12 Month Milestone
HAPPY BIRTHDAY to your baby from the Kodiak KINDNESS Project!
VITAMIN D REMINDER
The CDC recommends that children older than 12 months take in 600 IU of vitamin D each day. Especially at northern latitudes, and especially for 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. This is important for your baby’s dental, oral motor, and speech development.
Here are some tips to help you with this weaning process:
If you are using healthy bottle feeding practices it is okay to continue bottle feeding up to 14-15 months if weaning earlier, or more quickly, is too stressful for your toddler.
Try playing the same soothing music while bottle feeding. This can help your child transfer the comfort associated with the bottle to the comfort of listening to the music.
Have calming, consistent nap time and bedtime routines.
Avoid letting your child fall asleep with the bottle. If they have developed this habit, you will need to gently work on breaking it.
Do not put juice or toddler milk (such as whole cow’s milk) in the bottle. It is, however, okay to put water in the bottle as part of the weaning process.
See our post on weaning for more tips.
SOLID FOODS
By about one year of age, most babies are eating pretty much everything offered at the family table, with minor modifications as needed. 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 baby’s medical provider.
TODDLER MILK
Once babies are eating a wide variety of table foods, it’s okay to introduce another type of milk—always in a cup!—and wean completely from formula. Unless your baby has a special nutritional need, formula does not provide any better nutrition for babies older than one year than regular food. Most babies do just fine without much transition – just start offering milk in a cup at meal times. Your baby may not drink much from the cup at first but will drink more as they transition from the bottle.
Avoid giving your baby more than 16-20 oz of toddler milk each day. More than that can affect baby’s appetite and can cause anemia. Read more of our recommendations about toddler milk here.
BREASTFEEDING
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 weaning age for breastfeeding – most babies wean gradually on their own from the breast, usually around the age or 2 or 3 years. Here’s more information on nursing a toddler.
You may still choose to introduce a “toddler milk” in a cup while you continue breastfeeding – again, your baby 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.
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.