12 Month Old Won't Drink Milk

Hi W.,
My older daughter is not a big fan of milk either. I asked two different doctors and both said if she gets calcium and vitamin d from other things to not stress over the milk. It is true that they need the fat for brain development but they do get it from other places. My daughter is starting to enjoy soy milk so give that a try.

I weaned my daughter (now 2 years old) by mixing milk with formula or breast milk and slowly increasing the milk. You could probably do the same thing by giving milk diluted with a lot of water, and slowly increasing the milk and reducing the water. I just think they need to transition and the mixing helps. Good luck!

Just keep trying. It took about a month or so before my little guy would take the milk. I got him drinking it by mixing horizon's strawberry milk and regular milk in his cup. Eventually, i took away the strawberry and just gave regular milk. Now at 2.5 he is a milk addict.

My son did the same, and his ped said it was more important to have the milk than to get rid of the bottle. I let him have the bottle and as he got older we cut down the bottles. He was ononly one bottle at night time, and we finally switched a few months ago. He is 2.5 now, and the bottle did not have any damage what so ever.

My daughter went through the same thing (and still is a 2). We give her smoothies instead. My peditrician said as long as she is getting calcium, it dosen't have to be from milk. Good Luck!

I had the same problem with my older son (who is now 3). Initially, he would only drink juice from a sippy cup. I just kept giving him milk in the sippy cup and eventually he drank from it because he missed the milk. You might want to do his last drink at night from a bottle since it is soothing for them. Best of Luck!

Why are you weaning your 12 month old off the bottle. My 12 month old twins will drink anything I put in a cup EXCEPT milk as it should be for now. They are too young to give up the bottle and they associate the bottle with milk, laying down and sleeping. The bottle/milk is a comfort food at this point. Don't rush ..... they'll drink milk out of a cup in due time and it's not time yet. Relax.

I seriously don't understand the obsession with milk. Is it the nutrients in milk? Over reliance on one source for nutrients leads to deficiencies in other areas of nutrition. Look to other sources for calcium, vitamin D, good fats etc. Calcium is readily available in dairy products like cheese and yoghurt. It's also available in high concentrations in sesame, turnip and mustard greens and many herbs. The absolute best source for vitamin D is the sun and fats and protein are easily gotten from meats, nuts&seeds, and oils.

If your daughter is eating a good variety of food then there's no need to worry about the nutrients she may/may not be getting from milk. Just make sure she is eating a healthy variety of calcium rich foods as well as drinking plenty of fluids.

Consider introducing a regular cup -- the novelty may get her to drink milk you want her to have, but IMHO it's not necessary for good health. Dairy in my household is a rare treat and we wholly rely on other sources for the majority of our calcium intake.

Sesame butter, sesame milk, turnip greens, mustard greens, fish, bone broths, herbs and spices, collard greens are all calcium rich foods. They are also packed with a huge amount of other important vitamins an minerals that are not found in non-human milk.

You mention that you're weaning your daughter, but don't say whether it's from the breast or from a bottle. If you are breast-feeding that is the absolute best source of calcium for a 12 month old, so unless it's causing hardship for your health and/or family you might consider extended breast feeding as well--there's no reason that you "have to" wean at age 1 ;-)

Good luck.

My son was the same way initially. If you only offer milk in her sippy cup, eventually she will be thirsty and drink her milk. It took my son 4 days to do so. Now he takes both water and milk from his cup. Good luck!

buy the nuby silicone sippy cups that look like a bottle.

its softer and more relaxing.

If its the taste, buy chocolate, strawberry powder

Most kids love Choclate milk.

you could also try buying straw sippy cups.

My son (18 months) still doesn't drink much milk, but I did notice he drinks more when he's with his older cousins! I tried a special Elmo cup, I tried adding stuff like ovaltine, hershey's syrup, etc.,( I swore I would never do that!) He will drink more if that's all I offer with a snack and, like someone else mentioned, he gets thirsty enough. But don't worry--I didn't realize they don't HAVE to drink milk. After talking to some other breastfeeding moms, I discovered that many of their children didn't drink milk until age 3! As long as they get what they need--for example, my son loves cheese, and sometimes yogurt.

At 12 months, I weaned my daughter from breast to cows milk in a bottle. The first bottle was warmed and sweetened with two teaspoons of sugar. (Yes, it's a lot...but I knew she had a sweet tooth, and she's really stubborn.) The second bottle was warmed, with 1 teaspoon sugar. (These were all skim milk, since it's what I had and I was REALLY FED UP with the biting during nursing.) The third bottle was just warm milk, and then I switched to whole. She wouldn't take any sort of bottle before this...so it was probably a big timing thing, too. (She's 20 months now, and still won't drink milk from a sippy. She has anywhere from 4-11 oz. of milk a day, from a bottle. I enjoy the cuddle time, so I'm not worried about it. She gets plenty of water and other liquids during the day from her sippy cup.)

