How Do You Get a Two-year-old to Drink His Milk?

I wouldn't worry about it. If he's underweight, adding healthy fat foods (like avocado, nuts and nut butters, etc) and if its calcium you are concerned about, greens, veggies have way more calcium than cows milk, and its easier absorbed by the body as these foods are meant to be processed by our bodies, cows milk is not.

We don't do alot of cows milk at our house, because its not meant for our bodies and it does alot of unseen harm. For milk my boys put unsweetened almond milk on their cereal, and they drink the vanilla almond milk. They eat a well balanced diet including greens, fruits, veggies, and sometimes meats, and they do take a daily multivitamin.

I wouldn't worry about his milk consumption. Sometimes kids are way smarter and know more about thier bodies than we give them credit for. IF he's not drinking the milk, there is a reason, so I wouldn't push it. Start him on a daily multivitamin and make sure he's eating a healthy well balanced diet, add in healthy fats if he needs to gain weight, and call it good.

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Constipation is a big tip off. At the age of 40, I discovered that I have a casein protein allergy, meaning all cow milk products are off-limits to me. I suffered from constipation my entire life; it's suspected I have been allergic to cow's milk since I was little and didn't know it, because my only "symptom" was constipation.

Try switching to goat milk, cheese, and yogurt and see if that makes a difference. I haven't found any goat ice cream, so I can't help you there, but I'm sure it can be made homemade.

At his young age, refusing to eat or drink dairy products could be a very strong clue that he doesn't like them because they don't like him.

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I agree with everything Becky said. Humans are not meant to drink cows milk...it's meant for baby cows, not people. We also use very, very little milk in our house, and eat a very balanced diet with Almond Milk for just about everything cow's milk is used for. My husband is the only reason we still have cow's milk in the house...he just can't break the habit, but he's cut down a lot. If your son doesn't like cow's milk, I'd say he's a smart cookie!

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I know you say he doesn't like yogurt, but I wanted to offer a suggestion on that. (Because yogurt won't constipate him like cheese will!)

We do "honey yogurt" at our house. My girls get to drizzle honey over their bowl of yogurt, and find this to be really fun, which of course encourages them to eat it. We also make smoothies a lot, which they love.

Don't worry about him falling off the curve. If you look at the World Health Org. chart, he's probably fine.

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Try to flavor the milk with either chocolate or strawberry syrup.

My daycare kids love to drink up the milk when given a straw! We stop sing the sippies somehwere between 18mo and two so a straw is helpful for more than one reason. But I wouldn't push it too hard. I think your thought about pushing it making him reject it more could be right on. If he is getting it at daycare and doing pretty good, I would see if they can encourage more of it there so that he is getting what he needs and then you won't have such a battle at home and can enjoy meals.

Also, wasn't sure form your post- is he needing it for the fat in the milk for calories? Or is it more for the calcium intake? FYI broccli has as much or more calcium than milk so he can get those nutirents elsewhere. As far as fat, there are also other ways to get that. you might ask the doc or a nutritionist other ideas if he isn't a big dairy fan.

Hi J.,

What about if you add chocolate, strawberry or caramel flavouring (or any other), to the milk? Would he drink it then.
Also what about using one of those straws with all the twists and turns in it, that way he can watch the milk coming up the straw, if it is a coloured straw, he won't see the white of the milk and might be less concerned with what he is drinking.

Good luck,
H.

I didn't read all the responses, but my kids (6 & 3) will eat yogert if we make an activity out of putting it in a tall glass, add fruit, some milk and use the Braun single blade hand held drink mixer (not sure of the exact name) to blend it all up. You also can add extra protein powder. I use soy yogert and soy milk because my kids don't tolerate cows milk well.
All that aside, there are calcium chewables that I use as suppliments. Try not to make too big a deal of it and don't get into the power struggles at the table - it's simply not worth it.

