My son is 19 months old and has always LOVED his bottles. He'll drink water or juice from sippy cups without any problem, but he always wanted his milk in a bottle. Our doctor told us it was time to take the bottles away and have him drink from cups only. He refuses to drink any milk at all now, even though we took him to the store to pick out some fun new sippy cups. He eats yogurt and cheese, but I'm worried that he isn't getting any milk. Have any of you dealt with this before? Any ideas would be really appreciated. Thanks!
Try OJ with calcium or Very Vanilla Silk Soy Milk Fortefied for Kids.
My kids were the same way and our DR said it was just fine as long as they were getting the calcium from somewhere.
As long as he is getting the calcium and nutrients from the alternative "milk" sources it doesn't really matter, right? My daughter is 12 and is the pickiest eater on the planet...I take what I can get in her food choices and stress the importance of well balanced nutrition. She's older, but sometimes I buy her chocolate milk to entice more milk. Frozen yogurt pops might be fun...or chocolate milk ice cubes. String cheese is fun for kids or those shaped cheeses.
Good luck. I've given up fighting our battles after 12 years and do my best to keep her fed and healthy.
jsut wanted to let you know my son never drank milk. he nursed until he was about 3 years old (he never took a bottle) and he never liked milk. our pediatrician is totally fine with it!! in fact he isn't a big dairy person anyways - there are other ways to get the things you need. my son is almost 4 - only ever has milk in cereal (and it's just a splash) and an ocassional choc. milk. he is healthy - tall - great teeth and i have not worried once about his not drinking milk. there are lots of great resources for how to ensure your child is getting the nutrition they need without milk. you can also try rice or almond milk.
Dairy Milk is nowhere near as healthy as many people assume - have you offered him tasty vanilla rice milk or other alternatives? Whether or not he enjoys these, you are giving him other dairy so I would not push milk at ALL (or try to over do it). He will do fine with your attention to nutrients in diet ;-) and may be better off without the cows milk.
If he eats yogurt and cheese, he is probably getting enough calcium (though is depends on how much) however cheese can cause constipation so you might want to watch for too much of that.
It's way better to add chocolate/strawberry etc to the milk if he'll drink that than to not have him drinking milk. Also you could try a product called "Sipahh straws" they are at the grocery store, they add less sugar to the milk than chocolate powder does, it's a straw with little flavor beads inside it that flavor the milk while you sip it. Also in the cereal section are some straws that kids can actually eat they come in different flavors, I don't remember what they are called but they are made by kellogs or post I think. It's mainly the calcium that you want him to have so any way you can get him to drink it is basically okay. The added sugar from flavorings etc aren't that big of a deal because the benefit to drinking the milk is so important for growing little bodies.
Good luck!
Stay strong- kids are stubborn, but a few weeks without milk won't hurt him because he'll probably compensate in other areas. If he liked milk before, he will come around. He just wants his bottle back, and he's expressing that in the best way he knows how. Don't worry about it. And for those of you who read this (and you if you have more kids) it is SOOO much easier to loose the bottle if you do it early. Right at their first birthday is best. Oh, and juice is not necessary, and maybe if you stop giving him juice he'll want the milk.
