Stopped bottle, now toddler refuses milk please help with ideas...

[MotherGoose]

I threw away the bottles, finally, (please don't judge, he is my last and he loved to snuggle and have a bottle still with me) and now My 2+ year old will not drink milk. He also refuses yogurt and won't just eat cheese either. Any ideas on how to get him to drink milk out of something besides a bottle? Or else increase the calcium? Vitamins are an option for sure.

[AK_Mom4]

Stop offering milk. Seriously. Stop offering it long enough for him to get a little distance from the bottle. Offer water, juice whatever in cups.

 

Give it a week or even two and then try again. He may still turn it down and that’s ok. He will be perfectly healthy without milk as long as he is taking in plenty of calories from food.

[gardenmom5]

he may also be sensitive to it - and he realizes he doesn't feel good eating it.

 

find other sources of calcium.

 

eta: I nursed - and only did a bottle with one (he hit me for six months after I weaned him.).   two refused cow's milk - both tested positive for casein sensitivity.

I got one to drink HALF a glass. or less, by using nestle's quick.  then he stopped that too.  he will eat cheese with things - but not by itself.  not a big ice cream eater either.

 

Edited February 10, 2018 by gardenmom5

[eternalsummer]

He doesn't need milk.  For calcium, try vegetables that are high in calcium, fish with bones (canned salmon is good for this), etc.  None of my last 4 kids have had milk since they were weaned at about 1 and they are all healthy :)

[wonderchica]

How long has he been refusing milk?

[KungFuPanda]

It’s probably healthiest for him if you teach him to drink nothing but water. I didn’t do this with my kids. I let them have chocolate milk and weaning from that was harder than weaning from breastfeeding. Go with the water and spare him forming any bad habits. Don’t be like me. It was 20 years ago. I know better now. 🤣

[bolt.]

If he doesn't want it, it's not essential for him to drink milk. It's also not at all important to replace it with another tluid that looks, feels or tastes "milky". You just need to make sure he gets some extra food calories, plenty of water, and probably part of a soft chewable calcium supplement.

 

Run some calculations as far as how much calcium would be in the reccomended amount of milk for his age, then figure out what fraction of a calcium chew would deliver that many mg.

[Tanaqui]

Mammals do not need milk once they wean. Humans are mammals. We do not need milk once we wean.

 

Cow's milk is actually a poor source of calcium for humans. Not very bioavailable.

 

Instead, try dried beans, greens (including seaweed), oranges, tofu.

[eternalsummer]

My kids love seaweed.  I don't understand it, but they love it.

[Ellie]

He doesn't need milk. Really. Water is fine. He'll get plenty of nutrients from the other food he's eating. :-)

[plansrme]

Of course he does; milk is gross.  None of my kids would ever drink milk (apple/tree, perhaps).  Their pediatrician, back when I took them in for well visits, always asked how much milk they were drinking.  I lied after the first couple of lectures on the topic.  They all ate cheese, calcium-fortified orange juice, yogurt in popsicles, buttermilk in pancakes and, yes, calcium supplements.  There are gummy calcium supplements that taste fine, and Tums are surprisingly palatable (and come in flavors).  I would just find a supplement he likes and give it to him once in a while.

[HS Mom in NC]

Lots of cultures in different parts of the world have had no milk in their diets after weaning from human milk-this includes things made from milk like cheeses and yogurt. Google calcium rich non-dairy foods and start trying those to see which he likes.

[Tsuga]

Agree with the others--he doesn't need milk.

 

This clickbait article gives an easy list of calcium rich foods that are not dairy:

 

http://www.eatthis.com/calcium-rich-foods-not-dairy/

[kiwik]

I wish we could get calcium fortified juice.  My no milk drinker is also my fussy eater.

[Tanaqui]

You can, in a pinch, make your own calcium supplement. Wash eggshells, boil them for a few minutes, bake them, grind them in a coffee grinder, mix with oatmeal or smoothies or homemade baked goods or anything else your child will consume. Voila. Calcium.

 

(Or, I mean, you could just buy a multivitamin. I mean, whatever.)

[kiwik]

Stupidly it never occurred to me to get a calcium pill. I think because my doctor is a bit anti. To be fair though he doesn't seem to be suffering and I can get a small glass of milk if I put a teaspoon of gf drinking chocolate.

