! Year Old Is Not Getting Enough Milk?

Kids who don't like milk are often responding to the fact that it doesn't feel good in their bodies. Maybe milk isn't good food for her M..

My kids never drank milk and both are still quite alive and healthy. Water is a fabulous beverage - it cleanses the digestive system and provides hydration.

If you are worried about calcium, at one year you can give her a supplement. There are chewables and drinkable calcium supplements out there (EmergenC has calcium in all of their fizzy drinks).

Relax on the milk M.. And relax on the bottle too - babies (and she still is a baby) love to suck. Can you blame her? This was her first form of comfort.

Also, fresh fruit and vegetables will provide her with calcium and hydration. I think it's time to look into the power of food for the health of your daughter... do some research and start enjoying the process :o)

Find other foods that offer the brain building fats, vitamins and calcium that milk provides. Broccoli, fortified orange juice, etc. Milk is not the only source for these nutrients, it's just the most conveninet. Many kids never develop a taste for milk, and grow up perfectly healthy. You could also try soy, rice, almond, or goat milk, and offering water or diluted juice will help her get enough fluids.

You asked a few different questions so I sepperated my answer in to the different topics. Hope this helps.

General info:
Kids only need 2 servings of dairy/day. A serving is 8oz of milk, 1oz of cheese, 8oz of yougurt. It sounds like she will drink about half of the recommended amount. That is a good starting point. Your situation is extreemly common.

Increasing milk:
Try heating it. Add milk to other foods such as soups, pudding, smoothies, milk shakes etc. You could flavor the milk with a little chocolate but you run the risk of her only liking chocolate milk.

other dairy foods:
All kinds of yogurt are fine for a 1 year old.
It doesn't take a lot of cheese to replace milk. 1oz of cheese = 8oz of milk. An ounce of cheese is a string cheese or a slice of american. Some parents over do the cheese as an alternative. Keep in mind cheese doesn't have vitamin-D and is higher in saturated fats and sodium than milk or yogurt.

Cups:
skip the sippy cup all together and continue working with the straw. Sippy cups are just like bottles and cause cavities in the same way. Have you tried a small open cup? You may have to help her with it but she might like it.

Weaning:
Many kids will refuse milk from cups because they are used to it in a bottle. They know parents worry when they don't drink milk and that parents will give into the bottle. The only way to get rid of the bottle is to deside on a weaning process (such as take away one bottle every day).
Once you decide to take away the bottle you can't give in no matter how angry she gets. Eventually she will want the milk and will take it from a cup.
If you give into her demands she will know you have a breaking point and that she is in control. The next time she will just cry longer knowing you'll eventually give in.
If you are consistent with the weaning process you can be done in 3days to a week. She may refuse milk all together durring this time. It's not a big deal if she goes a few days without milk. The longer she's on the bottle the harder it will be to get rid of it.
One more thought. Some parents have weaned their kids by cutting the top off the nipple. She won't be able to suck on it and it will lose it's appeal.

We recently lived thru your exact situation. Our daughter was barely drinking and milk and would not use anything other than a bottle. We picked a weekend, said goodbye to the bottles and only offered her the sippy cup. It took a day or two of no drinking and finally she caught on. We found that the Nubby brand with the long nipple-like spout worked best for her. The milk does come out faster but after a few accidents they do learn to adjust the rate at which they suck. At her 12month visit we were told that milk is not the primary source of nutrition so they should be consuming between 8-16oz of milk daily. How often do you offer milk? If you are really concerned, your doctor could always recommend a calcium supplement.

Good luck!

My little guy is almost 20 mos. and still prefers his bottle, so I figure I'll give him until two to give it up. Babies in other countries nurse that long! My son doesn't really like milk either, and only recently started eating much cheese so I tried toddler soy formula and he loves it! I also supplement with generic "Ensure" infant drink. Keep trying different yogurts, too, as well as cottage cheese. I was surprised that my baby liked it, considering the consistency, but you never know what will work! Patience and continued trying are the keys to breaking down resistance to new foods.

SAHM of seven

My son was allergic to milk. And, he could not eat dairy. he turned out fine. I actually think he has stronger bones than many.

Milk is a solid (food). Try water, that helps the body more. Look on the internt - milk does not have as much calcuim as alot of fruits and vegies.

I wish you luck. I remember worring about the calcuim until I quit listening to everyone else and did my own research.

A.

