1 Year Old Baby Refuses to Drink Cow's Milk--and Now Is Refusing Formula

When I transitioned my first child, I did half formula and half milk so it wouldn't be too foreign and slowly moved to straight milk. When my child was probably 15 months, he didn't want very much milk either so I added a little strawberry quick into it, which made a big difference. Good luck on what you decide to try!

I agree with what Jennifer D said. I'm not an expert but I think kids can be fine and healthy without milk at all, especially if he's a good eater. I wouldn't stress about it. Rice milk is much sweeter than cow's milk so he might go for that. If I recall correctly, there's not as much protein or fat in rice milk but there's plenty of the other vitamins. There are so many great and yummy options to get all the nutrients in to him! Good luck!

Cow milk is for baby cows. In spite of the Dairy industry's millions spent to convince us other wise.

Many, many children are allergic to cow milk and survive just fine without ever drinking cow milk. My son was about 8 years old the first time he ever had cow milk. He never liked it and does not drink it. He is now a 24 year old, very healthy, athlete.

I made the mistake of trying to feed him foods that were not a good choice for his body. He usually refused them and I would later find out he was allergic to them.

Trust your son, give him lots of variety of good food and he will be fine. (Soy is not good food)

There are a lot of other sources for calcium and minerals. The milk industry has done a good job of convincing us otherwise but that is the truth. These days you can get calcium and vitamin D, the two biggies that milk is supposed to provide, in orange juice, cereal, etc. Remember also that eggs are a true powerhouse of vitamins/minerals as is tofu. If he is not interested in milk, don't worry. There are books that list the food values of various foods. Check those out and go from there. Check also the various vegan cookbooks. They have some good ideas as well.

Jenny

My daughter still lets her milk dribble out of her mouth sometimes. I think it is a temperature thing. Try giving it to him warmer, or colder depending on what you are already doing. Also, try different cups or bottles.

My son wouldn't take a bottle until I started giving him warm cow's milk in it and stopped breast feeding. You could put formula in yogurt or oatmeal to make sure he is getting nutrients, but he is probably getting what he needs if he is eating other foods. He will come around eventually.

Just a little thought have you considered goats milk. It is the closest milk to your own breast milk. Might solve the problem.. But if he is eating right he should be fine.. All three of my children stopped at about that age and where very happy... They drank water like it was going out of fashion. I gave them more sesame seeds for calcium... Hope you all the best.
K.

He probably will not fully accept cows milk while he can still get breast milk. If you want him to transition now I would ween him fully and just make sure he is getting calcium rich foods until he is willing to take the milk. Keep offering it with every meal and eventually he will take it. My boys like a little chocolate powder mixed in theirs.

Just keep breastfeeding! There's also no real reason that he has to drink cow milk at 1. Yes, he does need it in the long run, but if he's not willing to take it now, give him a little extra cheese or yogurt and wait a couple weeks before offering cow milk again. Even though your supply is low, he's still getting all the nutrition your breasts can offer.

I just recently got online and found some information under Dr. Mercola's website. I believe that if you do a search you will find info about making your own formula and where to find real milk in your area.

My son was the same way, so we gave him soy milk, and he liked it much better. You can always give him yogurt if you are worried about him not getting dairy. That's what we did. Good luck!

I would just keep offering it to him. If he is thirsty enough he will drink it. You can also give him cheese and yogurt to get the calcium.

Good luck!

Have you tried warming the milk? That's what worked with my son. Good luck!

I agree with the mom who said you can get calcium from other sources but another reason he might not like cows milk is because it is normally served cold and formula and breastmilk are normally warm. Have you tried warming it up some? As for drinking water, yeah for him and I would encourage that because my kids do not like water as a drink at all. As for him not drinking either, it is probably a power play because he is upset that his normal routine has been disturbed and he is resisting change. My son really likes soy milk as well as cows milk and they both love eggnog (they call it candy milk). I wouldn't worry too much as long as he keeps eating good and drinking water. He will learn to either like of not like milk.

I'd just like to weigh in about Vit D--at our latitude in Fall and Winter,(Seattle) you can't get appropriate amounts of vitamin D just by going outside. There is a lot of new research about this that you can Google. It also appears that the amount of Vit D added to milk (no, it doesn't occur naturally, and it is not added to most other dairy products) is also not enough to stave off some other diseases. I'd certainly discuss Vit D requirements with your doctor. Good luck!!

