Daughter Won't Drink Milk

I used Ovaltine chocolate mix to get my son to drink milk. I slowly decreased the amount of chocolate mix I put in it. He only complained a little bit, but drank it.

*Side story*
To this day he talks about how he remembers that I didn't put enough Ovaltine in his milk. LOL!

M.

don't fret...kids don't really need milk for sound nutrition. In fact, it is responsible for many allergies in kids. She will be fine without it!!

Cow's milk for humans is something that not even all doctors agree on. My mother works in an assisted living wing of a retirement home and she is constantly telling me about doctor after doctor who pull milk from their patient's diets. One is a cardiologist who won't drink it himself because he says it's so unhealthy.

Having said that, there is also an ethnicity issue. If you daughter is anything other than caucasian, she may be lactose intolerant. There is also another thing (the name of it escapes me right now, of course!!!) where drinking milk can cause iron to cease to be absorbed and cause anemia.

I wouldn't push it. You can get calcium from broccoli, fortified OJ, etc. And vitamin D comes from the sun!
Here is a nice site that lists out foods that you can eat that give you the nutrition milk offers if you don't eat dairy:
http://www.bchealthguide.org/healthfiles/hfile68e.stm

Also, sometimes kids just go through phases where they don't like things for awhile. My daughter loved broccoli all her life and then thought it was disgusting for 6 months. Who knows why? Maybe she ate a piece that tasted strange or she had a tummy ache afterwards once... I think we all have instincts about avoiding foods for certain reasons sometimes even if we can't explain it, just like we have cravings at others.
Personally, I wouldn't push it. And on another personal note, I didn't give my daughter cow's milk until she was 4 because I was trying to prevent dairy allergies. I gave her soy milk instead. I have since heard that there may be problems with giving soy because of the pseudo-estrogens, but have not done my own research (my daughter is 6 now and drinks milk just fine- although I do buy organic because of the growth hormone issues.)

Hope some of this helped. I'm not the most informed person on the topic, but I thought I would throw out there what I knew and had heard. Google it if any of it interests you further! :)

-Amanda

Sara,

This is a simple suggestion, but I had read somewhere else that a Mom just put a drop of food coloring in her little boy's milk and he loved it! He got to pick the color, and for some reason it made the difference. Worth a try, I think!

J. :)

I would try making some smoothies with milk and fruit.

L.

OVALTEEN.......does the trick every time

Try Carnation Instant Breakfast. Also, my kids love smoothies. Put milk, a cup of yogurt, a banana, a cup of frozen berries (any kind) in a blender and whip. It's like a milkshake but full of the good stuff. Good luck.

I didn't drink milk growing up and my son can not drink it. There are plenty of other ways to get calcium - orange juice, etc.

Also, try soy milk.

Hi Sara,

You might want to try strawberry milk. Strawberry syrup can be found right next to the chocolate syrup in the grocery store. You only have to sweeten it just a bit since even a little will be sweet to someone who has never had sweetened milk. I have also used a tablespoon of flavored coffee cream to my kids' milk.

You might also consider letting her pick out a new cup with a lid and straw or a sippy cup from the store that is to be used only when she drinks milk. You can call it her "milk cup".

If your child still refuses to drink milk, I would not worry as long as she is getting an adequate intake of calcium from other sources such as cheese and yogurt.

Take care,

J.

Sara:

Cows milk is not an essential ingrediant in human beings diets... water is fine for liquid and there are plenty of places to get calcuim... you can find this doing a google search.

P., RLC, IBCLC
Pres. Lactation Support Group, Inc
www.lactationsupportgroup.com

I know how frustrated this is. I have 3 boys and both the 8 yr old and the almost 5 yr old quit drinking milk as soon as they stopped drinking from a bottle. I just encouraged lots of cheese and yogurt and other calcium rich products. They even make Spaghettio's with Calcium now! For chocolate milk I use Ovaltine. They love the taste and it has more vitamins. The almost 5 yr old is now suddenly starting to drink chocolate milk at school. I think the "peer pressure" of seeing everyone else drinking it helped. Good Luck!

why the problem with chocolate milk? It comes in low fat and no fat just like white milk. Or simply skip making her drink it. Other sources of calcium are out there.

Both of my children don't drink milk and never have. They are 6 and 19 months. Both are healthy. As long as your child eats green veggies and other sources of calcium, yogurt, cheese, especially broccolli and green veggies your child will be fine. My children prefer Rice milk to soy. Rice milk is actually white so it looks like milk. I started by firsr giving it to them with cereal, but neither of them really drink it alone.

I've read plenty on calcium and the bodies brek down of it and when the body breaks down the milk, there is actually almost no calcium left. My mother is also in natural health so I may be a bit on the natural side of things. My children also have not had any ear infections by not drinking milk. Milk produces extra mucus in the body.

Anyway, I wouldn't worry too much about it, if you want your child to have milk, keep giving it to her every day even without chocolate and she may start drinking it again.

R.

Our family just drinks soy milk (long story) and the girls love it. It comes in a variety of flavors, and Trader Joes has it for pretty cheap. Don't buy the unsweetened stuff (yuck), regular cow milk comes with natural sugars, and the soy milk people add in an appropriate amount. To me and the family, regular milk smells sour.

Don't push the regular milk, or it will become a power issue.

Try adding Ovaltine, it is good for her and tastes great!

My 2 year old did that also. She will be 3 in July and she drinks milk again - just not all the time. Are you putting it in a sippy cup - the taste changes when they are in the sippy cup and they have to get used to that.

What's the deal with no chocolate......if you so choose, you can do what we did with my 2 yr old. The first chocolate milk had a good amount of hersey's syrup in it, then as the days went on we put less and less. Now she is drink plain white milk again! Give it a shot!

My daughter has never wanted to drink milk. She's getting a little better (she'll drink maybe 4-6 oz/day, if we're lucky) now that she's almost 2.5. But she eats a lot of other dairy, so she gets her calcium and milkfat - cheese, cottage cheese, yogurt. Our doc said never to worry about it as long as she was eating these other things, adn esp when she turned 2 he said she didn't need the high fat as much anymore, so OJ with calcium+D was good. D is esp important in the winter months, since we're not getting it from the sun.

The only way my daughter does drink milk is if it's "chocolate", and by that I mean it's a little tan colored (I don't put in much syrup at all - just enough to change the color). I think the smoothie suggestion is a really good one, too!