If you really want to not use a bottle, you could try sweetening it in a sippy cup...or adding chocolate, the same way, decreasing it every time.

I weaned my DD on to vanilla flavored (fortified) soy milk. I figured the sweetness may better resemble breast milk. It worked for us.

My son wouldn't eat anything when he was 1 yrs old. He had a texture issue (its gone now). So at first I had to mix the carnation instant b-fast packets in with his milk so that he got that extra nutrients. He has now started to eat everything and anything so we use some strwberry syrup in his milk only because he has to have his medicine with milk and the medicinie is nasty so the strwberry gives it a very good flavor. I would try the strwberry syrup it might just work.

My son, who is almost 15 months, won't drink straight milk. I mix yogurt with whole milk and put it in a sippy cup. He likes sippy cups with straws and Nuby makes one that they call a sports bottle. It looks a lot like a regular bottle. He drinks only 8-12 ounces of yogurt/milk a day and I give him cheese and yogurt. I'm working on getting him to eat more vegetables so hopefully he will get some calcium from his veggies too.

First, keep the milk sippy cup separate from the water/juice cup - milk and juice leave some kind of essence =) that just can't be cleaned out, you know what I mean? So that could affect the taste.
Also, try the milk at different temperatures. Try it cold, room temperature, warmed a little...maybe she just needs to find the right temperature - and it doesn't necessarily need to be the same as what the breast milk has been.
Another idea would be to try a completely different brand sippy cup for the milk just so she gets the idea that it's a different drink. I really like the Platex ones that are insulated and use a flip-top straw. Drinking from a straw is a good skill for them to learn, and though it's not completely spill proof - it doesn't let too much out.
PLEASE do not follow the Hershey syrup advice - I'm not against a little sugar here and there, but these young kids get enough dairy in their diets - starting the sugar thing so young is not necessary and could lead to bigger problems.

if you are weaning from breastfeeding, i would mix the 2 until he/she gets used to it...or maybe give it to them in a spoon and then introduce the cup again. Did you try maybe using a straw?

try the nuby soft cups for milk only, then the water in a hard spout cup. the soft spout you can even call bottle so she may just accept it.

you could wait on the transition. as long as you brush her teeth, and dont let her have a bottle every 2 mins or at bed, her teeth will be fine. she is still a baby. then you can wait till you can reason with her better. i just told my daughter at 2 that she can either have milk in her cuppy or water in a bottle. she of course chose the milk(in the nuby cup). it was such an easy transition and she was old enough to comprehend the whole thing.

whatever you do, dont sweeten the milk. good luck.

I am having the same problem with my son. He started biting me so took breast frm him. Now he wont take any milk frm bottle, cup or anything. Its like hes on strike. He wont even take the breast milk frm a bottle.

My son is now 25 months old and I nursed him until about 4 months ago. I tried giving him milk in a sippy cup and he wasn't really into it. I tried mixing it with a little Ovaltine and that didn't work either. I finally tried Silk soy milk in a new flavor, Very Vanilla, and he likes that. I give it to him some days, but sometimes forget because he just likes "juice", which is mostly water and a splash of juice. The dr. said as long as he is getting some calcium, he is fine. He usually has a yogurt and a mozzarella string cheese stick every day. I would really advise against putting chocolate syrup in the milk. That is too much processed sugar for a one-year-old and I don't think they're supposed to have chocolate until they are 2. At least Ovaltine is kind of healthy. Good Luck!

Have you tried mixing Hershey's syrip to the milk when she's not looking and just tell her it's a chocolate drink.

I actually use straw cups for milk and sippy's for water. That worked really well for my dgtr when weaning from the bottle.

As for the one response in regard to not really worrying about the milk if some calcium is in the diet seems a little crazy to me. Milk has more than calcium - it's about fat and other essentials that a yogurt and a string cheese are not fulfilling. The fat is a necessity for brain development until they are 2 - so I would do what I could to get the milk in (even if it is in different forms and added to other things). Good luck.

My 12 month old doesn't like milk and would never drink formula or use a bottle. I am trying to wean her and have found she will drink coconut milk. I get the unsweetened original Silk and she drinks it from a sippy or straw cup. It has all good stuff of milk and less sugar.