You've gotten lots of ideas for getting him to drink his milk and many other alternatives. Isn't this site great?! My biggest suggestion is to RELAX and not try to convince your son to eat/drink to avoid battle of wills. Make food prep and eating time fun, but not a circus. Each meal can be more matter of fact and avoid offering him several different calcium "choices" each meal. When you find something he likes, offer it more frequently and when he stops liking it, then stop serving it as often. He'll go through food like and dislikes and definite spurts where he'll want more and want to eat less. I look at food consumption on a three day cycle and I notice one day the eating is good, the next not so good and the third is dismal, but then it comes around again. He'll eat what he needs as long as you offer variety, model good eating and not offer him unhealthy foods for snacks (they'll always hold out for the good stuff if they know it will come in an hour or two later.) Hang in there. Kids grow up in spite of our parenting!

J.,
I know you have gotten a lot of good responses but I have one that I don't think has been mentioned yet and it doesn't involve givng your child tons of unneeded sugar! My 2 yr old will only drink his milk warmed up. I know it sounds gross but he loves it! If his milk is cold he only takes a couple sips but warm he guzzles it! Really if you think about it if you nursed your son he was getting milk at 98.6 degrees and if you gave bottles they were at least room temperature or warmer. So, why would he want cold cow milk? It's worth a shot. Oh, and my guy drinks it out of a sippy cup still. Good luck.

Chocolate or strawberry syrup helped with my daughter. I know it adds sugars to the milk, but I figured it was better than no milk. Good Luck!

Does he use a sippy cup or a regular cup. My son just turned 2 and is not real big on the sippy cup anymore. He loves the big boy cups. I put just a little in at a time and just keep doing that and he has gotten real good real fast with the big boy cup. I also like the straw idea sometimes fun thinks like that do make a big difference. Does he like chocolate or strawberry flavored milk? I definatly wouldnt give that to him everyday but mabye if he really likes those you could tell him if he drinks his regular milk during the week good then he can have some chocolate milk on the weekend. Also are you still doing whole milk? Mabye he dont like that and you could talk to the doctor about 2%. My son tops the carts in height and weight so we havent done whole milk for a while. He like the 1 or 2% much better and does just fine with his milk since we swithced. Good luck.

Make it fun. Color your milk with food coloring! Or flavor your milk with chocolate nestle powder or strawberry (you can buy flavored milk also --chocolate, vanilla and strawberry). You could also try shakes. I am very thin and the Dr. always tells me to drink shakes/eat ice cream. Or you could us fun size cups from the $ store--they have those tiny cups at the Factory Card outlet for every holiday and more. Buy some of those and see how many colors of the rainbow he can drink in one day by making a rainbow chart on your refrig and by using the colored milk. You could also talk to your school/grocery store and maybe you could purchase those little cartons of milk. When he drinks all the milk, you can use the carton for him to make puppets, ramps for cars or parking gargages, or let him plant a plant or get him a tiny fish for him to take care of. Hope some of these ideas work.
Let me know--
Tam

Your question brought back so many memories for me. I hated drinking milk as a child, and I had daily battles with my parents all the way through elementary school. It was terrible.

I strongly recommend that you buy or borrow from the library a book by nutritionist Ellyn Satter called Child of Mine: Feeding with Love and Good Sense. The more you pressure him to drink milk (for instance, by cheering when he drinks or forcing him to stay at the table when he's not drinking it), the more he is likely to resist drinking it. He is entering a developmental stage where kids naturally get a little defiant as a way of establishing independence. You will be miserable if you make a power struggle out of his milk drinking, especially with a new baby on the way.

There are plenty of good sources of protein besides dairy foods. You can get children's supplements for calcium. My boys drink little to no milk, and they haven't had any growth or development problems.

I also agree with the other moms who've suggested that if he doesn't like milk, it may be because milk is hard on his digestive system.

If you can't tolerate the idea of him not eating dairy, just give him cheese, or make smoothies with yogurt and fruit if he likes those. If constipation is an issue, as it was for one of my kids, many pediatricians recommend a little Miralax mixed with water. Or, you could give him more fruit if he likes fruit.

Have you tried milk shakes? Get some fresh fruit (ie. bananas and strawberries) and mix it with milk and/or yogurt.

