HAPPY BIRTHDAY to your baby from Kodiak KINDNESS!
VITAMIN D Reminder: The CDC recommends continuing to give your child Vit D (600 IU) through adolescence. Especially at northern latitudes, and especially dark-skinned infants who have higher levels of melanin to block UV light absorption, vitamin D supplements help ensure a healthy immune system, bones and teeth.
BOTTLE FEEDING: Current recommendations on bottle feeding encourage weaning completely from the bottle around the one year mark. Some babies are more attached to their bottles than others…and with healthy bottle feeding practices it is OK to continue bottle feeding up to 14-15 months if weaning earlier is too stressful for your toddler. Playing the same soothing music while bottle feeding usually helps your child transfer the comfort associated with the bottle to the comfort of listening to the music. Have a calming, consistent sleep-time routine around the same time every evening, and avoid letting your child fall asleep with the bottle (hopefully they haven’t developed this hard-to-break habit in the first place!). See our post on weaning for more detailed information and strategies for both breast and bottle fed babies.
MEALS and SNACKS: By about one year of age, most babies are pretty much eating everything offered at the family table, with minor modifications to texture and bite sizes. If you are concerned about your baby’s developmental progress with feeding, or you think they might have a food sensitivity or allergy, contact us or talk to your doctor.
INTRODUCING “TODDLER MILK”: Once babies are eating a wide variety of table foods, it’s OK to introduce another type of milk (always in a cup!) and wean completely from formula or breast milk bottles. Unless your baby has a special nutrition need, formula does not provide any better nutrition for babies older than one year than just regular food. Whatever kind of milk you usually drink is fine to introduce to your baby (cow’s milk, soy milk, almond milk etc…). Whatever kind of milk your baby drinks, it should be FULL FAT (e.g. whole cow’s milk, or regular (not fat-reduced) soy milk). Most babies do just fine without much transition – just start offering milk in a cup at meal times. See our post on cup drinking transitions, and our post with more details on introducing cow’s milk and alternate toddler milks. S/he might not take a lot at first, but as they wean from the bottle they will drink more from a cup. If you are breastfeeding, congratulations on making it to the one year mark! It is truly a gift of health to your baby that will last their lifetime! Please continue to breastfeed as long as both you and your baby are enjoying it. There is no recommended “stopping” age for breastfeeding – most babies wean gradually on their own from the breast in the 2nd or 3rd year of life. See our post on toddler nursing for more detailed information. You may still choose to introduce a “toddler milk” in a cup to your baby while you continue breastfeeding – again, they might not drink much at first but the experience of tasting it and becoming familiar with another kind of milk is useful for later weaning transitions. Avoid giving your baby TOO MUCH toddler milk or juice; this can cut down his/her appetite for food and can cause anemia (low iron). Here is downloadable information on milk and juice recommendations for toddlers.
DISCLAIMER: We know when you surf the web for information, you can get conflicting results, and it’s not easy to know whether you are finding evidence-based, high quality recommendations. That’s part of our job here at Kodiak KINDNESS; we are here to support your informed decisions about infant feeding through your baby’s first year. We’ve done some background work, and to the best of our knowledge, this post reflects current best practices. However, the information contained in this post and any links contained herein is for your informational use only; it is not a substitute for professional advice, diagnosis, or treatment. Furthermore, Kodiak KINDNESS is not responsible for the accuracy of any information contained in this post or links contained herein; it is for you to review at your own risk and discuss, as needed, with your health care professional in order to make a plan that suits your individual circumstances.