12 Mo. Old Doesn't like Milk!

Hi J.,
my son didn't like milk at first either. i slowly added it too his formula bottles at about 10 months and by 11 months he loved it. if you use the liquid concentrate, try 4 oz. formula, 4 oz. water and 2 oz. milk. and increase the milk by 2 oz each week and decrease the water and formula by 1 oz. that should work! if not try 2% milk it still has the same vitamins and minerals in it just not all the fat. my son (now 15 months) stopped drinking milk for about a month and spit up when he would drink it and i tried everything. i tried chocolate milk and strawberry too and that didn't even work. then i tried 2% and thats all he drinks now. the whole milk might be too thick for her and maybe thats why she doesn't like it. try the 2% it worked for me! good luck!

Have you tried mixing it with the formula or whatever she is taking in her bottle now? Try just adding a tiny bit of milk at first and gradually add more and more until it is mostly milk. Eventually she will get used to it a little at a time and won't realize when you switch it over altogether. You can also try soy milk, which is a little more expensive but tastes different.

Good luck!
L.

I had the same problem with my now 2 year old..What I did was buy the danimals drinkable yogurt..It comes in all different flavors..They are,I think, 3 ounce containers..I put one of those in with his milk and have had no problems getting him to drink his milk..He will occassionally drink plain milk, but it's just become habit to add the yogurt..Hope that helps!

Hi J., well we did not take our daughter off the bottle until she was about a year and a half. However, we ended up having to go 'cold turkey!' She absolutely would not drink milk out of anything but a bottle. :( She started drinking whole milk after her 1st bd and was fine as long as it was in a bottle.
I've learned that she will drink it when she wants to. We do not force her and her pediatrician said not to force her but to find creative ways to get some milk into her. She loves Cheerios so she gets milk there and oftentimes she will drink the milk that her cereal was in. We also give her yogurt and other dairy products and she is fine. The doc said she's doing well and we see that she's growing so it works for us. Talk with your childs pediatrician and see what he/she says. Wishing you the best!

A similar thing happened with a friend of mine and her daughter at about this age. Her doctor told her that as long as she was getting calcium from other sources (yogurt, cheese, etc.) that it was fine, she didn't have to force milk. I would check with your doctor's nurse, but that should be fine. Good luck! You can always try it again in a couple of weeks and see if she changes her mind....that seems to happen a lot around that age. :)

Good luck.

try weaning it with half milk half formula

Hi J.! I recently went through this same sistuation with my son. We gave him whole milk in a bottle for a few months before we took his bottles away,when i started to give him milk in a cup he would just look at us like we were crazy and set it down. So i started to give him a little milk in a regular cup with meals,he liked that because he thought it was fun drinking out of a cup. Our dr. Also suggested that we could take the milk away totally and replace it with feeding him yogurt a couple times a day,then try to re-introduce the milk back again. You can also try putting a little strawberry mix into the milk. Good luck!

try soy milk. my son loves it.

A few ideas, for starters, offer her lots of other dairy sources, cheese, yogurt, etc so she is getting that calcium and other nutrients while she may be not getting as much milk. You can try getting her acclimated to the taste by mixing it with formula, much the way a nursing mother gets a baby used to formula. Start with 3/4 formula and 1/4 milk for a few days, if she takes that slowly adjust it so that you are adding more milk, less formula. My daughter was the same way, except it was nursing and milk, the novelty of a straw helped. At first I just used my finger over one end to serve her little sips at a time, then she started sucking on the straw. Munchkin has some good spillproof straw sippy cups (they usually have Dora or SpongeBob on them). There is toddler formula, but I don't know of anybody who has really recommended it and it probably won't help in the cost department since I'm sure that it costs more than a gallon of whole milk. Just keep trying - she will get it eventually.

I am currently also trying to get my son to like whole milk, I consulted my doctor who said to add a little bit of vanilla (i am sure any flavor would be fine but the vanilla is the same color as the milk) pedisure to the milk (example: 4 oz of milk 2 od pedisure then the next day 5 oz of milk 1 of pedisure and so on) It is working like a charm for us and today I literally put a splash of pedisure in with his milk and he drank it down. The doctor said it would just ease him into the taste of milk and it really did work. Good luck

Hi J.!
In my son's case we slowly weened him off formula by diluting it with milk as well...for instance, the first two weeks put 3/4 formula to 1/4 milk...next two weeks put 1/2 formula to 1/2 milk. After that mix 1/4 formula to 3/4 milk for two weeks...then its milk only from then on. My son adjusted fine and loves milk. Hope this helps and best of luck to you and your husband.

