Use small servings, because if the taste is too different, the whole bottle will be rejected, and you'll lose the breast milk too.

ETA: I really wouldn't use rice milk since there's not much nutrition in it, and what is there is artificially added. You might consider goat milk since it's most similar to breast milk.

[sapphire_chan]

If I were doing that, I'd have dh try it with chamomile tea. Warm, sugar-free, soothing. Of course, I also have a weird toddler who asks for "pinch tea" (orange pekoe) so, ymmv.

[mambera]

My DD is five days older than yours and we just started a bit of cow's milk. She drank an oz in a cup last week and loved it. Yesterday while I was at work DH gave her a couple of oz in a bottle twice and she sucked it right down.

If she hadn't been interested I probably would have started mixing it with pumped bm in increasing proportions. Also, what kind of milk are you using? I bought unhomogenized, lightly pasteurized (also organic, grass-fed) bc I thought it would be closer to the taste/texture of bm. It does taste much better than the 'regular' stuff.

Unfortunately it seems to have given her really stinky poo. I hope this is just an adjustment phase bc I really cannot keep pumping at work all the time, it is torture and a huge detriment to my productivity. I don't really want to give her toddler formula either, sigh.

[nukuspot]

Originally Posted by mambera

My DD is five days older than yours and we just started a bit of cow's milk. She drank an oz in a cup last week and loved it. Yesterday while I was at work DH gave her a couple of oz in a bottle twice and she sucked it right down.

If she hadn't been interested I probably would have started mixing it with pumped bm in increasing proportions. Also, what kind of milk are you using? I bought unhomogenized, lightly pasteurized (also organic, grass-fed) bc I thought it would be closer to the taste/texture of bm. It does taste much better than the 'regular' stuff.

Unfortunately it seems to have given her really stinky poo. I hope this is just an adjustment phase bc I really cannot keep pumping at work all the time, it is torture and a huge detriment to my productivity. I don't really want to give her toddler formula either, sigh.

What brand of milk was that you found? I cannot find milk that all organic, non homogenized, grass fed, but also pasturized for the life of me. If I could I would think about offering DD milk but so far I don't like the choices at my local food co-op. I could try to find the brand you use if you tell me the name!

[mambera]

Originally Posted by nukuspot

What brand of milk was that you found? I cannot find milk that all organic, non homogenized, grass fed, but also pasturized for the life of me. If I could I would think about offering DD milk but so far I don't like the choices at my local food co-op. I could try to find the brand you use if you tell me the name!

Straus Dairies, but it may not help you as they're local to us and I don't think they ship the lightly pasteurized stuff too far.

[kai28]

DS is 13 mo - he wont drink anything other than water from a cup (never used a bottle). warm milk or cold, doesn't matter, he wont drink it (he also wont drink juice, or even pedialyte when he's sick, either). But he does eat a ton of cheese & lots of yogurt every day and has some ice cream occassionally. His Dr. told me not to worry about the milk at all from a nutritional standpoint. (DS is still nursing maybe 4x a day). I'll probably try again in a couple of months, though.

I do like the idea of combining it with pumped milk. I put my pump away 6 months ago, but maybe I'll haul it out for that purpose. I'm also training for a 2-day, 160-mile cycling event in August, and half-fear that my milk will dry up in the process. So maybe I SHOULD be pumping anyway. Thanks for making me think of that.

[nukuspot]

Originally Posted by mambera

Straus Dairies, but it may not help you as they're local to us and I don't think they ship the lightly pasteurized stuff too far.

We get Strauss butter and ice cream in our co-op so I don't see why they can't get the milk too? I didn't know Strauss was grass fed. That's great to know! I'm going to ask the dairy department if they can get the milk.