Question
Transitioning from Formula to Milk
I am trying to determine how long it should take to transisiton from formula to milk. My daughter has terrible messy bms and it just gets worse when we go to straight milk. Trying to determine if she is allergic to milk or if this is just part of the transistion. If allergic, what shoud we try instead?
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10 Answers
I'm not sure if this could be an allergy - were you using a milk based formula? We used the milk based and the transition was much smoother than I anticipated.
At 11 months I started using half formula and half milk, I don't think my daughter even noticed after the first bottle. Two weeks later we were pretty much on straight milk (she loves it!). Although I did not have any messes once she went off of breast milk (much runnier then). Sounds like she may have some sort of milk allergy, especially if she has been on a milk based formula.
Probably best to ask the doctor - good luck!
My son is allergic to dairy and we have had to do a combo of soy formula and dairy free for me when I was breastfeeding. Two big signs that it could be a dairy allergy are diarrea and mucus in the stool. If she has been having milk based formula, it also could be a reaction to some other food she is eating.
You can try transitioning her with other dairy; start with cheeses, then yogurt, then try the milk. Of course it is never a bad idea to check in with the pediatrician - good luck!
when i tried to switch my daughter, we had the same bm experiences as you describe, plus she would get a horrible diaper rash when i tried to give her straight milk. we went back to the formula (which is dairy based, but since it so highly processed it must not have the same effect) til she was 18 months and now she drinks rice milk and has no problems. it has a lower fat and protein content than whole cows milk, so i have to make sure she's getting enough of that in other forms. so many people have dairy allergies and sensitivites, even if they're not aware of it. a good resource for articles is mothering.com - good luck!
My son does have a milk protein allergy. He was spitting up and developed a rash on his face. You really need to consult with your pediatrician. Unless there are other symptoms, I doubt it is an allergy. Regular milk is harsher on the system.
If your baby was on a soy based formula more than likely she will have a very hard time going to milk. My son could not drink whole milk at all. He would throw up. At first we didn't connect the throwing up to a milk problem because it didn't happen all the time. I used to drink 2% milk and when I would give him 2% he had no problem but as soon as I gave him whole milk sometime that day he would start throwing up. Finally we made the connection and have not had a problem since. My niece had similar problems but her problem was the messy BM's like your daughter. My sister put her on Silk and after that she had no problem then soon, like 6 months later, she transitioned her to 2% milk. Hope this helps.
All I can say from the experience of a mother with a son with CHRONIC diarrhea from day one is that...RICE CEREAL IS YOUR FRIEND! With both of my kids I first started the transition with adding formula to the milk at about 1/3 milk to 2/3 formula for a week. Then half and half for a week and then 1/3 formula 2/3 milk. Once I got to the last ratio, it seemed as though my son had dinamite in his diapers and had blow out after blow out. So, a friend recommended adding a tablespoon of cereal to a four ounce serving of milk - either in a bottle or sippy cup. This really helped! I was able to eventually use less and less cereal until he tolerated milk alone.
Many children are lactose intolerant though. Even though many formulas are milk based, there is a huge difference in the amount of lactose, so soy milk may be your next best option. My nephew prefers the vanilla flavor!
Good luck!
you can try lactaid milk which the lactaid in the milk is already broken down. we used this on my daughter when we also had diarhea issues transitioning from formula to milk. we even tried 1/2 milk and 1/2 formula and the diahrea was still there. lactaid milk was a savor. she eventualy out grew this and can tolerate all dairy now.
I tried going cold turkey to the milk and that didn't work for several reasons. My son was on Nutramagen (world's most expensive formula) due to acid reflux problems. My daughter just didn't like the taste. We ended up doing a 3/4 formula to 1/4 milk for about a month and then went to 1/2 and 1/2 then to 1/2 milk and 1/2 water and now they (boy/girl twins) really like our 1% milk, but they need the nutrients and fats in the whole milk, so we put about 1 oz water in with the whole milk (about 4 - 5 oz) and they love that. Good Luck!
yes I've done this 2 times now get homo milk and put half and half and slowly add more homo milk and they will drink it and it's all good or add less homo milk at fist and add too each feed , it works
Try Lactaid. This worked for my son who had diaharia for 2 months.