Getting a 1 Year Old to Take Milk!

My son will turn 1 Jan 30 and also is EBF, not even bottles. Just got the hang of water in a sippy cup. I think it will just take time and alot of offering to get used to another form of milk. Funny how they know, as different as human milk is to cow milk, that they refuse the cow milk.

Kids technically dont need milk, just the calcium and vitamin D. Milk just happens to be the easiest form of it. My friend gave her daughter, watered down enriched OJ, who at just over 2 still refuses milk. Cheese, yogurt and calcium rich veggies are also fine for servings of calcium. The pediatrician or nutritionist can guide you on getting enough nutrients but cow milk is not the be all end all.

My daughter was not too interested in milk at first either. She - like your son - was very used to the sippy cup for water and exclusively breastfed (with pumped milk in bottles when I was teaching - but I stopped for the summer when she was 11 months so that was the last time she had a bottle). One of my friends observed her reaction to the milk and said she thought that it was the thickness that was the problem. If you think about it, breast milk is SO much thinner than whole cow's milk. So, for awhile I watered down the whole milk and she started to drink more. Eventually, I was able add less and less water and then stop altogether. She is three and a half now and loves her milk!

Hi K.,

I know what you are going through with your son as I had the same situation with my son at the same age. Turns out my son was doing the right thing. He never drank milk and went straight to soy milk which he loved. Cows Milk is actually not healthy for children or adults. So don't feel pressured to give it to him. In fact I didn't know this when both my kids were young but learned the hard way. My son who never drank milk has been much healthier than my daughter who did drink milk. both were breast feed for a year.

So try giving him Soy Milk with Vitamin D & calcium . My son loved the vanilla but drank the plain too. He is now a strong healthy 19 year old. Now his sister who is 16 also drinks Soy milk and I do too.

Oh, my son also had a hard time drinking out of a bottle so since he was nursing. So I started using a spoon to give him the soy milk then went right to a cup. Neither of my kids used a bottle. They didn't like it.

Here is an article I found on the internet that you might find interesting:
http://www.notmilk.com/kradjian.html

Best of luck,

C.

www.MahmaProject.com

Hi, K.,

I could get my daughters to drink milk from a bottle, but not from a cup (they drank water in a sippy no problem) when they were your baby's age. I did mix breast milk and whole milk, and then every week or so I changed the proportions, adding more whole milk, until it was all whole milk. But they wouldn't drink it in a sippy cup, and I tried all different kinds of cups. Finally I just gave up and increased the cheese and yogurt they were getting. When they were almost 2 we tried again -- this time with regular cups (no sippy), a little at a time as they get better skilled at drinking this way -- and they took to the milk fine.

Good luck!
A.