Need Ideas - 17 Month Old Only Drinks Milk in the Morning

One bottle in the morning is all she needs. She can get calcium and other nutrients from calcium fortified orange juice and from greens and beans. Have you considered soy products too? AF

Hello g.m., try almond milk, or goats milk, both have calcium. Other foods that contain calcium; Tapioca (cassava root), quinoa, corn meal, green peas, garbanzo beans,figs,sea vegetables are the bomb...Understand this too, Magneseum, calcium, and Vitamin D all need to be present in the body in order for each to be obsorbed...a healthy body makes enough vitamin D with 7 to 15 minutes of sunlight 3 times a week...the body should have no sun screen, uv glasses on eyes. Light needs to go through the eyes as well as on the skin...Your child's body tells her what she needs, she knows this through her taste, and comfort after she consumes food, and drink. Watch sugar intake. Most sugars should come from wholesome fruits. Sythetic, or processed sugars destroy taste buds...i hope this information will help nourish your mind, as well as your child... M.H.

You've got some good advice so far. 10oz of milk is a really good start. Even if you can get her to just take another couple of ounces a few sips at a time throughout the day, she should be getting enough. I like to give my girls their second cup of milk in the late morning, when they're pretty hungry prior to lunch. They are usually happy to drink it when they're hungry enough!

If you are giving your daughter a multivitamin it should have a good amount of vitamin D in it. If not, you might want to consider it. Getting enough sun to promote vitamin D production is not too hard in the summer, but in the winter it's nearly impossible given the amount of skin that has to be exposed and time that needs to be spent in direct sunlight. If you don't want a multivitamin there are just plain vitamin D supplements out there too.

Besides the calcium and vitamin D, babies under 2 really need a good amount of fat for brain development. That's why we're supposed to give them whole milk. You can give her fatty foods like avocado, butter, cheddar cheese or other high fat cheese, olive oil, etc. to help with that.

Good luck!

The type of milk matters, the type of yogurt matters, the temperature matters - its can be a taste thing. Low fat yogurt might also include aspartame which is incredibly sweet. Or it might be something else entirely.

Since you say she is 17 months I am guessing her verbal skills are still in their beginning stages and you might not get an answer directly. Here is the other thing it could be - she might not like it because it makes her tummy hurt or her <fill in the blank> hurt. I know I can't drink milk unless it is warm or in cereal and even then only one time a day because anything more makes my stomach hurt. Yogurt usually does the same thing. However, I can eat cheese up to a point.

Or it could be none of the above and just be a phase she is going through.

As for the Vitamin D - make sure she goes outside and plays in the sun whenever there is sun with as low a sun screen as you dare. I just read an article that says that one of the reasons kids and adults are getting low Vitamin D test results has more to do with the fact that we stay inside than go out. The sun has more than enough Vitamin D in 15 minutes a day for anyone. (It was an article in the Washington Post I believe. If I find it I will post it.)

One more piece of advice - the more you force an issue the more stubborn she is going to be. If you go along with what she wants - supplementing with the cheese and the broccoli you should be fine. If you are more concerned about the calcium, ask your doctor what other foods you can supplement with so she gets the calcium she needs without the milk since she won't drink it.

Who knows - if it is a phase in about two weeks of you no pushing she may come running and ask for some in the middle of the afternoon.

Good luck!

I believe that you get Vitamin D from the sun. have your daughter play outside in the early morning!!

Hi there! What does your pediatrician think about the health of your daughter? I'm a mom to four children and no one yet drinks cows milk (allergies and personal choice.) My daughter (4 yrs) never drank cows milk -- rejected it every time. My suggestion is to take a few minutes (or half a day - wink) and do some research re: alternate ways of receiving calcium and Vit D. There are plenty of foods that can provide these nutrients. Milk isn't the only means.

One area of resource may be books on food allergies. These could give you great options for recouping calcium & D. I'm looking at one now and it suggests 500mg/day of calcium for a child 17-months, and 5mcg/day of Vit D. Alternate calcium sources include:

++canned fish w/ bones (sardines/salmon) -- hmmmm, try getting those into a little kid. You'd have to be creative.
++green leafy vegetables -- arugula, kale, beet/turnip greens, broccoli (but these sources are not as easy for the body to gain calcium as calcium from an animal source.)
++some nuts and legumes

And the Vit D link to all this has to do with calcium absorption. Your body needs Vit D to take in the calcium. But - if your daughter gets adequate exposure to sun (and in the Northern Virginia area we have plenty of opportunity for sun), she should be fine. I was just asking my pediatrician about this the other day. For many of us, the very best source for Vit D is sunlight. Period.

I have a whole list of foods that contain calcium -- actually it's a list of many many foods and their amount of calcium. E/mail me at ____@____.com if you're interested in getting the full list. I'll copy it from my book and send it to you.

So many things are fortified these days. I wouldn't get too hung up on the dairy/milk issue if your child is healthy. Plenty of children are actually allergic to dairy and don't drink cows milk at all -- and many do just fine with a little concentration from mom & dad re: diet.

Good luck!
M.

