Need to Take Baby off of Formula but He Will Not Drink Any Other Milk

Hello, my baby was breastfed and then weaned herself at 9 1/2 months. So I started with formula (at the time she refused milk and it would make her throw up). At 13 months she weaned herself from formula. Just refused it. So now she is drinking regular milk without any problems. So it may happen for you, too sometime.

Also wanted to say you should not give your child rice milk. It is just sugar-water. It is appropriate as a cooking substitute but should not be used as a drink. Also soy milk is not good, see www.mercola.com.

Also you should not give your child orange juice with calcium because orange juice has the highest concentration of pesticide of any food. They do not wash the pesticide off the oranges before squeezing them into juice.

Our family drinks raw milk because my son had issues with pasteurized milk at 12 months. Turns out most people are allergic to the pasteurized casein, and have no problems with raw milk. The enzymes needed to digest the milk are destroyed during pasteurization. I thought it was crazy at first to drink raw milk, but the more I read, the more I was convinced. (www.mercola.com and http://www.realmilk.com/. If you live in metro Atlanta, someone can give you a sample for your boy to try. But it sounds like he may need a little more time.

I had the same problems with my now 15 month old son. He refused cow's milk, so I put him on Stage 2 Nestle Good Start formula for a couple of months. I then introduced goat milk slowly as my son experienced horrible constipation, rash etc. on the cow's milk. He would only drink a sip and then throw the sippy cup down. After trying different kinds of sippy cups and flavors, I discovered my son loved drinking his cold (I used to warm his milk), chocolate flavored milk from a straw cup. It is messy but he loves it. I either use Nesquik/ Carnation Instant Breakfast - good luck!!

My 2 year old boy refuses to drink milk. After stopping the formula at 1 year -which we just stopped, we didn't really "wean" -he won't drink milk. I hated milk too as a child. Children don't have to have milk. There are plenty of other calcium sources. Every morning and evening my child usually drinks orange juice with calcium (it has as much as milk) -and he eats cheese, yogurt, dark greens, etc. He also takes a multivitamin for Vitamin D. As I said -I NEVER drank milk and have never had any problems from it, and my boy doesn't seem to have any issues from it either. His pediatrician said it was fine too -just to give him a multi-vitamin.

Rice Milk is great. It is expressed from brown rice and has very few other ingredients. It comes as a white or chocolate milk fortified with Calcium. It's too sweet for me, but my children who have been drinking it for over 6 years won't drink anything else - and when on occasion they try cow's milk, they have stomach problems. I personally think that cow's milk is bad for humans. We are the only mammals that continue to find other sources to provide us with milk after we have been weened from the breast. Of course it's because we can, but just because we are able doesn't mean that it's good for us. I think kids who are refusing to drink cow's milk are ahead of the game.

Hi Keisha,

Milk has been overrated. Processed milks that we get at the grocery store don't supply much nutrition,they just stave off hunger. They don't even supply absorbable calcium. If you want him to have milk, I have found that organic cow's milk has a flavor that surpasses anything out there. My mom used to call it sweet milk, because it has a sweetness to it. (Breast milk and formula are also sweet so it might interest him.) This may be an avenue you can pursue.

If he won't drink cow's milk at all, I would try rice or goat. They are the most nutritious and if all else fails, give him a bigger diet and don't worry. There are a lot of kids who just don't like it, that do very well with their nutrition.

Regards,

M.