I allowed my boy to have a bottle until 4 which is pretty late because he drank so much more milk this way. I've taken it away now and give him cereal in the morning adding lots of milk. When he finishes his cereal he pours the remaining milk in a glass and drinks it. I guess it tastes better with that bit of sugar from the cereal! He doesn't like yogurt either but I bought popsicle containers, pour it in and freeze it. He loves them! He'll eat one after another!

You could try flouvoured milk, chocolate or smoothies. You could also balance the cheese/constipation issue with cooked pear and apple which is yummy or prunes. Also add milk to omlettes.

Hope this helps!

Try different cups. I have colored the milk with a drop of food coloring as well, which is also a great tool if you are trying to teach colors. Make it a race to see who can finish first. Try fun straws.

J.,
I never read any of the responese so sorry if duplicate. we have been struggling with our son's weight for about 2 years now too. He's 3 and half so I know what you're going through.
Try making "blizzards" with the ice cream
Make smoothies with fresh fruit and yogurt. Let help you plave food in blender and with your supervision of course let him push the buttons on the blender.
Carnation is the best. I do believe my son lived on whole milk and carnation instant bkst of his 2nd year of life.
High protein foods ex.life cereal dipped in PB.
Good luck. I know what you are feeling.'Just keep trying new foods. You never know what he will like.

Same problem here. Pediatrician suggested giving chocolate milk. We put half of the recommended amount of Ovaltine in our daughter's milk and she is finally drinking the right amount of milk a day. Never would have done it without being told to by the ped. I never wanted to be that mom that gave chocolate milk to my kid all of the time....but you know what? It's better than no milk! I'm learning not to be so critical of other parents. You do what you need to for YOUR kid!

Good luck!

Toddlers only need 16 ounces of milk a day...so if he is having a cup at daycare and a cup at some point while in your care, he is doing just fine! If it's whole milk that you're offering, maybe you could try different kinds- he may end up liking skim milk. Do you give him juice or is his only liquid intake from water? If he is getting juice, cut that out for sure.
My son is 20 months and although he drinks milk and water just fine, I still give him a cup of toddler formula each day to make sure he is still getting some of what he needs nutrition-wise since he is such a picky eater. There are multivitamins of course, but I haven't been able to find one for kids under 4 that has iron in it other than the liquid poly-vi-sol. The pharmacist at the Target I go to did not even know. But you could look around for one for his age...I'm sure a special drug/nutrition store would have something. If he was taking a vitamin that had calcium and vitamin D in it, and you added more foods with good fats and protein, you wouldn't have to worry. Also, fortified cereals are loaded with vitamins and minerals. If you could get him to eat cereal every morning or as a dry snack, that would probably be enough to supplement the lack of milk. Plenty of people live without milk and there's really no way to force him...because you're right he will just hate it that much more. Ask your doctor or a nutritionist how people with a milk allergy get the nutrition their bodies need.

Hi J.~

I didn't read others before responding so sorry to repeat if I am...

My son is also 2 and hasn't drank milk at all. He is offered it at every meal in case he changes his mind but hasn't yet. Our ped told us to mix chocolate, banana or strawberry flavors with it and he still wont drink it.

Luckily my little guy does like cheese and strawberry yogurt.

We seen our ped just last week and she ask how the milk was going after telling her, she said that's fine we can stop offering it to him and instead give him a jelly multi vitamin and juice that is fortified with vit D and calcuim and it would be fine with the extra sugar being he is on the small side also. She suggested apple and orange juice and the Juicy Juice.

I hope this helps. Good luck.

Hi Jen,

I am short on time....couple of my ideas are:

1. eat yogurt
2. drink milk from "crazy" straw
3. let him pick out a favorite sippy cup
4. big boy cup
5. whatever cup they use at daycare

sorry so short...good luck!

Just a quickie - nesquik makes a "no sugar added" version of their chocolate powder, it has a little green in the label where it says the flavor. Good luck!

some suggestions would be use a curly straw, offer danimals (my 2 year old granddaughter loves them and they have some with blues clue on it), put some chocolate in it and you and dad drink milk with him. You might also try some of the soy milk that is made for children. It is sweeter then cows milk.