You have to pick your battles. Liking warm milk is such a lttle thing, and it only takes a minute to warm it up and it seems to be her preference (I like to dip pickles into mashed potates, is that weird or what?). Why fight it? My daughter is six and she prefers warm milk. She gets about 12 ounces in a cup when she wakes up (kind of like having a cup of coffee, but healthier), and another one with breakfast. My daughter doesn't drink any soda; strictly milk, water or juice.

I never drank milk after I was weaned from the bottle. I probably didn't like the temperature (I know I didn't like the flavor). My mom was not the accomodating type, nor could she think outside of the box to figure out a way to get me to drink milk if she really wanted me to. I rarely drink milk now, but I hide it other things (coffee, hot chocolate, baked goods.) And dairy products are my favorites.

If you are worried about her calcium/vitamin D intake, talk to her doctor. And sunlight is the best for vitamin D. Kids were getting rickets because their mothers slathered them with sunscreen if they looked out the window. . .

Hi!
I'd just like to add that she may already be getting as much dairy as she needs. Our dr. told me 2-3 servings of dairy (approx. 3 oz. each) was all they really need and more isn't necessarily better. Check with your dr. to see if he/she would give you guidelines for the amount of dairy your daughter should have each day. Maybe her body is telling her she's gotten enough dairy and that's why she won't take any other dairy during the day. Just a thought.

Also, both of my kids started by drinking only warm milk. All I did was stick it in the microwave for a few seconds to warm it. Then I slowly decreased the amount of time I nuked it until they were drinking it straight out of the fridge. If you're ready to get her on cold milk, that might help you get there.

Hope this helps!
B.

We took bottles away from our son at 13 months old. Up until that point, we were going through about 3 gallons a week - between him and my older son who LIVES for chocolate milk still to this day (4 now). When my youngest stopped getting bottles, he no longer wanted milk, cold or warm. I make sure he gets plenty of Vitamin D other ways and he gets tons of calcium through cheese and other dairy. You are okay to give her other things and I'm sure she's fine. And yes, part-skim cheese sticks are fine...we only did whole milk for a few months after each baby turned one. Good luck!

Since she'll only drink warm milk, have you tried warming the milk during the day? Making hot cocoa? etc.?
What about room temperature PediaSure?

M.

My 5 y.o. is not fond of milk either so we went to calcium fortified orange juice. I am told that the body absorbs the calcium in OJ better than it does in milk. I believe they add Vitamin D to the OJ as well.

Looks like you have received some great advice already! Just wanted to add that I personally never drank milk. I stopped drinking it as a toddler and never drank it for the rest of my life - certainly never drank the glass of milk with dinner that they used to recommend for kids. I did occassionally have ice cream and yogurt as a kid but they were not a daily thing.
When I was 16 I had to have both my upper and lower jaws broken and reset (jaws too narrow to hold all my teeth). After the extensive surgery my Dr told me that I had the strongest bones he had ever seen and that he could not break them using the regular tools (I have also never had a broken bone in my life). When I told him that I never had a lot of dairy in my diet he replied that there were a lot of studies out there showing that if you do not rely on dairy for your calcium, your body learns to pull it from numerous other food sources like vegetables, etc. If you grow up with your body relying on dairy for the calcium then it never learns to pull from other sources and you are "dairy dependent" for the rest of your life.
So I think that as long as you are giving your daughter a balanced diet, including some dairy products as well as lots of fruits and veggies, you shouldn't worry too much about calcium from milk. And the Vitamin D is best from sunlight - let your daughter go out and play in the early morning or late afternoon to soak up all the D without worrying about a sun burn!

You have gotten plenty of good advice. As a vegan and mom to a vegan 13 yr.old. I'd echo the points of non dairy sources of Calcium and vit. D. Sunlight is the best. Dandelions, kale, chard, and other greens leafy veggies, plus sesame seeds will help too.
Not true that once you've had dairy that you body will not adapt to non dairy sources.
Give your daughter plenty of choices. You can also give her smoothies and put in veggies.
Good luck
L. M

She'll get more vitamin D from the sun than from another other source. All you need to do is let her play outside for at least 10 minutes, without sunscreen on.

This is a link to a great article about it from US News: http://health.usnews.com/articles/health/living-well-usn/...

First, I would say if you haven't yet, introduce the sippy cup. She is certainly old enough. My daughter is 18 months and has had a sippy exclusively since 12 months, and just started drinking from a straw. She loves to drink from that the straw so much she will suck on an empty cup. Perhaps your daughter will get such a kick out of the cup/straw, that this will help you. She may also drink it cold, since it is a new cup.

In terms of calcium, try yogurt smoothies - blend plain or sweetened yogurt, milk, fruit, orange juice (with calcium), etc. Once you get her drinking that, you can sneak in all sorts of stuff - even kale and brocolli. My 5 year old thinks they are milkshakes.

10 ounces of milk is a lot. My daughter has 16 ounces per day and the doctor said that's great. So, I wouldn't worry too much. But maybe ask your doctor about Vitamin D supplements - put a drop in her milk. Your only other problem is hydration, so as long as she gets lots of water throughout the day and doesn't fill up on juice or other bad stuff, you should be golden.