Weaning without cow milk?

[blue]

Hi, DS2 recently turned 1. I am not ready to totally wean him yet
(neither is he), but I have tried to start the process by offering more food during the day and introducing him to cow milk. He is loving the food but will not drink the cow milk once he realizes what it is. I have been trying everyday for a few weeks now in different cups/sippy cups and times of day.

My original plan was to up his food and slowly replace the breast feeding sessions with cow milk one by one (this plan worked well with DS1 who was FF) . However, he won't drink the cow milk so now I am not sure how to procced. He will drink some water at least. Any ideas on how to proceed?

[KrisM]

Have you tried mixing the cow's milk with pumped breast milk? I had to do that with DS1 and started with 3/4 breast milk and 1/4 cow's milk. I'd change it to more cow's every few days. It worked well.

[egoldber]

You could also try warming the milk slightly. Breast milk is body temp and a lot of kids are so used to that they have a hard time drinking cold milk.

[Blue Hydrangea]

DD transitioned to water in a sippy, she didn't like cows' milk until almost 18m.

[Simon]

For various reasons, none of my kids weaned onto cow's milk. Various flavors of soy, nut, hemp, and coconut milks are sweeter and more like breastmilk. You can also just replace the calcium and fats with foods like avocado, broccoli, and dairy like yogurt and cheese then keep up hydration with water. Smoothies are another option that some kids, not mine, like a lot.

[mmommy]

DD2 never really went for cows, or any other kind of non-breastmilk, either. Our ped wasn't concerned since she eats such a wide variety of foods. I was concerned about her dehydrating.

Here's our story:
DD2 is 19 mo now, and I just weaned her over the holidays. She will now drink about 1/2 c of cows milk a day out of a sippy. We've been offering her cows milk, almond milk, soy milk, and coconut milk over the past 7 months, and she didn't go for any of them. She would occasionally sip water from a sippy, but that's it. We tried bottles (which she never took for breastmilk either), sippy, straw, and open cups. We tried it all. I finally had her down to just nursing first thing in the morning and last thing at night. But the morning session had to be really really early (4:30am) to accommodate my work schedule, and it got to be overwhelming and I wasn't getting enough sleep. I really started to lose it. So, we had to force the weaning. DH had her alone for 3 days while I took DD1 to my mom's. They had a great time, and since coming home she only asked me to nurse 3-4 times. She's drinking a tiny amount of cows milk, a bit of water, and she eats a lot more cheese and yogurt. She also transitioned from a crib into a bottom bunk (basically a mattress on the floor) and she's sleeping through the night and coming to snuggle & sleep a bit more around 6:00 am on the days I don't have to leave early for work. I finally get to snuggle with her without worrying about bites and don't have to nurse her to get her to sleep. It's blissful. I'm so glad I was able to nurse her, and that I was able to do it for so long, but we both needed it to end at about 16 months for our relationship and my sanity :)

[Chitowngirl]

I've struggled weaning my DS. He takes a bottle/sippy cup at day care and had no problem taking pumped breast milk either warm or cold. I thought weaning would be no problem, but it's been a struggle for over two months. He would sort of drink mixed breast milk/cows milk, but whenever we got over 50% cows milk, he would refuse. He then got very "stubborn" and would refuse anything - even when we tried to go back to straight 100% pumped breast milk. That went on for a while. We tried no giving anything to drink at all under the advice of "if he gets thirsty enough he will drink". He didn't - after he didn't pee for over half a day we chickened out and gave him water. Finally a friend who was trying to help did a google search. She found a site that suggested banana milk. I decided to try it since my DS loves bananas. We put some milk and a few bananas in the vitamix. I make enough to last a day or so and keep the extra in the fridge. I can't say he loves it, but he will at least drink it. Sometimes he will even finish the cup (about 5 oz) so I am thrilled. Since he's a little scrawny, I figure the banana is also adding a few needed calories.

Not to hijack, but for us the not nursing part is a separate problem. We introduced milk about 2 months ago and we slowly started dropping nursing sessions. The last two that remained were the late night one and the early morning one. I was really worried about the night time one since I used to nurse him every night before bed. That has actually gone pretty well. He naps at day care and I have followed their routine to a T. Since it was familiar he really hasn't fussed at all. We have had more problems with early mornings. We used to nurse every morning before the rest of the house woke up. Now we don't do that. We can't even snuggle because he gets very agitated when I hold him and he is not on the breast. I've tried distraction with a miltitude of methods - food/breakfast, toys, books, ect - but he's basically just whiny, agitated, or outright wailing for hours until he finally calms down 2 hours or so later. Any tips, or will he just eventually grow out of it.

[swissair81]

I'm watching this thread! DD4 is nearly 17m and she won't look at cow's milk, let alone actually drink it. I'm not weaning yet, but an alternative would be lovely.

[hellbennt]

Ds2 didn't like cows milk. No dietary restrictions so ped said make sure enough calcium & good fats from foods - at one point we added in diluted (dh & I weren't happy about all the sugar) pediasure bcse he was low %ile for weight (still is at 7yrs old)


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[Katigre]

Why wean him? It makes more sense to me to continue nursing 4x/day which will fill his dairy requirement.

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[blue]

Thanks everyone, I will try the different suggestions this week.

[echoesofspring]

I'm going through a similar process right now with DD who just turned 1. We'll continue nursing on demand for a while, but I don't want to pump anymore, so we have to figure out what we're doing at daycare. I haven't been successful giving her cow's milk, but she did drink some of it this morning when DH gave it to her, so having someone else give him the milk is another route to try....

[hellbennt]

Try all the different 'milks' making sure to add good fat to it (line flax seed oil, etc) or to the diet & also calcium rich foods. Milks: rice, almond (not sure to try this at age 1?), hemp, potato, oat, etc


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[ncat]

I offered DD and DS1 cows milk at meals and slowly cut down nursing sessions between 12 and 17 months - it was never really offered to them as a replacement. (I stopped pumping at work ) They did not drink much cows milk at 12 months, but by the time we fully weaned, they were drinking a reasonable amount.

DS liked milk with cheerios more than out of a cup.