13-Month Old Refuses Cow's Milk

This will sound bizzarre, but - here's what I did:

A few days before my daughter's first birthday, I just got fed up with her GNAWING on me. For her afternoon bottle, I put some skim milk (it's what was on hand!) in a bottle with two tsp. sugar, heated it up, and told her it was lunch.

It worked! I bought her some whole milk that evening, and backed off the amount of sugar for each subsequent bottle so that, by the next morning, she was drinking warm whole milk, no sugar.

Maybe she is allergic to cows milk. cows milk causes lots of health problems for many children including, asthma and digestive issues. My daughter drinks vitamin and calcium enriched rice milk, which she loves. many families also use soy or even goat. Contrary to popular belief, you don't have to use cows milk (even though some docs will use scare tactics). Plus, let her be an indication. If she doesn't like it, then there must be something wrong. Read up on milk alternatives and see if they are right for your family. Good luck!

Hi I.,

At 13 months she does not need formula. While you try and get her used to milk again, just give her calcium enriched foods; spinach, salmon, parmasean cheese, calcium enriched oj, yogurt, cottage cheese, the list goes on.

I never forced my kids to drink milk because I have always hated it. It just meant I had to work harder to get the calcium they needed. On occasion I would add flavorings to milk but I really don't care for that method as it is just sugar.

One trick that seemed to worked on my littlest was giving him a big boy cup of milk with a straw. He watched his older siblings use a straw so this was so cool for him.

There is no need to force it on her. There are plenty of alternative sources out there. HTH!

that is just a phase
my daughter went through it around that age also
especially with the addition of juice to her diet
eventually she began to drink it again, just keep offering it to her
she will come around

Both of my boys did the same thing. Breast milk and formula are both sweeter than regular milk. What my Dr suggested was putting a drop of choc. syrup in the milk and then cut back and eventually don't even put it in the milk. Also stop giving the any formula or br milk. They did not drink the milk for a day or two (but I supplemented with yogurt and cheese) and then took to the milk with some choc syrup (it does not have to be choc like you or I would drink it just a drop or two). Hope this helps!

D.
BTW-be careful of the yogurt drinks/baby yogurts- they have a LOT of sugar in them (I hadn't realized till I tasted one one day-I just thought b/c it was for babies they would know not to put too much sugar-wrong! It was more sweet than the yogurt I eat.) It's also the reason my kids were going crazy for them! Good luck!

My son HATED when I mixed formula and whole milk! If I were you, I would continue (for now) to give formula in the morning and at night. Give whole milk, in a sippy cup, at the three meals. And if you want to make sure she's getting enough calcium (and lots of good probiotics!), then also add in a cup of kefir or drinkable yogurt once a day.

After a couple of weeks, take away one of the cups/bottles of formula. Then a couple of weeks later, take away the other one. The good news is that she doesn't really NEED to love milk. As long as she's getting yogurt, cheese, and other good sources of calcium (and protein), then she'll be fine. So don't worry!

It takes a lot of babies a month or more to get used to whole milk. And my son took a few months to really get a taste for it. I kept it low key, and figured he'd drink when he was thirsty.

In a couple of months, your daughter won't be taking extra bottles/cups of milk anyways. Just at meals. So just go slow, and don't worry if she's on formula for a little longer. It won't hurt her! :)

try mixing the cow's milk with yobaby drinkable yogurt. it's sweet, like breastmilk. once she drinks it, slowly reduce the yogurt & add more cows milk. i nursed for 12 months. when i offered my son cow's milk he refused & so i added the yobaby for about a month to his cow's milk & he never noticed the change. it comes in peach & banana - i used peach.

Hi I.

Hace you tried yogurt yet?
I had bought my daughter the Yo'Baby organic drinkable yogurt and she loved it. I then added some milk to it and she took it no problem. I just added more milk and less yogurt until she took the milk without a probalem. She now has her drinkable yogurt and her whole milk bottles at different times. She didn't give me a hard time with the switch and she was on soy formula for the 1st year. I can understand your frustration.....I hope this hels you...