We had this problem with my daughter when we first started her on milk. The answer? Chocolate milk, flavored soy milk, whatever it takes to get her to drink it! Don't worry about the sugar if he's underweight anyway... you can always wean him off chocolate later, but I would recommend starting with the chocolateyist, richest, yummyist milk you can find. And good luck not drinking it yourself - that was my problem :)

there is nothing wrong with making him sit at the table and finish his milk. My dad did it to all 3 of us as kids, I hated it! Just remind him if he wants to get big like daddy he better drink his milk! Or does he like Chocolate Milk better?

I would try letting him add food coloring into his milk and see if making different colors and him having some ownership in preparing it would help. A tip I use with my daughter (almost 3) when it comes to eating all her food, is telling her if she doesn't eat it I will and she will say "no" and take a bite, then I say, "hey, that's mine. I want it." She thinks its funny and will eat her food all gone. Good luck!

Hi J.,
Try using Ovaltine Chocolate powder. My kids love it. It's healthier than Nestle's Chocolate mix. Try the yogurts with his favorite cereals as a topping. You can do ice cream in a variety of styles so he won't get burned out. When you do hot cereal use milk to cook with instead of water. Oh, one more thing with using yogurt. They have kid recipes at Betty Crocker you can let him help do snacks and desert (healthy one's of course).
Make it fun for you and him and get the calcium in him. You can also try 1% milk, my kids seem to like it more than 2%, they say it makes better pudding and hot chocolate. Hang in there and don't give up.

Working Mom with 2 beautiful girls.

Hi J.!! I have 2yr old twin girls with the same problem, they just suddenly stopped liking white milk. I'm a laid back mom with 2 other older siblings (7 and 5) so I introduced choc and strawberry syrup...the girls enjoy helping me squeeze the bottle and after I do, they get to stir it up and help put the lids on thier cups. The down side...I can easily go thru 3-5 gal of milk in a week - tho better than no milk at all!! :) A problem I think I'll keep! There's also cereal straws that once the milk is gone, they get to actually eat the straw - my 5 yr old loves them tho can be expensive as a staple... the other thing I can't do without now are the straw bowls - the cereal bowls that have the built in straws to drink the milk from rather than a 2yr old trying to drink from a bowl - they love it and typically drink the milk b4 eating the cereal and demand more!! So far so good... until they figure out my tricks!!!

Good Luck
M.

I approached milk time somewhat similar to breast feeding. Guess it was because I was trying to get my son to drink that when I was weaning. I would give it to him when he woke up in the morning as part of his morning ritual. I warmed it up too which makes it naturally sweeter. We'd wake up, cuddle, he'd drink his warm milk and I'd drink my hot coffee and we were happy as clams. What helped also was to put it into a sippy straw cup. He would drink it fast! Keep in mind, it sure was hard to wean him off that darn straw cup. He now drinks from a coffee mug and a straw. As he got older, I would also surprise him w/ little sprinklings of different flavors - malt powder, honey, ovaltine, cinnamon etc. Hope that gives you some ideas!

Try to give him chocolate and/or strawberry milk. It taste better then normal milk and it might be more interesting since it is a different colors and taste. My daughter is almost 2 1/2 and she loves chocolate but still has a little problem finishing her normal milk. I have also implemented that if she doesnt finish her milk she will not get juice. That way she doesnt have to sit at the table but she has to finish the sip cup before she can get anything else.

We use to make "bunny milk" for both of our kids. Nestle strawberry or chocolate, it's got the bunny on the packaging. I remember reading an article in one of the parenting mag's that at least they would still get their milk. We didn't add very much and they thought it was a treat. We probably did this for a year or so. Mine are now 7 and 9 (expecting our unexpected 3rd in Jan) and drink all of their milk and a lot of times ask for more every night. Good luck!

Add fun silly straws.....might work for awile:)

when my twins got scarlett fever they stopped eating and drinking and started to fall under weight. i decided to give pediasures and they love it so they use them in between meals and before bed and are now back on track with their weight. maybe thhis will help.