Good morning! My son is just over a year old, and I would like to start offering him a small amount of cow's milk on the days that he goes to daycare. I work full-time and he is there for about 9 hours a day. We've done EBF and BLS and currently he eats just about any solid food that is put in front of him. For about two months, he's gotten an organic yogurt each day so I think he will be able to handle the cow's milk.
My primary reason for adding milk is that I want to pump-wean. I am down to pumping just once a day on my lunchbreak, so for now I'm still sending him with about 6oz of breastmilk daily, but I would really, really like to be completely pump-free soon. We nurse on-demand at night and on the weekends, and I plan to do that indefinitely.
Finally, for the actual question: Do I give him the milk in a bottle? I've been offering him cow's milk in a sippy cup, and he has zero interest. He will occasionally drink water from a sippy cup, but the daycare seems to expect me to send him with cow's milk in bottles. I feel like I'm tricking him or something. He's only ever had breastmilk in bottles (fortunately, no issues with switching from breast to bottle).
Wow, sorry this was so long. Thanks for any feedback!
You give your baby cow's milk in whatever delivery system works for you and for the daycare workers. Doesn't matter if it's a spoon, sippy cup, bottle, hose... Okay, maybe don't use a hose.
Also, remember that you do not have to feed your baby milk, per se. Dairy can come in the form of yogurt or cheese. And a lot of babies like those things better than they do liquid milk.
I gave the girls sippy's. I just had them out so that they could sort of "graze" on them, drink as they wanted. They learned to use them. They still go the majority from me when I was home via nursing at that age.
It may be the type of sippy you're using as well. I read somewhere that the straw type of sippy is easier for breastfed babies. So that's the type I started them off on.