from bottles and formula to sippies and milk.

DISCLAIMER: i am the farthest thing from a parenting expert. joe and i read (ok, i read and then give joe the executive summary, but whatever), talk to other parents, and consider our preferences and our baby's personality in order to make decisions for our family. what works for us best may not work for or be right for others. these are just our experiences.

bennett is almost one. ONE. yikes. pediatricians recommend waiting until 12 months to start cow's milk. and we really wanted to do the bottle to sippy cup transition at the same time. i've read and heard that it is easiest to never put cow's milk in a bottle; that way it is all a new experience at once. knowing our little friend, these adjustments can be tough and take some time, but it seems to work best for him (and all of us!) to not drag it out.

on thursday we got started. we decided to cut out bottles cold turkey. that may not work for or be right for everyone, but i think it's working for us. bennett has been drinking 8 oz bottles 4 times a day. so, in the sippy cup, we started with 6 oz of formula and 2 oz whole milk mixed together. i turned a little into an over concerned parent (as i tend to do during every transition) and asked bennett's daycare teacher to keep me posted on how much he drank throughout the day. everything i read led me to think that as long as he is eating enough table food, he won't starve during the adjustment even if he's not drinking enough milk. it's hard to retrain yourself from thinking of milk (formula or breastmilk) as the primary source of nutrition. at a year it switches to food being the primary source.

the first day ben drank 1.5 oz of his milk/formula combo at breakfast, and same thing at lunch. at snack time (3pm), he drank 3 oz. when i talked to his teacher at pickup, she said she was impressed he had almost a whole bottle's worth throughout the day because in her experience most kids only have a couple ounces total that first day on sippies. she said he ate a ton of food at each meal/snack, too. at dinner, he pretty much only had an ounce, but ate a lot of food. he cried in bed for a bit when i put him down, so i went upstairs and offered him the sippy. he chugged about 6 oz and then fell asleep 15 minutes later.

overall, he had a pretty successful first day. he never whined or cried for a bottle and did drink about 12 oz of the formula/milk combo (they say babies need about 24+ oz of formula each day and then transition to 16 oz of whole milk each day).

yesterday was about the same for breakfast, lunch and snack. in the afternoon, we went to target and bought a couple different kinds of sippy cups to see if he would have an easier time with one over another. success! the nuby brand worked like a charm and he drank nearly all of his milk at dinner!

once bennett is consistently drinking most of his milk/formula combo for a couple days, we will adjust to 4 oz formula and 4 oz whole milk, and so on til he's drinking all milk. adjustments are hard, but i think the anticipation is harder than the real thing. gotta give this babe some credit- he handles change like a champ! :)