Drinking Too Much Milk?

Hi there,
I had the same issue with my second son. Switching from whole milk to 2%, and LESS of it, helped. Milk is quite filling (especially whole milk)...so it really satisfied his appetite. I started giving him water when we were on the go. So, the water quenched his thirst, but he would still eat for me when it was lunchtime. I hope this helps.
-L.

I know it's hard to watch kids eat like this but I wouldn't fret. Keeping healthy snacks around for him to grab is most likely all you can do. There's a book that was my bible of sorts for me, "Feed Me, I'm Yours" (I think it's still around), that really helped me with different snacks & healthy finger foods at different ages. Fresh veggies (celery with peanut butter, for ex), fruits, graham crackers, healthy dry cereals, small PPJ's, tasty yogurt (with fun colored sprinkles!)....just to name a few, are some things that taste good & provide nutrition. Inviting him into making his own fun foods is also a neat thing to do...some searching for these kinds of things should prove interesting for you. Or, even finger painting with pudding....he'll lick his fingers for sure!

What I learned was that when kids are hungry, they'll eat! Honest, they'll make sure they don't starve themselves :-) Making sure the junk foods aren't around when that happens & providing ONLY healthy choices is the key. We always teach by example, as well. Sitting down for dinner or losing something (video, a toy for 2 hrs., etc) might instill the "it's time to sit down together" kind of thing, whether he eats or not early on.

Honest, his appetite will change....this is a blip in the radar :-) Good luck!

Children won't let themselves starve. Just keep presenting healthy food, and don't worry if he just wants to graze and keep going. He's at an age where he's busy learning an awful lot about his world, and he'll get back into "normal" eating habits again.

You may want to decide if it's important to you to have a family meal where he's required to sit with the family for a given amount of time, whether he eats all his food or not. My little guy gets breakfast and lunch "buffet style" (he can play and nibble), but for dinner we all sit together. But that's just how my family operates.

My personal advice- we are the only species to steal the milk of another species and then feed it to our infants- a little odd. with that said we have milk in our house although it is reserved for cereal only. milk is very "heavy" loaded with fat and sugars, perhaps your sons stomach is full of milk and he has no room for food. reduce the amount of milk he drinks, offer it only after he has eaten his meal- if thirsty before his meal offer him some water. hang in there children go through all kinds of different stages. hope this helps. C.

Your son sounds exactly like mine, except my son is three. I gave up worrying about it a while ago, because, like your son, he's never been underweight. He's actually in the 90th percentile for his weight, but he has a lot of muscle tone from always being on the go. Our pediatrician told us when he was around two to get him to eat more food by cutting down on his milk, but it just didn't work and I feel good that he's drinking milk because it has protein. At least their bones will be strong! I started giving him water at dinner to try to get him to focus on the food instead of milk, but I don't know if that really helps. Because I worry that he's eating practically no meat, I offer him cereal every day because it has iron in it. Special K with fruit and yogurt, which he likes, has 45% iron and Cheerios has 25%. I'm hoping he's getting everything he needs with the little foods he's eating, his milk and his vitamin. He definitely seems to be healthy, anyway.

It's nice to hear that other people have the same issues we do, because I don't know any other toddler who's like him. Whenever I see other kids eating (kids who are much skinnier), they're gobbling up their food.

Good luck!

M.

My son is very active and quite small as well. He is 22 lb. at 23 months. My pediatrician recommended no more than 16 oz. of whole milk per day at the 18 month well check. Maybe your son would eat just a bit more without the extra 8 oz. of milk per day and get a few more vitamins and minerals from whole foods. I've been trying to offer the proteins first, before the fruit, when he is hungry. But for the most part, he eats throughout the day and snacks are primarily on the go. Good luck. I'm working through this with you.