The best thing to do is to but just a little bit of milk in with the formula then add a little more each time to the point that she's just to milk. It worked for my daughter and my niece we actually both did it in 3 days. Good luck

Does you dd eat baby cereal? You could try mixing it with milk instead of water, etc. Or add powdered milk to things. There are lots of ways to get the nutrition of milk without drinking milk itself.
Other than that, I agree with the last person, I am shocked that others are saying to mix in sugary flavors. At 12 mo it is OKAY to give cow's milk (in some opinions, other authorities disagree) but it's definitely not NECESSARY. You said "obvious reasons" but I dont' think they are obvious to everyone, everyone has different philosophies of parenting. For example, if cost was the big issue, I'm surprised you didn't breastfeed (that's one of the reasons I breastfed, not the only one). Not saying you should have (it's too late for that, and I'm sure you had lots of good reasons for not!), just saying that I'm not clear what your reasons are for wanting to stop now (and if I knew your reasons, I might be able to make better suggestions that would work for you). I hope the ideas I had did help!
Blessings,
Lynn

Hi J.,

We have a boy that will be 3 in September, and a daughter that will be 2 in December. Our pediatrician told us our son, who didn't care for milk either, to try chocolate or strawberry syrup mixed with it-they didnt care how they were getting the milk, as long as they were. That completely cured the problem! I dont put very much syrup in it, enought to give it a little taste. They now both will brink white or chocolate milk-however, I recommend making it, not buying it already made as that stuff is VERY chocolaty, as is mostly lowfat. Good luck!

C.

I had the same problem with my daughter (now 14 months) when we switched to milk at 12 months. She refused to drink it & more played with it than anything. She gradually started drinking more & more and now LOVES it! Just hang in there & see if she warms up to it.

Dear J.,
Some children's allergy specialists say that if a baby refuses milk there is a good chance she is allergic to it. By the way, contrary to what the Dairy Association would have us believe, cow's milk is very difficult for humans to digest and not a good source of nutrition anyway. Radical thought to most, but my years of research has found many that confirm it. Is she on a good infant nutritional program? If not, that's where I'd expect her to get the nutrition you can be sure about. Best of luck in your frustrated endeavor (and for dad's as well).

No idea as to waht the nutritional implication is but on another mommy sight a women was having problems with her child self weening and was giving him pediasure and milk mixed because he wouldn't take milk plain, no ideas as to if it will work but it might be worth a shot.

Hi,

I use Stage 2 Enfamil formula, which is specially designed for toddlers (9-24 months). They offer a soy and milk version. Mine loves it and prefers it over milk anyday. I think there are also store brand versions too. You may want to give it a shot. It's loaded with everything your growing child needs.

Wow...I'm not sure what to say about some of the advice you've been given to add sugar (pedialite, syrup, etc) to your baby's diet so that she will drink cow milk
Like the other poster, my research has shown cow milk isn't very good for our bodies as was once thought as well.
Listen to your baby, she may be telling you that she has an adversion, sensitivity, or allergy to cow milk...were you using cow milk based formula or soy?
When my daughter stopped breastfeeding (after 1yr old) my mom suggested I up her cow milk intake...so I did...and she got VERY constipated and ended up needing hernia surgery. It wasn't fun. We still don't drink much milk due to that sensitivity...
There is calcium in many things...try feeding her those other things or splurge for the costly formula--her health is worth it.
Good luck!

Most stores sell Stage 2 formula for kids over one. We used that with my daughter because she would only take a few sips of regular milk but it is kind of pricy. Also, I have a friend that mixed formula with cow's milk and slowly decreased the amount of formula and increased the milk and eventually her daugter got used to it that way.

I have a 19 month old son and when he turned 1 year, we started weaning him from formula to milk by making his bottles part formula and part milk until they were eventually all milk. We did this for 2 reasons - one, we had formula left over and two, to get him used to it.
Now, our son pretty much likes anything, so that may be why he took to milk as well.

Hope this helps and good luck!

C.

I was told to use pedisure or buy carnation breakfast drink and add it to the milk so that they are getting enough of everything they need especially since my daughter is not a good eater. She stores her food like a chipmunk. Hope this helps.