Hi M.,
I had asked this question last month about my now 16 month old. My daughter also would only drink water and juice from sippy cup not milk and I also wanted to be done with bottles. One day I just stopped with the bottle and set it straight that I was just going to use the sippy cups. This was when she'd only take like 1 sip from the cup and put it down. She wasn't eating a lot of the yogurt or cheese either. I was also concerned. I couldn't get a set answer on how much milk they're really supposed to have. I just started offering her the milk in the sippy cup with every meal for a little while instead of juice or water and eventually she gave in and would drink more milk. Now she sucks the milk right down and even wants more. I guess she just needed to get more used to it. I wish you luck. Just keep trying to offer the milk to your daughter.

My 20 month doesn't drink milk (nursing still), but we give him cheese and yoghurt. I read somewhere (can't remember where - some development book) that 1 oz. of cheese is equal to 8 ozs. milk so it doesn't take much. One thing I did notice is the amount of sugar in flavored yoghurts, even the ones for babies and kids. We've gone to plain yoghurt and add honey and frozen fruit. We get the Trader Joe's plain organic yoghurt.

As far as 'breaking' her of the bottle habit, don't be in such a hurry! She is still essentially a baby! I'd just keep offering her a cup with her meals and then a bottle afterward or at whatever times she is used to taking a bottle. This is what we did with my son, and he pretty much weaned himself off of the bottle when he was ~15mos.

AAAhhh yes... my daughter (13 mo.) and yours could be best buddies. I am sure she is doing fine and you are doing great! It is a new texture and taste for her. Keep offering. One day they may like it the others they may not. It is so stinking frustrating... and in the big picture she is growing just fine no? She will get it... My daughter did the same thing and I just kept offering and offering and while she is still not great at taking enough milk she is getting better. I also used yogurt and sour cream when preparing some of her veggies... I prepared some little veggie/cheese bake dishes, mixed with squash, used yogurt w/ chicken to make chic. salad... You are not alone. One of my friends battled it out with her daughter cold turkey... she picked a day and only offered her sippy cups and milk. It took about 2/3 days before she won. My other friend did not like the battle approach so she started offering her daughter juice to get her to like the cup better and just kept trying milk again and again and eventually she took it. Not sure how long this took, but bottom line... her daughter is drinking milk now. Hopefully the doctors are not freaking you out too much... they seem to be really good at that. Hang in there!

M.,

My daughter refused to drink milk as a toddler. Thankfully she did eat a ton of cheese and yogurt. One of her favorites is Whole Milk French Vanilla from Stony Field Farms. They are an organic company as well. My daughter is now 3 and 1/2 and she drinks milk. She will also drink soy milk. It doesn't have the milk fat like whole milk or whole yogurt though. I have found with most things the more you fight them the more they fight back!
If the bottle doesn't bother you, don't feel in a rush to make her give it up. Surely she will not go to kindergarten with it! If it is only the calcium you are worried about there are lots of other sources.
Have a great week!

M.,
I think this is very common that you are worried about this. However your child can get the milk, then go for it. Why are you so concerned about your baby having a bottle after age 1? I think that doctors put it in our heads that kids are not to have a bottle past age one. Don't worry about it. Babies so small like age one still want that sucking feeling. It is extremely calming to them and I would not deny her of that comfort.
Good luck!

My daughters (2 and 4 now) wouldn't drink milk either. However, they both love soy milk, rice milk and almond milk. And will drink as much of it at I give them. Many children are intolerant to milk and they just intrinsicly know this, thus they won't drink much. They can get more than enought calcium from alternative milks and from fruits and veggies. Also, my 4 year old still craves sucking (we nursed so sippy cup transfer was especially hard) but we just found that straw cups work just as well and there is nothing wrong with a bottle a couple times a day if that is what your daughter needs for comfort. Believe it or not, if you relax about the issue, she will probably choose on her own to let it go in a short while (have you ever seen a kindergartner with a bottle at school?). All kids need a specific item for comforting and they all choose to be independent of that item at different ages but I assure you she will do so before she goes to school and the more relaxed you are about it the less pressure, stress she will feel about it too. Hope this helps. Just love her....that is all she really needs.
I am a SAHM with 2 beautiful daughters and a loving husband/dad studying to be a chiropractor.

well, are you still nursing? thats a good question, but if you are you shouldnt worry about anything, shes fine.

if not thats ok, however, milk is a tough thing to get used to. my son didnt like milk at all when we started him on it. so to encourage him to drink some, we added some chocolate! he drank plenty of chocolate milk. especially with breastfed babies the milk is sweeter, so chocolate milk is more close to the taste of breastmilk. my son's doctor, as well as wic, found it more important that he got the milk than whether or not chocolate was included.