I wouldn't worry too much about it. My two year old in on the go too. I would try to cut back on his milk drinking a little and see if that will change his appitite when it comes to meal time. If he is hungry he will sit still long enough to eat. Did you ever try those little pasta picker upers from Gerber?? My son loves them and if I leave them on the table he can come get one when he wants. Try other foods that you can leave out for a bit so he can eat when he gets hungry. Also, eating dinner or lunch doesn't have to mean sitting down at the table. Sometimes I'll place my son's meal on the end table and let him play with cars and eat. Or sometimes he is allowed to play with cars in his highchair. You just have to find out what will work for you and your son.

www.momtomombiz.com

He will not be hungry as long as his belly is always full of milk. You should cut back to 6 oz three times a day with meals. He should be able to sit and will if he is hungry. While he is sitting, you should sit too, and remove all other distractions.

cut up firm tofu into squares and spray Bragg's (a natural amino acid that can be bought at Whole Foods) onto it. It saved me for my 3 1/2 year old who was the same way. good luck. nutrition bars work great too!

I wouldn't worry too much about it. My daughter is now 5 years old but when she was around your sons age she drank close to 32 oz of milk a day and didn't eat a whole lot of food. The doctor wasn't worried about because she was gaining weight and growing like normal. One day he's going to start eating because he will be growing through another growth spurt. My barely two year old son used to eat everything in sight - there were days that he would have 3 servings of spaghetti, then all of a sudden he stopped eating for about a month - all his food would end up on the floor - and now he's eating like a little food processor again.

Our bodies tell us when we need to eat and how much we should eat.

Is your older son drinking the milk from a bottle or a cup? If it is from a bottle, I would try getting rid of those first. If he's using a cup, that's only 3 - 4 sippy cups a day. He's eating fruits, so I wouldn't worry much about it. Have you tried making your own "homemade" chicken tenders? They would be much healthier than pre-made ones, and something he could still pick up. The other lady's suggestion of no tv and having family time is what my family did when I was growing up, and what I try to do now.

He will start eating more when he gets hungrier. Just remember that some kids have bigger appetites than others. I'm still amazed that my 5 y/o niece eats more than my 9 y/o son. As long as his doc isn't concerned, then you shouldn't be either.

My son was, and sometimes still is, the same way. As bad as this sounds, you may have to take the Mommie Dearest approach as far as getting him to eat goes. We've been fighting this battle now for two and a half years (my son is 4 1/2) and I can guarantee you that it will not get easier if you don't do something about it now. The milk issue had gotten so bad in my house that my son was terribly constipated and has to have a laxative everyday to reverse the effects of the non-stop milk.

Some of the things we did were:

Switch to soy. It will still give your son the protein he needs and it will help keep him from getting constipated.

Make him sit down at the dinner table and eat with the family. I know it's easier said than done, but we turned meal time into a game. My son loves "beating" mom or dad done in a "race" to eat. He also thinks it's nifty when we're all eating the same food at the same time.

If he does not eat his dinner, don't feed him again until breakfast. I know, I know...I sound like an abusive mother and I used to say the same thing about other parents who did it to their children. One day I was watching Dr. Phil (I know, I have to take what he says with a grain of salt) and a mother was on stage in the exact same situation I was in. He told her that children will eat when they get hungry and, if they don't eat their dinner then, they will learn that mealtime is when you're supposed to eat and if you don't eat then, you don't eat until the next meal is served.

I'm sure I'm going to get some nasty responses to this, but I had finally gotten to the end of my rope before trying the tough approach. I have to say that it's worked and just this past week I got my son to eat salmon cakes, lime beans, peas, ham, chicken (not in nugget form!), and fish. I hope this helps...

*Side note: To the moms who read this and think I'm being abusive, neglectful and horrible to my child please don't throw things at me or wish me ill will. I hate having to take this route. I mean, I hate leaving my baby in her crib to cry it out, but sometimes children leave you no other choice!

Hi! My daughter is 14 months and about 3 days a week is doing the same. She eats good...when she eats. She about the same weight as yours. I was worried too but I stocked up on any and all healthy finger foods that I keep available to her many times of the day. It can get messy, but I'm going to vacauum and wipe down stuff anyway so I don't mind.
Try Kix and Chex Cereal. Yogurt raisins & Quaker oatmeal sqares are great too!
Just about anything comes in "kid" sizes now.
My daughter will eat a handful of mixed cereal, then go play, come back for some raisins then off again. She knows its there and eats her fill.
I also found if the meal is interesting to me....it is to her.
She's so nosey about what I'm eating that if I let her sit in her little chair on the kitchen floor, she'll often eat something with me.
Good Luck! Always remember, they'll eat when they are hungry and as long as they aren't losing weight....it's all good!
Have fun!
stepmarie

I agree with many of the other posters and would recommend reducing the milk - both the amount and from whole to 2%.