I started to offer a sippy cup of enriched rice milk along with regular breast feeding at that stage with my boys. I personally don't feel that soy milk is as good for little ones and rice milk is so gentle on the system and tastes so light. You could try the Enriched (vitamins) Vanilla Rice Dream and see if baby may likes that. It's sweeter, perhaps closer in flavor to the real thing (breast milk). A sippy-cup that I found to be a nice transition was the kind that has the rubber soft sippy spout on it. Babies love to chew on that too while teething.
Another thing, your baby may not be going through a growth spurt right now, thus slowing down on the nursing and milk drinking. Best of luck trying to keep your milk production going at those stages. I'd even resort to the breast pump at times to ensure not losing milk for the next day, etc.

Good Luck!!

I would try goat's milk.

It's a myth (funded by the dairy industry) that babies need cow's milk. Unless your child has suddenly become a baby cow, he doesn't NEED it. It's full of growth hormones to grow a cow, not a human. If your child is still nursing some and eating lots of whole foods then he'll be fine. There are plenty of high-calcium foods that have a much better absorbtion rate anyway. You can give a liquid vit. d suppliment that's much higher quality than the vit. d that's added to milk.

Also, if you nurse him more then you'll make more milk. My milk supply never went down to less than my son wanted. I had a good supply until my son stopped nursing at age 3.. Supply and demand.

DO NOT give your son soy milk! It's full of estrogen that developing baby boys do not need. One glass of soy milk has as much estrogen as a birth control pill. Since we still do not know the long term effects of this, I strongly recommend not doing it. There are other milk choices like rice, almond, and hemp that a good substitutes. My son always drank rice milk which has added calcium and vit. d.

Good luck!

Use the ricemilk factory trick: add a pinch of vanilla to make it more palatable. My kids won't drink milk straight, but they love it (especially warm) with a little vanilla. (Their dad figured this out--he added sugar too, but I don't, and they like it well without sugar ... and since I use lactose-free milk, that's saying something!)

I cook with milk (lactose free, so I can eat it too). I make french toast, sometimes whitesauces, sometimes mac+cheese ;) ... and then there's the cheese on nachos (I'm not sure how 'nachos' are supposed to be made, but I use real, unscary cheese ;) ), the cheese on a tuna melt ... occasional ice cream ... we don't eat cereal anymore, but if your son does there can be milk on that ... and then like all the green vegetables have calcium (not that we eat enough of those, but I'm working on it ;)!!!).

But straight up, we almost never drink milk except vanilla-milk if I think they need a warm, soothing, non-chocolate ( ;) ) drink. They get one cup of juice at each meal and after that they can have water ... in our family, 'drinking' is about water content, and the whole milk-nutrition thing I'm working other ways.

PS I saw a report one time in a mainstream media (I can't remember even whether it was a paper or a magazine) that said that something in chocolate inhibits absorption of calcium ... so much for the 'chocolate milk' fix that is pushed at gradeschools! Like so many other things that kinda aren't surprising once you see them in print but go directly against the mainstream teachings, I've only seen that once. So, you'll have to decide with your gut whether it's true (feels reasonable to me--unfortunately, it hasn't cut down on my chocolate consumption much ; P !). Not that I figured you'd be doing chocolate milk anytime soon ... but if it comes up later ... when my oldest hit gradeschool I told her she could only choose the chocolate milk on Tuesdays and Thursdays ...

... oh, I guess that's another thing. As soon as the teachers expected her to and all the other kids were doing it, my oldest suddenly drank milk (at school) without even mentioning it. An, the power of peer pressure: do you have family/friends who drink milk straight? Do you? Perhaps your one year old could transition to real cups with vanilla milk or something ... the kids' dad and I both (for very different reasons) don't drink milk ==> no reason for my kids to!

My 1 year old daughter isn't too interested, either. She lets it dribble out of her mouth like your son. I offer it to her every day or two with a meal, but I'm not concerned. Like a couple other moms said, cow milk is something we've been conditioned to drink, not something that is necessary for our bodies. Don't worry. He'll like it or he won't, and there are many other sources of calcium in whole fruits and vegetables, and being outside for a bit each day will keep his vitamin D at a healthy level!
Blessings!

My kids refused cow's milk when I tried first tried around one year. I never pushed the issue because I can't stand milk. I ended up giving them other foods, cheese, yougurt, etc; and a calcium supplement, there is a sour gummy bear version at costco. Also, they would drink soymilk the vanilla kind, so for a while that is what I bought. Now at 2 & 4 they can almost finish a whole gallon in one day if I would let them. Just give it time.