i did NOT buy chocolate milk, as the stuff you buy is SO THICK!! but i just added a little and sometimes a little less ... and now he drinks plenty of milk, sometimes i feel a little too much! i usually dont give him a drink until after he has eaten, or he will drink and not eat!

good luck and i wouldnt worry too much unless there starts to be health issues or vitamin deficiency. maybe get her a multi kid vitamin or something.

i just give my son normal yogurt. he loves it. doesnt matter much to me i guess which brand i give him. he loves it all.

maybe try a bottle fairy? ? like the nuk fairy? giving bottles to little kids that dont have one? have her help you to buy fun sippy cups that she will like. theres a fine line though between saying that if she keeps spitting it out and actually needing her to drink some. maybe give her only water in the straw cups if you want her to have the sippy. and give her sippy only at the table at meals, where usually they want to drink cuz they are eating. not giving her an option of walking around with a bottle or cup will maybe help her to realize that she needs to drink what she wants at the table... and only give water between meals - again without letting her walk around with it.

my son is 18 months and he drinks all the time... so i dont really follow even my own advice about drinks only at the table.... but hes not having trouble drinking anything... so i guess i havent limited anything yet. im really working on it. he was always breastfed and still is, so we never got on the bottle at all. he went on a sippy with his solid foods when he was 7 months.... so really i think i have a different experience as you have, so what i say might not work. i just wanted to say that i dont have direct experience, i just thought those ideas that ive heard or seen in friends might help you LOL. sorry if it seems naive LOL

anyway good luck

M., I have an 18 month old son. I just stopped giving him a bottle a week ago because he would still take a good amount of milk in a bottle before bed. ONce he seemed less interested in the amount of milk (was drinking a few sips at night), I used it as a cue that he was done with the bottle. He was only taking the bottle at night at that point.
Since then, it seems that he doesn't drink enough milk either but the md said that as long as he's getting other protein sources that we are not to worry. 8-10 ounces seems adequate as long as she's eating cheese and yogurt. My son seems to prefer yo baby still as well. You could try to mix the yogurt with bananas or blueberries.
Good luck.
D.

As long as she is having wet diapers throughout the day your fine as far as dehydration. You can really give them any brand of yougurt. The only thing I would steer away from is raspberry yougurt because of the seeds. Also, if she doesn't do well at chew big chunks yet then I'd also steer away from brands that have big chunks of fruit in it. I can't tell you those brands because to be quite honest i haven't bought yogurt for quite some time. As far as cheese. Have you tried cottage cheese? Have you tried putting cream cheese on her favorite crackers? I've heard of some kids never getting into sippy cups. You could try to teach her to use a regular/adult cup. I have those old little plastic tuperware cups that my son uses. Maybe just start out with water in them until she gets use to using them. Does she REALLY like water? If she doesn't really care for it too much I would put it in her bottle so then she starts to not really care for the bottle anymore. Although, then there might be a possibility that she then wouldn't like the cup if you put water in it... Huh? Well my son doesn't really care too much for just plain water. But he's ok with taking a few drinks of it. Every kid is different. Sometimes you just need to do trial and error. The most important thing is that she gets enough fluids and gets enough dairy. Which doesn't neccesarily need to be always be milk. Good luck!

My 1 year old is also not a milk drinker. I give him lots of yogurt - just plain stuff, no sugar, and I mix it with fruit or applesauce - one for each meal. I add half and half to his meals (he's low on the weight chart) and grate cheese into just about everything. Also, I mix milk with rice cereal or oats and mix with fruit for breakfast. With all that, he gets plenty!

If she isn't loosing weight, she is probably doing okay. She is probably getting enough calcium from the yogurt and cheese too. Have you tried the sippy cups by Nubby (?). They are almost like a bottle and the are pretty cheap.

We are one of few cultures (those of us with mostly European ancestry) that feed cow's milk to children, in any form. Most of the world is lactose intolerant, we are the exception because of a rare mutation that happened in our past. Except many of us are intolerant and don't know it, we get used to the digestive upset and think it is normal. The dairy industry has done a great job of convincing us that we NEED dairy in our diet. Read up on other foods that contain calcium other than dairy products, you might be surprised.

As for the bottle - relax. My daughter drank twice a day from a bottle until she was 3, then she agreed to move on. A bottle is not evil and will not hurt her, babies crave sucking.

If her diapers are wet and she is eating food she is probably getting enough moisture from her food. Introduce juice in the cup (diluted of course) if you are concerned about it but it is very common for babies to reduce their liquid intake at this stage.