Help! He won't drink milk

[malenka]

DS is 14 mo. He was BF and never took a bottle of EBM or formula. I weaned him slowly off the breast - his last feeding was at the end of October. I thought his refusal to drink milk was tied to BFing and my Pedi agreed, saying that BM just tastes better. All this time later and guess what? He still won't drink milk... at all. AT ALL, not even 1 oz a day. Not in a sippy, not in an open cup, not from my cup, not from a bottle. In desperation I even tried chocolate milk and he refuses that too 

He won't eat cheese, yogurt or pudding either. I'm at a total loss here. I'm worried about his calcium and fat intake.

On the rare occasion I do manage to sneak some milk into him, he doesn't react badly to it - no rashes, diarrhea, ect, so I don't think it's a lactose problem. He does have reflux... I don't know if that can be connected?

Has anyone been through this? Does anyone have any advice for me?

[Peek-a-boo]

My kids don't drink milk either.  They do have an intolerance to dairy, but they also reject any alternative milk as a beverage.  I let them have calcium fortified OJ (diluted), a gummy calcium supplement (he might be too young for that), and cook with home made chicken stock as often as possible (which is supposed to have as much calcium per cup as milk).  For fats, I make an effort to cook with generous healthy fats; we use lots of eggs which have nice healthy fats.  I try to squeeze in avacados, but DS rejects them.  DD loves guacamole. 

[JayLeigh]

My DS would not drink milk either, until I found the right bottle (he finally took Tommy Tippee when he was 11 months old) and I started mixing sweetened vanilla milk (I think gerber makes it) in with the milk, like half, and I gradually decreased it once milk drinking became a habit. Now he is a bottle/milk addict, but that is the topic for another post...

[malenka]

The tough thing with my LO is that he's never taken a bottle, so he's not interested at all. I've tried him with all varieties of cups too. He gags and spits out all milk products. It's like he has a complete aversion to anything that has milk in it, even if it's disguised

I'm worried about his calcium intake - I'm planning on trying some fortified juice until he's big enough to manage a vitamin.

I'm starting to wonder if it's a lactose problem or just a toddler problem

[malenka]

Has anyone tried a liquid calcium supplement? I saw one in the store the other day and plan to talk to my Ped about it, because he's certainly not getting enough. If you've tried it, have you found a particular one tailored for LOs? I only saw an adult one but I think I could cut the dose down.

[okinawamama]

My little guy is also not really a milk drinker, and he's almost 2. I did find that he liked almond milk best, and he'll drink a couple (maybe 3-4) oz's a day...if that. I do hide milk in things, like eggs (and also add melted cheese), I buy the tubes of yogurt and there is novelty to that so he'll take some. I get calcium fortified juice (not that he drinks tons of juice) and try and put cheese in lots of things I too should probably look into a calcium supplement, but my ped knows our situation and has never mentioned anything.

[malenka]

The big concern for my LO is that he won't eat anything with milk in it, any cheese, any yogurt. The other day I mixed some skim milk powder in with his food and he gagged and spat it out - he seems to know that there's milk hiding in whatever I try.

I also tried fortified juice, thinking that would be an option, but he won't drink it either.

We have a history of osteoporosis in the family, so calcium needs to be a priority for him.

[Jiinx]

Does he drink anything else from a sippy cup? Have you tried giving him a smoothie?

[*Liz*]

You will need to add calcium in non dairy ways ie like for all those MPI kids.

Have you tried rice or oat milk? They have as much added calcium as normal milk if you get the right one.

There is a list on food allergies about calcium sources.

I spoke to my paed about this recently as DD is MSPI and he said if you can't get it in with food then just supplement essentially.

My dietician says you probably only need half of the RDA really as the bioavailability will be
Much higher when the intake lower.

[malenka]

We've tried other food sources of calcium, but haven't had any luck. He took a smoothie for the first time ever today - here's hoping it lasts!

We need to get to a dietitian about this, but also because his weight is dropping. Hopefully they'll have some good advice for us. I feel if he would just drink the milk, it would solve both the calcium and the weight issue iyswim? Grr... feeding toddlers is quite the challenge!

[Canwi]

I'd give him a multivitamin.  Once my boys got to age 1, I switched from just Vitamin D drops to multivitamin drops.  Then at 2 I switched to those chewable multivitamins.
Increasing fat intake may help with weight.  Avocado, coconut milk, and adding oil to foods can help there.

[malenka]

Multivitamin drops? They sell those?! I asked my Ped about a multivitamin and she seemed to think they only had chewables. I'll have to go to the pharmacy and investigate!

Thanks for the tip!

[Jiinx]

I think they're a white box with the words Poly V sol etc? Is that the one, Deb? They sell them here at shoppers drug mart and, well, pretty much everywhere.

[Canwi]

That's the one.  I get them when I get my groceries.
You could also get the chewables, crush them and then give them to him in some apple sauce or something like that.

[malenka]

I checked for the vitamins yesterday and while I found a multivitamin in liquid form for babies, it didn't have calcium in it 

I hadn't thought of crushing a chewable, but that's a great idea. I'll do that if I can't track down the right multivitamin