My daughter won't drink cow's milk, soy milk, formula, and she self-weaned at 10 months old. The doctor and I agreed that she gets calcium from enough other sources that she should be fine. I make sure that she has yogurt and Cheerios every day and our family already eats a lot of cheese. I was allergic to milk until I was 4 years old, and that is how my mom dealt with it too.

with all three of my kids i added a couple tablespoons of organic whole milk vanilla yogurt. the only thing i can think is that breast milk is sweeter. i breastfeed all three of my kids until a year old and that was the only way they would take a bottle or sippy cup. good luck

Sorry to hear about this issue for you. My daughter is now 20 months and just finally starting to take some milk on a regular basis, but its still a small amount. I tried moving her to milk at the one year point and she just didn't like it. It really took us until 18 months to get her interested. I kept offering it maybe daily or every other day and eventually she started to show a bit of interest. Its frustrating because you feel like they need the nutrition. But, here is what my Pediatrician said... if she is getting enough cheese and yogurt then she should be fine. In other words, if your little guy is good at eating dairy in other sources, than you don't have to worry so much. It might take him a little while to adjust to the taste. I know some mom's that added a tiny bit of chocolate milk or syrup to the milk - just to sweeten it a bit- and that did the trick for them. Then they evetually weaned that out.

You could also try Vanilla Milk found in the store. I think Horizon Brand sells it. Or they sell Kefir, a dairy product, in various flavors. Its a thick yogurt type drink - which you could thin down with milk.

Honestly, our little one still doesn't even take 4oz a day - so we are giving her calcium supplements - the gummy bear kind, per the pediatrician's recommendation. And we give her lots of yogurt and cheese and even cereal with milk.

If your little one is healthy and a good eater, I wouldn't worry too much. Talk about it with your pediatrician and ask their advice.

Hi L.,

I wanted to let you know that a child (or adult) does not need dairy to get their calcium. My husband comes from a culture that eats almost no dairy - perhaps just a little cottage cheese a few times a year as a treat. That's it - no cow's milk, no goat's milk, no other cheeses or yogurts or anything else.

Their diet consists of fresh vegetables, fruit and tomato-based meat stews. Processed sugar is also a "few times a year" treat - perhaps some hard candy at Christmas or a soda pop as a special treat during the summer.

He and his very large family have beautiful, healthy teeth, and none of the older women in his family have any problems with bone loss or all the calcium-deprived problems that so many North American women have.

After spending time in his culture, doing my own research, and adjusting my diet, I have come to the conclusion that it is actually healthier to get our calcium from non-dairy sources - although I am still attached to cheese and yogurt!

I am not saying you should take dairy out of your or his diet. I'm just saying that if your son does not like milk or other dairy products, you don't have to worry about his teeth, his bones or any other health issue. He can be 100% healthy on a dairy-free diet.

Smart baby! Cow's milk in any form (including cheese, yogurt etc) is NOT good food for humans, in fact it leads to many many diseases (see notmilk.com). It is not a good source of calcium, many vegetables are much better (nuts, seeds, greens). It is not a good source of protein (plant foods have plenty of protein, especially nuts, seeds, legumes). Spending time outside is a much better source of vitamin D. Milk and other dairy products do not prevent but rather actually cause osteoporosis. In fact there is no reason a child or anyone else needs to drink any form of "milk" or even any form of liquid other than water. The exception of course is breast milk - and if you let him nurse on demand for as long as he wants to, your milk supply will build back up and he will probably nurse for another year or two and will get all the benefits of extended breastfeeding. If he does enjoy drinking "milks," you can make raw nut or seed milks in a blender (sesame milk is one of our favorites; soak the seeds, and strain if you like after blending). Your child will of course also receive all the benefits of nutrition from the healthy foods you feed him. I feel sad that so many people are telling mothers that they need to stop breastfeeding at such an early age and wean to a bottle, and that people are continuing to spread the myth that cow's milk is good and necessary for humans, when the evidence clearly shows that it is a primary cause of so many of our society's chronic diseases. Congratulations on having such a smart little boy!

Cow's milk tastes pretty yucky compared to momma's milk. Try making date milk which is sweet and nutritious. It's an Indian recipe I found in a yoga book and used for my daughter. I used rice milk instead of cow's milk, but either is fine.

4 ounces water
8 ounces milk
6 dates, sliced in half
Simmer on low heat for 20 minutes, stir it a little while simmering.
Strain before serving (and cool!)

Another thing that I give to my 14 mo is watered down yogurt. She has a tiny cup that she drinks it out of. I buy vanilla whole milk yogurt that is sweetened with maple syrup or Brown Cow vanilla or maple. I suppose you could add a little maple syrup (real) to cow's milk to make it taste more like your milk...you could transition from there to straight milk...? (really good maple syrup has great nutrients!)

Just as a side note, I rarely give my kids cow's milk and they are healthy vibrant beautiful girls. If your son is eating well and getting a little bit of your milk, he's probably getting plenty!