[Annie76]

My son stayed on formula for the whole first year, and then I just started to introduce whole milk here or there. Whole milk is less filling for them, and their bowel habits may change. None of my bottle-fed babies had much of an issue with the switch, but I didn't do it suddenly with any of them.

[mg1970]

We started our son on while milk at age 1. Since he always got his formula cold out of the fridge it was not a big change for him. I don't remember there being any issues. When he turned 2 we switched to 1% milk.

[Stormster]

Is it common to put a toddler on low fat milk?

[finallyamom0310]

Shy - DD had the same issue at first with not getting the recommended 20 oz. We found that she wanted water as much as milk. I do supplement a lot of cheese and yogurt into her diet to get that extra calcium and iron.

[finallyamom0310]

No, I think most Peds recommend whole milk. That said, my SIL with six kids has very large children (my Brother is 6' 5" tall so they all get their size from him) and she was told to swich my niece at 18 months old to 2% and water it down a bit as she was off the charts with her height and weight.

[Vogi2002]

We switched cold turkey also, but that was because C took milk very well. I have heard it's really more about the taste. If the baby likes the taste, you are fine. The only reason to mix would be to gradually get them used to the taste. The doctor said that as far as stomachs go, by the time they are 12 months thier stomach can handle different drinks / foods. So there really is no "getting used to it" except to be sure he's not allergic & the taste of the milk.

[mommy3]

The general wisdom I've learned is whole milk until at least 2, then it depends upon your child's well-being. My two were small and thin at 2, so they stayed on whole milk much longer than a child who's plumper still at 2. Because my children had had other allergies, we'd learned that organic milk was great for not adding additional chemicals and we've been really happy with organic milk. My son had lots of skin problems that calmed WAYYYY down when we switched from reg to organic. Our ped doesn't understand why but he did accept (ha) that I was right, since org milk was the only thing we changed; love it.

I also gradually switched my children from formula to milk -- they'd had sufficient pickiness with food that I didn't want a mainstay like milk to be a big deal. They went from formula to soymilk for about 6 mos then we gradually went to org milk -- my dd still loves soymilk as a treat and calls it "special milk". susan

[KarenInCa]

We adopted our daughter from China at 16.5 months old. Our situation was a bit different because we wanted to ensure that she had a lot of nutrition for the first 6 months home, so we mixed whole milk (instead of water) with dry formula before naps and at night for the first 3 months home.
However, as for low fat vs whole milk, our ped advised us that children up to 24-30 months old NEED the fat provided by whole milk because their brains are still developing and the brain uses the essential fats to develop normally.
If your child is having issues with too much weight gain, low fat milk might be a consideration. But our daughter is 3.5 now, and still drinks whole milk. She is healthy and has no issues with drinking whole milk. Unless she shows signs of obesity or intolerance, I'll switch her to low fat probably when she's around 4.5-5 yrs old.