I tried many different types of whole milk with my son also and then one day he drank 2% with my husband no problem! I am lactose intolerant so I wonder if my son is somewhat like me and can break down whole milk? Also organic milk and Stew Leonards milk are his favorites as they taste a little sweeter. I am not a fan of sugar, juice, and the drinks like the drinkable yogurts for my toddler so 2% works just fine for us!

When my son refused milk (after being bf exclusively) we determined he had a milk/dairy allergy. (He wouldn't eat cheese or yogurt, either..) Some things I tried (before taking him off milk entirely) was adding a bit of chocolate syrup to it, even decaf coffee (just enough to flavor it a little, not a lot) in an effort to determine if it was taste or physical discomfort. When he started vomiting after eating cheese, we took milk out of his diet entirely until HE started asking for it again. (By his fifth birthday, it was like someone threw a switch, and he's been drinking milk, eating yogurt, and tolerating all dairy except cheese since.)

HTH

Not sure exactly what the issue is ... but the end of breastfeeding can be a challenging time ... also there are certainly kids that do not like much milk and that's okay ... they can get their calcium and other nutrients/vitamins in countless ways ... for dairy lovers like my son and I, several servings of milk, yogurt, cheese etc. are essential every day but that may not be the case for you and your family.

You have a few options ... there are kinds of drinks by all means the pediasure (I think that's what its called) and other drinks work until age 5.

But with that said, milk is cheaper and easier ... perhaps you can taste the formula or the milk ... 1/3 milk to 2/3 formula tastes like formula so that definitely does not mean that she doesn't like cow's milk. I think I stopped mixing after the second time because it didn't taste good (but then again I don't particularly care for formula and doubt most mothers do.)

Try the milk cold or warm ... do like a little game with different small sized cups, with a choice or water or milk or smoothies or soy milk ... (and you may have to do this a few times a month) ... tell her you are making a special treat ... give her a small cup or sippy cup or try it with a straw ... anything to make it seem fun.

My son seemed to have a few weird quirks around that age with juice in bottles he expected to have milk in the bottle not juice ... but he really wanted juice and asked for it ... so that's around the time we started with juice boxes although he had a tough few months with the whole straw coordination thing so he was a bit frustrated and I didn't really understand why he wouldn't drink juice from the bottle but it was just a way to get to the next level (straws and cups and sports bottles ... my son never took to the sippy cup!)

He still actually prefers milk in a bottle but everything else will be in a sports drink container or a straw or a little Dixie cup. And he can tell me what he wants ... it tastes cold and yummy, I want juice, I want water etc.

I just kind of left the milk or juice box or cup there for him and he would get to it after a few minutes ... it may have been a power issue ... I'll drink the milk when I feel like drinking it!

So all I'm saying is don't assume that your daughter does not like cow's milk ... it may be in the presentation, way the milk is given (cup, sippy cup, bottle, juice/milk box, straw or no straw, timing, amt. of milk given or feeling the milk is too-something ... (hot, cold whatever.)

P.

Did you try giving her only milk or a mix of formula and milk?

And if you're a milk drinker or chocolate milk drinker that may be another way to get her to drink because your're drinking it. (I think that's why my son wanted to drink with a straw so badly since I always drink Nes-quik or yogurt with a straw.)

My son is still BF at 1 and does not want cows milk either. He never liked formula either. If she likes the formula then stick with it. They sell a toddler variety that is much more nutritious than milk. Horizon sells organic Vanilla and Strawberry milk. Not sure if at one they should be drinking chocolate. My son doesn't like them either but I can't understand why. They are delicious, like melted ice cream. Just keep offering it to her in a non pressure situation and offer yogurt (my son will eat yobaby) and other dairy products like cheese cubed up, cream cheese and cottage cheese. It takes something like 10-15 times for some kids to eventually like something and they do go through phases. I don't try to figure it out anymore. Also, lots of veggies like spinach have calcium, see if she likes creamed spinach.