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Transition To Formula
If you transition from breast milk to formula or from one type of formula to another type of formula it is best to do the transition gradually. Once it is time to transition to whole milk (baby is a year or older) then you may also want to do that transition slowly. At the Gerber web site there is a sample schedule which describes the transition from breast milk which I’ve used to help when transitioning to other types of formula. Refer to this link. The schedule states to try the following assuming eight feedings a day.
- Day 1, 2, 3 switch out one feeding with formula.
- Day 4 and 5 switch out two feedings with formula.
- Day 6 and 7 switch out three feedings.
- Day 8 and 9 switch out four feedings.
- Day 10 and 11 switch out five feedings.
- Day 12 switch out six feedings.
- Day 13 switch out seven feedings.
- Day 14 switch out all feedings.
When I switched formulas, I actually would mix the new formula with the old formula rather than giving one bottle all new and one bottle all old. This worked better for me as the different formulas had distinctively different tastes and if I gave my son the new one he generally wouldn’t drink it. It also helped to mix since at the stage when we were trying new formulas my son never finished a bottle so by mixing he could have a little bit of the different types at each feeding.
I generally didn’t mix the formula with breast milk as since he didn’t finish the bottles I didn’t want to waste the precious breast milk if it was mixed with something else. But if you are trying to transition to formula it may help to mix the formula with breast milk. My son didn’t seem to mind switching between breast milk and formula.
Works Cited
Gerber. “Transitioning from Breast Milk to Formula.” 8 Nov. 2009
<http://www.gerber.com/Articles/Transitioning_from_breastmilk_to_formula.aspx>.
Last updated: November 2009