Son Will Not Drink Milk

They will drink when they get truly thirsty. He can only drink what you offer him. Offer only milk and water. Give him the choice so he feels like he is in control. If he chooses to have neither of them, he goes without. He will eventually break down and drink one of them. My son went through this when he stopped the bottle and I had to be strong and know I was doing the healthy thing for him. Juice is one of the worst things for them to consume as far as dietary and dental. I was so scared when he refused to drink something for almost 24 hrs. I was so scared of dehydration, constipation. He was so strong willed but I had to be stronger than him. My husband helped keep me strong too but I hung in there and FINALLY he realized juice was not an option and he started drinking water and milk. Juice was not in the house anymore. After a while, he could have juice as a special treat but only a small amount and only once a day. Good luck.

I wouldn't worry. Emme has refused to drink milk for about 10 months now. Will not do it. You name it, we've tried it. At first she was on soy so I bought every flavor of soy. Then I tried changing brands. Then I tried cows milk- 2%, skim, whole. Nothing worked! So I thought I'd put chocolate in it. No such luck. Then I tried strawberry- same thing. Finally I gave up and quit worrying about it. She gets one cup of juice a day and the rest of the time she gets water. I think if he gets thirsty enough, he'll drink. :)

He doesn't need milk. Make sure he gets 3 servings of dairy from other sources, such as cheeese, yogurt, ect.

He probably doesn't eat much because he was drinking 24-32 oz of liquid everyday. He doesn't need close to that much liquid.

He may want juice, but the reason it is all he will drink is because you give it to him. If you don't want him to have it, don't give it to him. He will drink when thirsty, you need to give it more time. If he is peeing, he is fine, and not dehydrated. Simply offer him a cup of water or milk and put it on the table for him, he will get it if he is thirsty. Children his age should have a max of 4-6 oz of juice per day, and less is better. Water down the juice. He will drink when he gets thristy and he will get used to it.

he won't starve so don't worry. but i had to put my foot down with my son - you eat what we eat or nothing at all. and if he insists on juice at ALL times, no juice. period. i got really tired of catering to my son as far as having special meals, and juice gave him diarrhea and diaper rash. my son is 22 months and trust me, it took one day and he got it. it sounds more like a preference thing. unfortunately it's not our job to cater to their every whim. sorry if that sounds harsh, but i have been there and it got ridiculous. my son now eats the same dinners we eat (except when we eat something really unhealthy like pizza) and drinks milk in the mornings and water at other times. like i said, it only took a day. good luck!

I would try almond milk with him and see if that works. My daughter loves her almond milk and refuses to drink regular milk. Almond milk is all good fat, which is not true with milk. It also includes iron, vitamin E & tons of protien. I make mine at home so that she gets the most nutrients but you can buy it at Hy Vee or any health food store. In any event, when I took the bottle away from our daughter she went through what you are experiencing. I think it was more that she really wanted it (especially her milk) out of her bottle than not wanting what was in her cup. I just figured that if she got thirsty enough she'd drink out of what was available to her. For a while it was my cup and now she has decided that her's isn't too bad. It took a while but it worked itself out.

As for the milk, relax a little bit. My daughters both would not drink milk right away. My youngest just started drinking milk at 17 months and she was weened from the bottle at about 11 months. She didn't want it from a sippy cup either. She recently started learning how to drink from a regular cup and would drink anything that I had in my cup. I drink a lot of milk so that is how she got used to milk again and now she drinks it just fine. As for the other dairy products, my kids love to dip things. So instead of a spoon to eat yogurt with, give him a graham cracker that he can dip in the yogurt. It tends to make a mess but they love it. My oldest also dips her cheese in ketchup sometimes. Gross to me but she loves it. So maybe experiment with so different types of dip and see if that helps him be more interested in the foods you give him.

Hi A.,
Try going to your favorite retailer and letting him pick out some sippy cups just for his milk, or even the ones with the straws, the ones I am thinking of are tossable if you want. We have had Dora, Strawberry Shortcake, Backyardigans, Diego, Sponge Bob, and Sesame Street. My daughter never gave up milk, but she did hate eating about that age and will be 4 at the end of August and is still pretty picky. I am not sure what is in them, if they are soy or milk based, but they have the nutripals, and pediasure, and Wal-Mart even has their own brand that is cheaper. They have a lot of nutrition and my daughter would drink them for some reason and she would eat the little cereal bars. They are a bit expensive, but it made me feel so much better. I also only give her V-8 Fusion for Juice, her Pediatrician said that was good because Juice is basically empty calories, but if you are getting a full serving of fruits and a full serving of veggies from every cup, it is a lot better. It tastes good too, and it comes in 4 flavors now, when it first came out it was gritty, but it isn't any more, it is just good juice that is good for you. Hope this helps. String cheese doesn't work? Maybe you should let him pick out his own silverware also, my daughter's first silverware was Elmo and she picked it out, 2 years ago and it is still her favorite. Good luck!
M.

Not trying to sound mean but he will drink it if it is the only thing offered. I was a kid who refused to drink milk and now at 38, I'm paying the price. As far as the juice, make him his own special juice with mostly water. If he sees you pour it out of a normal container, he won't know the difference. I'm a dentist and I hear parents tell me all the time that their kids won't drink anything other than juice and I seriously just look at them and shake my head. What choice do they have if nothing else is offered? They can't sue you. I know the tantrums that follow aren't pleasant(I have three children) but this is a health issue.

Good luck,
D.