[kiwik]

OP. I would probably just drop it for a while. He won't get deficient overnight. If he will have milk with cereal I have heard of people giving their kids straws to drink the milk. It you wait a while though and then one day just give him milk instead of water he may just drink.

[Tanaqui]

...or we could all get over this obsession with dairy.

 

[Laura Corin]

If you want to keep going with dairy, white sauces on calcium rich veg would be an option.

[Sandwalker]

...or we could all get over this obsession with dairy.

This. Humans do not absorb dairy calcium well, so the amount of calcium listed for cow dairy products is not what your child gets. Vitamin D supplement is added to the cow milk to aid this, but still absorption rate is not high. The US dairy industry is very powerful, and the medical industry believes the dairy hype, not surprising as doctors get very little education on nutrition.

 

http://www.nutritionmd.org/nutrition_tips/nutrition_tips_infant_nutrition/breastfeeding_milks.html

 

My children did not have dairy and are 29 and 25 now. Both are healthy, normal weight, athletic, have never broken a bone (knock wood). They weaned from breastfeeding and ate food.

[Lecka]

I think in another time and place milk could be an important source of protein and fat and calories. I don’t think that time is now. We have so many foods available to us that weren’t always. I think milk is just not filling a need the way I think it used to.

 

I grew up hearing about children being stunted in their growth because they didn’t get any milk, but I think milk was just the tip of the iceberg with what they weren’t getting!

[PinkyandtheBrains.]

 

 

Agreeing with others, I’d just not bother with dairy if they don’t want it. There are other ways to get the nutrients.

 

One of my kids couldn’t have it and we just found other foods and drinks.

[BooksandBoys]

My no-milk, no-dairy at all kid (casein allergy) is my tallest, strongest, most active of all three of my very tall, strong, active boys. Coincidence? Sure. But, my point is, milk (and milk substitutes) are hardly necessary. They just eat more food because the calories have to come from somewhere.

[MotherGoose]

This is a unanimous vote of don't worry about it! Ordered calcium supplements. Thank you!

[Lang Syne Boardie]

This is a unanimous vote of don't worry about it! Ordered calcium supplements. Thank you!

That's probably not quite the end of it - supplemental calcium needs to work with a few other vitamins and minerals, or else there can be problems. Just replacing milk with pills is not right and potentially harmful...there's a lot of education required here. But even then, it seems they learn stuff, and change the rules, constantly.

 

A balanced diet is probably safer and cheaper. A child who gets regular, balanced meals (including leafy greens, salmon, nuts and seeds or "milks" made from them, etc.) is unlikely to be calcium deficient.

 

Put another way, if he's calcium deficient, he's probably low on other things, too, and would benefit from testing and prescribed supplements.

[bolt.]

With an otherwise balanced diet, a well fed low-dairy child is unlikely to be deficient in any nutrient -- other than those that we tend to get primarily from dairy (in our low-salmon, unsteady leafy greens eating culture).

 

A reputable calcium supplement will be fine, and is a nice safety net, even if you are also thinking of increasing his natural sources of calcium.

[Ellie]

Neither of my children could tolerate dairy. I didn't try to replace the calcium they might have gotten from cow's milk. Both are healthy adult women today.

[MotherGoose]

He does eat a varied diet of lots of things, it's just the calcium that I'm worrying about with the cessation of milk. He is not a picky eater, he just doesn't eat much. A healthy diet is very important to me and I do understand nutrition pretty well. Both of my girls drink milk and eat their veggies. I do not think he has any allergies to anything. No one in the family does and he's never shown any symptoms. I'm confident that he would happily drink a bottle full of milk, snuggled in my arms, right now and love it. Sweet baby!

[Sandwalker]

This is a unanimous vote of don't worry about it! Ordered calcium supplements. Thank you!

If you are going to supplement calcium, adding vitamin D and magnesium is a good idea to aid in his body's calcium absorption. Also watch for stomach upset with the calcium.

[Soror]

My kids have never had milk. I think milk is nasty and some of mine had sensitivities, they did have other dairy products when they were older but I still don't buy milk. I never supplemented anything except D.

 

Most kids that age don't eat much, they are small and don't need much. And a varied diet at that age may not be balanced over each meal but over the long run. Offer a variety of good real foods, it will even out. I do have one child that was especially small, they checked everything out and she was only a bit low on D (thus the supplementing) and nothing else. She did catch back up on her growth, although she will never be big, our genes would make it unlikely for me to have huge kids anyway!