Weaning off Formula

[Blueone]

My son will be a year in a month and I have no idea what to do. I'm thinking of just letting him wean himself gradually over his first year. He's eating a lot, but still pretty into formula and drinks about 30 ounces a day. In fact, if he doesn't have that 5th bottle before he goes to sleep, he wakes up for it.

Also, what's the point of giving milk in place of formula? I would think that if they are thirsty water would be better. I mean I will give him milk for breakfast and maybe another meal, don't get me wrong (probably Almond milk since he can't tolerate lactose in dairy). But I'm just not clear on what to do.

So has anyone weaned from formula?

[reignbelle]

I wouldn't substitute milk for formula in his bottles. Weaning for me has always ment dropping the bottles. My kids weaned during the waking hours by one naturaly. But They took bottles to fall asleep for nap and bed. Had a bottle during nap and woke all night for more bottles! Dd1 went to 2 (prior to nap and bed) bottles total by 13 months and weaned herself complete by 14 months. She loved food and started getting a sippy of milk before nap at 13 months when she didn't seem interested in bottles anymore. She loved the milk right away and I give it to her because she likes it and its a good fat. Dd2 took much longer to wean. She had nap bottles till 16 months and night bottles till 19 months. She doesn't like milk much but may ask fir some prior to bed.

[LadyCatherine185]

I think the reason most people switch to milk is because it is so much cheaper than formula, and they can get most of the nutrients they need from solids rather than relying on the formula for them. FWIW, my milk has dried up from pregnancy and I give DS a cup of Coconut Milk in the morning.. Maybe you could gradually switch one bottle at a time from formula to milk/water. Does he take a sippy cup at all?

[Blueone]

He takes a straw sippy cup and loves drinking water during meals. I think I'll just do what I would have done if breastfeeding had worked out for us and just gradually wean him. He'll cut down the more he eats. When he's teething he always takes extra formula too. I don't mind, it's our cuddle time during the day! It just seemed that it was something I was supposed to do.

[nola79]

I started weaning my son off of bottles around 11 months. First, I got him used to the sippy cup. Then, I took away 1 bottle a day over the course of a few days. The last to go was the nighttime bottle (although he never used it as a sleep aid, it was just the last bottle before bed). It really was not as bad as I thought it would be. Take small steps, and just him used to drinking from a cup.

[just_lily]

I decided to keep DD on formula past a year. Her solid eating was still pretty sketchy and she wouldn't eat meat, so I wanted to make sure she was getting all of the nutrition she needed.

But I never gave anything other than formula in a bottle. When we started solids I started offering water in a sippy cup, and at a year I started offering milk. But never milk in a bottle.

We took about six months to cut down on the number of formula bottles she had very gradually. By 18 months we were off bottles and formula entirely with no drama or trauma.

Everyone I know that switched to milk in a bottle had a much harder time getting rid of bottles later on, so I am glad we made the choices we did.