Hello!

A few days after my baby turns 1, she will be starting daycare. She is solely breastfed at this stage. I intend continuing morning & night, but am unsure what I should send to daycare? Formula or cow’s milk? She’s never had either. Nor does she have experience drinking from a bottle.


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  • Cows milk in a sippy cup! why wean from boob/bottle and then have to do it again especially if bub is still getting milk from you! this is what i did with #1


  • There is no need for bottles at this age. Your daughter can have cows milk from a sippy cup or if she’s eating a good diet of solids she probably doesn’t need any milk in the middle of the day.


  • I have a cup that has a squishy teat type lid but isn’t quite a bottle. I went from breastfeeding to that instead of a bottle. We still breastfeed too but when my bub gets cared for I just give him cows milk and he’s fine on it. We started at like 14 months though. Good luck!


  • My daughter was breastfed for all feeds right up to age one. When she started childcare at just over 1 I decided to give her cows milk during the day. She normally has a sippy cup at lunch time, as she never liked drinking it out of a bottle. I still breastfeed her morning and night.


  • At age 1 she can have cows milk and water. I wonder if it’s so important that she takes to bottle feeding at daycare as by this age solid foods are becoming more and more important. When you keep up with breastfeeding morning and night she actually doesn’t need another milk feed. And if you would like to do so you can always let her have a bowl of porridge made with cows milk at childcare….


  • Our daughter went to cows milk and water at the age of one. Mostly water


  • I would experiment with bottle, first even using breast milk at first, as important shetakestobottlefeeding before daycare.After 12months can use cows milk full cream or formua, as formula contains more vitamins, te choice yours, check out again before bub goes into dare to ensure what is suitable for your baby,good luck


  • Some daycare certainly supply cow’s milk – you supply the bottles /sippees.
    If your baby goes onto formula you provide it yourself. They say breastmilk is sweet and I can vouch that formulas are from trying its temperature on the inside of my wrist and licking it off. Either way, your baby may take a short time to accept either. A friend of mine tried quite a few different formulas for her baby and he refused them. She switched to one that is premixed in a small tetrapack. For quite awhile that was the only milk he would drink. It took awhile but she got him on to cows milk.


  • At 1 year old she can have cows milk


  • My children swapped from breast milk to cows milk at about that age. Two were weaned at 12 months, and went straight to cows milk in a sipper cup. One weaned himself at 15 months so had milk in a cup during the day and breast milk at night. And one weaned herself at 21 months, so a cup during the day and me morning and night.
    I did try mixing expressed breast milk with cows milk 50/50 and offering in a cup for a few weeks once they were 12 months, but by baby 4 I didn’t bother and just went straight from one to the other. I also offered them water in a sipper cup on hot days between feeds once they were on solids so they got used to the concept of drinking from a cup. I never bothered with formula, mostly because of the cost, and we always have cows milk on hand. A lot less work for me.
    I hope your little one has fun at day care with her new little friends.


  • If it was me I would use formula the nutrients are more suited to what a baby needs, regular milk is a lot fattier cos cows have to grow so fast


  • I used to formula feed my kids and the childhood nurses told me to switch to cows milk when they turn 1 and to slowly start using the cup and adjust to combine solids and milk into their normal diets. This is because they need to adapt to drink milk like all of us and makes preparation much easier . For example they will be able to eat foods such as mashed potato, cheese pasta etc without too much fuss and introduce more calcium into their diets. If still not sure best to go to the childhood clinic which they have always helped from day 1 .


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