2 year old suddenly hates milk, what to do about calcium?

[Mama2Athena]

My 2 year old DD used to drink milk OK, although her daycare teachers claimed that she drank so much of it that they had to limit milk (school provided milk back then).  She recently moved to the 2 year old class and has full access to a toddler size water fountain.  I notice the milk I pack her for lunch each day comes home pretty much untouched.  She has about 3 wet diapers while at school each day, so she must be drinking from the water fountain.

She hates cheese and cheese sauce so those are not really options for calcium.  I pack her a sweetened yogurt everyday but I feel that's not enough.  Sometimes I will also throw in a pudding cup (the ones that have the same amount of calcium as one cup of milk), but I'd rather limit those as they are quite sweet.  On weekends, I mix milk into her hot cereal (Malt-O-Meal) which she loves.  Unfortunately during the week, it is a rush for DH to get her and DS to school, so the hot cereal is not an option.

Does anyone have any suggestions for me?  She is very small for her age (10th percentile for both height and weight) so I would really like her to get enough calcium, but how?  I'm tempted to serve chocolate milk and maybe a pudding everyday 

[Haribo2012]

Hi does she drink milk at WU and BT? My LO is 2 and that's his only drinks of milk really, is it all cheese she dislikes?
You could try other food like mozerrella cheese, broccoli, green snap beans, sardines, tofu these all have calcium in. Alternately just make meals with milky products like lasagne with white sauce, rice puddings, custards. x

[creations]

Maybe this can help?
http://www.iofbonehealth.org/calcium-rich-foods

You can also make milk puddings by just thickening milk with cornflour and adding some flavouring (maybe vanilla or almond essence or ground almonds, a fruit puree/compot). I made some very basic milk pudding like this for DS and he loved it although I thought it was gross.  If you home make it, sugar free, you won't feel so bad about her having one every day.

Does she have any cereal with milk on the week day?
Condensed milk can also be used which packs a bigger punch than regular milk (although usually sweetened).
Adding milk powder to the milk she does drink (literally just stir or shake it to mix) and to other recipes is another way to boost the calcium. I got this tip here when mine didn't take much milk and added powdered milk to pancakes.
Ground almonds can be added to pancakes or baked goods quite easily (or other ground nuts)
Tahini paste too (although mine could detect this in any recipe and refused it but others take it well)

And maybe experiment with seafood. I never would have believed mine would eat sprats (or whitebait, very small fish, fried and eaten whole) but he loves them esp with a little lemon juice to dip in, the bones are so fine and cooked hard they are just crunchy and high in calcium.
A simple 'cheese cake' can be made with soft cheese and mashed banana or just a little vanilla mixed through and spread onto digestive or cracker base so it's more of a dessert than a main, or just stirred through to slacken the texture and a bit of fruit mixed through so eaten like a pudding.

There are lots of things to try before chocolate milk - I know the temptation but I don't think chocolate milk is needed.

[weaver]

Almonds are really high in calcium - would LO go for almond butter? My 2 yo adores the smooth version on crackers. 

You can do very simple home made rice pudding in the oven with milk, vanilla essence,  sweetened with honey, maple syrup, or just raisins, if you want to reduce the sugar a little.  It's really quick to make (3 mins?), but has a long cooking time (over an hour). So you'd need to do it at the weekend or in the evening, and then you could give her a little tupperware of that pudding for school.  It is delicious hot or cold.

I'll come back later with the recipe.

[amayzie]

My little guy hardly has any milk. He has plenty of cheese and yoghurt and some milk. At this age it really doesn't need to all come from milk....

[Mama2Athena]

Thank you all for your suggestions!  I will have to try making my own pudding so I can control the amount of sweetness.  She does enjoy cold cereal with milk, so I will ask DH to serve that more often in the mornings (although he's a bit hesitant because she makes such a big mess, LOL).  She is hit and miss with tofu, but I will give that another go, maybe experiment with new tofu recipes.  She also gets broccoli about 3-4 times a week for dinner.  She doesn't like your typical cheese (cheddar, mozarella, swiss, etc) but will tolerate cream cheese.

[creations]

This may help
http://www.iofbonehealth.org/calcium-rich-foods

[Mama2Athena]

Creations, thanks for the link.  I totally forgot about soymilk.. I'm pretty sure she will drink that.

[creations]

No problem