13 Month Old Stopped Drinking Milk and Formula

D.,
Try putting a little chocolate powder to make her milk a little more interesting (just a little). See if she likes that.

Hello D., I too had this problem with my son at the same age. I was trying to get him to drink from the "big boy" cups and he would no longer take the milk. If you give her juice, you can try mixing it with milk. Orange juice works best but it is very acidic. It's almost like a smoothie. Think Orange Julius (if you know what that is?).
Another type that works well is the mixed fruit juice, preferably, orange, banana & pineapple mix.
It worked for my son, I hope it helps you too.
M.

You should substitute with yogurts and cheeses. Trader joes has really good yogurts for kids. My son loves them!

My son stopped drinking milk for a couple of months. I just kept offering it to him, and eventually he started drinking again. I also added a little chocolate to it. Now he loves it and would drink it all day if i let him.

I'm not sure if this will help at all, but I practice Chinese and Natural medicine. According to Chinese medicine, it is actually not good for the baby to drink cow's milk after breastmilk, and not really needed after 12 months. It can cause problems such as asthma, recurrent colds, allergy symptoms, etc. My son is allergic to both cow's and soy milk, so we had to put him on rice milk at about 10 months with supplementation. He still drinks the rice milk and loves it! That's something you could try... if that still doesn't work, I wouldn't worry too much about it. At 13 months she should be getting plenty of nutrients from her food.

The main thing is to make sure she get calcium from other sources. My daughter went through a stage like that around one, and now at two ALL she wants is milk and doesn't have normal food! So don't worry. What we did was to give her a lot of yogurt to substitute. She looooved danimals. I would put a straw in it and she felt so mature and would have sometimes 3 at a time.

Hi D.,
It may just be a phase. Believe me your daughter will go through lots of different eating phases over the next few years! However, if your daughter is eating yogurt and cheese, and cereal mixed with milk, she's probably ok. My son loves chocolate milk so we put a little Nestle Quick Powder in his milk in the morning and he drinks it with no problem. You daughter may like this or maybe get her some vanilla or strawberry flavored milk.

You may also want to check with the doctor just in case.

Good luck!

Besides all the great recommendations about substituting other foods to get the protein and calcium, I wonder if he could be lactose intolerant? I was, and didn't know if for years Milk kind of made me gassy, and I just instinctively was turned off it. Since I discovered Lactaid, I am fine. They now make ORGANIC lactose free milks too...Whole foods has one brand, and Lactaid is making their own.

You can try sneaking milk in smoothies (blend frozen berries, flax seed oil, psillium seeds for fiber, banana, yogurt, etc--yummy)

Try alternate milks too like goat's milk or soy (but don't overdo the soy--too much can cause hormone inbalances).

He may just be going through a fad, so either sneak it in or substitue well.

Oh, Kefir is a great yogurt type drink that has a ton of probiotics in it. That could be another thing to try. You can add that to a smoothie, or drink plain.

Good luck. Kids and their minds of their own--geez! :)
A.

I have 2 kids one is 18 months and one is 21/2 and neither drinks milk. I talked with their pediatrician and she is not worried since both my kids are great eaters and get what they need in other foods and also vitamins. I am like the other mom I never pushed milk-they did not want to drink it-just make sure they get what they need from other foods.It may be just a stage-each kid is different.Good Luck! L.

She is old enough to not have a bottle. (I assume she's been on solids for months now.) Use this as a chance to get rid of the bottle. She can drink water, some juice. Get her to eat cereal -- with milk and eat yogurt. This may be a phase, mine came back around to milk, but it was a few years.

My son did the same at 10 months. The pediatricain had me give him cheese & or other dairy products to replace the protein, clacium, etc. So try & find other dairy he likes! One small slice of cheese equals a glass of milk. Good luck!

P.S. He eventually went back to drinking milk & now loves it again!

She can get dairy/calcium/vit d in ways other than milk. I wouldn't worry, just offer a variety of foods. Yogurt, smoothies, veggies, fruits, cheese, foods fortified w/vit D2, salmon, almonds, etc.. She'll be fine. My daughter is almost 6 and never got in to milk ( I didn't push it ). My son, drinks it on occasion. I just make sure they get what they need from other sources.

M.

My son did something really similar when he was transitioning to whole milk from breastmilk/formula. Is your daughter drinking other fluids just fine? For my son, it turns out he had an ear infection and it was uncomfortable for him to drink (we even tried different types of cups and bottles). A few days after antibiotics, he started drinking normally again. Is she showing any symptoms of an ear infection? If there's nothing wrong health-wise, try not to worry. Give her 3-4 servings of dairy (cheese, cottage cheese, and whole milk yogurt for example) and that should give her enough of the calcium and fat that she needs. If it's just a matter of not liking the milk, just keep offering it, a couple of ounces at a time, and see if she'll eventually take to it.

Hi D., I would get rid of the bottle completly, and just use a cup, you can try putting the milk in a cup and adding a little vanilla, or choclate to make it taste better, not a lot just enough to give it a little different flavor. J.

Hi D., My daughter-in-law took my grandson off the bottle formula at 12 months and from then on he did not drink any milk either.
He did although eat plenty of yougart and cheese. Have you talked with her doctor and gotten any advice from him, her on this issue. Unless the doctor has any concerns I would not worry about it as long as she is getting calcium elseware.
My grandson is now 2 1/2 and still soes not drink milk from a glass although he now eats cereal with milk in it and he still likes cheese.
I hope this helps.

PS My family has a history of not being milk drinkers. Maybe yours does also.

N.

My Son did the same thing right around the same age. He stoped drinking all milk for about a month and a half. The main thing kids need from milk is the calcium and the vitimin D, He already spent alot of time in the sun so I figured the Vitimin D was covered and I just subsituted other calcium filled food like yogurt and cheese for a while. I even tried a little bit of Chocolate milk to get him back to drinking milk. another think he likes is those cereal straws he will drink a ton of milk if I give him one of those.

My two oldest, 4 and 2, don't drink milk other than with their cereal and then it is only to "wet" the cereal. They are very good eaters and my peds is not worried as they are both healthy. Like the other moms said, just make sure she gets her calcium (sp?) elsewhere. There are plenty of good sources including veggies.

My 9 month old will not be drinking milk when he is able to as well. It's more of a personal choice for us. Are you aware of all the ingredients in milk? Like I said, for us it's a personal choice, but they do eat yogurt, cottage cheese and other dairy products. Besides, milk has gone up so much in the past months, it is one less expense for us! :)

You may check with your pediatrician, but I have heard that mixing a little more milk over the next week may make the taste better for her. Or adding just a bit of flavour like Ovaltine or some other type of Karob if you prefer to not add sugar may make it more palatable. The risk in this is that she may only want it that way going forward. I would talk to the pediatrician to get some suggestions. Maybe the type of milk too. My daughter hated 2%, but would drink whole milk or eventually 1%.
Good luck!
U.

My now 17 month old stopped drinking milk a few months ago. Literally one day out of the blue, she just threw her bottle and refused all bottles and would not and still does not drink anything but water in a sippie cup. Our Pediatrician suggested giving it to her in a cup with a straw (didn't work), and she also suggested flavoring (didn't work) so she said as long as she's getting calcium from other things on a daily basis (yogurt, cheese, milk in cereal, etc.) she'd be fine.