First of all, juice is so loaded with sugar, even if none is added, that if he is drinking juice, his body will not want food because it thinks he is full. Our pediatrician told us of a recent 20 year study that shows children who have just 4 oz of juice per day have an 80% higher incidence of adult onset of diabetes. She said children should only be drinking milk and water, no juice at all. Even though we used to cut the juice in half with water, she said that is too much juice. He should be eating his fruit not drinking it.
Try changing to 2% milk, I wouldn't go to skim just yet because kids this age still need the fat in their diet. My sister in law had this problem with her daughter 16 years ago. Apple juice was all she would drink and soon she had diarrhea, did not want to eat and was not gaining weight. Turned out it was because of all the juice. She went pretty much cold turkey on the juice. The old adage "baby hungry, baby eat" works with this too. Just offer milk and water only, do not give in and he will adjust.
Good luck on standing firm.

Try making him smoothies. You can use fresh fruit, ice, milk and yogurt. He will get a serving of milk, but they will have a more fruity flavor to give him that juice fix!

First of all...relax...if you get too emotional and focused on this then he is going to know that he is pushing your buttons..and it will just get more complicated as you go. Try offering him a variety of foods that are high in calcium...macaroni and cheese, maybe some cheese cubes ( be careful...too much cheese and you will pay the price with constipation!!!) how about a new fun sippy cup that he can drink his milk out of...or one of those crazy straws...and reserve it just for milk?? Make it fun...let him see you drinking milk on a regular basis....he will come around.
Good luck!!
R. Ann

Good Morning A., it is pretty normal at one stage or another for a child not to want something. We went through Warm milk Only with Corbin at nap time. He has decided to drink water now at nap time, and now he likes the generic crystal light sugar free powdered drinks when he gets up. Still will drink milk in a cup for breakfast, IF I can get him to eat breakfast.

He won't eat cheese anymore either, nor cottage cheese or the string cheese's, won't eat eggs and very few cereals. He loved cheese on tacos but now takes it off. He ate everything you could put in front of him, now its good if I get some toast w/PBJ in him in the mornings or pancakes. He loved veggies with his Sauce..lol Blue Cheese dressing, ketchup or sour cream, now won't touch any veggies. Wants his sauce with chips still though.

I haven't figured out if he or they just get tired of it or really don't care for the taste anymore.
He doesn't always want milk either, but I tell him he needs it for his body, bones and teeth to be healthy.
It can be very frustrating, but we just keep trying.

Good Luck hope other mom's give you better information
K. Nana of 5

Keep offering all dairy products. This is probably just a phase and with continual offerings, he will eventually give milk a try again.

Also, try offering drinks you want him to have after he has been outside and is really hot and sweaty. He might just drink it then. If not, have the juice handy so he doesn't dehydrate.

Hi. We went through the same thing with my son. He just turned 3 in June. Bottle breaking was a difficult thing. And just like your son, he wouldn't drink it at all. We did change to 2% (he seemed to digest it better), we also bought different sippy cups.. NUBI they have a soft "nipple" like top similar to a bottle. It took a while (like at least 2 months) before he would actually drink milk from it. But he still is not a big milk drinker. But he gets a Flintstone vitamin and I use all juices with 100% vit C or added calcium. He has a texture issue- so no cottage cheese or yogurt, but I do get him to eat shredded cheese and string cheese. Our pediatrician says it's okay as long as he is at least getting some calcium and extra good fat (meats, cheeses, etc). Good luck.. it might me a long haul . :) B.

Try goats milk. You never know he may like that.

Good luck and God Bless.

Just be certain he doesn't have an allergy to milk or what they call "lactose intolerant". I was as a child and my parents didn't understand that for years.

My son did the same thing. He's almost 2 and has been without a bottle since he was 15 months old. We tried using a "special" cup just for milk, making it chocolate milk or strawberry, offering more cheese, yogurt and anything else with calcium but nothing worked for about 2 months. He still doesn't drink milk but he will drink smoothies now and he loves yogurt. Try offering him different kinds of cheese or in different forms. My son wouldn't touch cheese until I offered it to him shredded. That's the only cheese he wanted, but just this week he asked for a slice of cheese. Yea!
It took a little while and I was so concerned he wasn't getting enough calcium until I looked up how much calcium they need at that age and was surprised to see he was getting plenty. He was actually getting too much milk when he was still on the bottle, I know that sounds weird but sometimes too much of a good thing really isn't a good thing. Ask your pediatrician how much dairy he actually needs or look it up online. Just make sure it's a reliable source. I know it's tough but keep trying different things. And as far as the not eating much I notice that my son goes through periods of not eating much to eating meals you would think only a grown man could eat. I chalk it up to growth spurts and I know his little body tells him what he needs so I don't worry about it. I would only be concerned if he started to lose weight or was getting sick a lot.

I use a Calcium supplement for my kids. They drink milk, but it's not as necessary as we you may think. Dairy in general is not as easy for our systems to digest, so really it's good your son is not a milk drinker, it's harder to break the habit as they get older. I use a Calcium Plus supplement and a children's vitamin for my son who is 2 1/2 and have been doing so since he was 1. It's a powder that you mix with water and drink. It tastes very good and my 3 kids use to think I was giving them juice. Instead they have been drinking their vitamins for over 4 years. I feel good about giving these to them, since they don't always eat their fruits and vegetables. I agree that juice is loaded with sugar and we don't drink it very often, Aloe Vera juice is a nice alternative and comes in several tasty flavors it's low in sugar and tastes great, BUT 2-4 oz. daily is the maximum. If you want more information on the products we use, please respond back and I can forward it to your e-mail.
Thanks,
V.

We love rice milk - it's way better tasting than soy to me. You can get it really cheap at Trader Joe's.
J.
www.jessicagrimm.com