While this is entirely a personal decision, you may want to consider having at least one structure meal at the table each day. Sometimes my kids don't want to eat at the table, but they seem to be more receptive if I sit down with them at lunch, or we have a family dinner all together. Not only does it focus them on sitting and eating a meal - it teaches them table manners and is really a wonderful way to share time as a family.

I don't know about the drinking too much milk thing, but my daughter is 16 months and doesn't like to sit down and eat most of the time. breakfast she gets dry cereal, a banana or a bowl of fruit and she either sits on the couch with it or puts it on the coffee table and eats it as she pleases..LOL..if that makes sense, we do that with lunch as well. Dinner, I can normally get her to sit with her older sisters. It may not be the best way to get her to eat, but her father and I figure if she is eating and is playing, and is happy, than I'll continue to let her eat as she wants to. She eats a lot throughout the day and doesn't really eat big meals other than dinner. I keep A LOT of heathly and quick stuff for snacks and lunch in the house so she will eat! If you want to know more just email me :)

your son sounds like he is a healthy weight for his age - i have a soon to be 2 year old who is just 20 lbs (her goal weight is closer to where he is!) so you may not have to worry at all but i can tell you a little of what we've been through and what's been recommended to us surrounding drinking and eating for tots. (btw - these recommendations were given by the GROW clinic at St. Christopher's hospital in philadelphia.) she's also always on the go and was never interested in meals either. we used to give her milk in a sippy cup all day thinking she needed the extra calories due to her low weight. turns out that was the opposite of what we should have done. she drank throughout the day and never really got 'hungry' so meals were a struggle and were not giving her the nutrition she needed. it probably still wouldnt have been a problem if she drank enough milk to compensate for the meals altogether but it didn't. we were told to limit her milk to AFTER meals and to encourage milk to be given in a regular cup at the table when she is done eating. meals were told to be 2-3 hours apart and no liquids at all for 1 hr before any meal. we do give her some milk or pediasure (juice is another no-no) in between meals and then not again until after the next one. she also loved water - and we were told to limit that to 4oz tops a day. for meals, given her excitement to play all the time, they recommended shorter, structured meal times (20-30 min tops) at the dinner table with us eating too (modeling for her), and no other distractions. i can tell you, it's helped. she's been putting on more weight and is much more interested in food at meal time. it seems so common sense now but at the time we wanted to give her more nutrition and had bad logic. one other thing they told us is that kids seem to get their nutrition all accounted for in any given week. what they miss on day 1, they make up for in day 2, etc. i hope this is helpful.

Oh how the advertising campaign of "Milk does the body good" is completely overstated. Cows are injected with antibiotics and hormones due to their poor living conditions and the need for larger cows with more milk. Therefore, you have to be careful of your choice to make sure your child is not receiving antibiotics and hormones. Also, milk is extremely mucous producing in nature and can lead to increased rates of ear infections due to poor drainage of the inner ear canal.

After children are finished breastfeeding (at least 1 year and ideally 2 years according to the American Academy of Pediatrics) they should drink primarily water, not cows milk and not high sugar fruit juices. Humans are the only mammals that consume milk after infancy and certainly the only mammals that consume another mammals milk. The idea that we somehow need this need this is driven completely by advertising campaigns and big business.

If your truly concerned about Vitamin D and Calcium focus on getting 30 minutes of sun exposure (for the Vit D) and upping the amounts of nutrient dense foods, primarily fruits and vegetables.

To answer your question, milk is extremely high in lactose which is a type of sugar. Eliminating milk (or at least cutting back drastically) will eliminate these sugar calories and your child should have a much better appetite. These are only personal recommendations based on what I have had success with in my own family. I hope it helps.