Won't drink cows milk!

[Reeby]

Hi there, my dd is now 13 months and for the last two weeks I have been trying to replace one of her bottles with cow's milk.  She has been having cow's milk on her cereal since she was 11 months old and no problems, but she just won't entertain it any other way.  She is still having her formula feeds at 7am and 7pm, but I am worried that because I have cut the 2:30pm feed out that she will be missing out, even though she eats any food in sight!!!  Help!!!

[* Paula *]

Hi there,

I am going to pop this over to Eating for Toddlers, I hope you don't mind.

Have you tried mixing the cows milk with the formula i.e 1oz cows milk 7oz formula and then over a course of a few days start dropping the formula and increasing the cows milk until your lo gets used to the taste?

It could be that she is just used to the taste of formula, and may take her a while to get used to the taste of drinking cows milk.

HTH's

Paula

[sazza]

hi

i don't want to be discouraging but we tried exactly that with our lo (now 18mo) and as soon as we got to full strength cow's milk he wouldn't touch it any more. i then tried to go back to formula but by then it was too late and he wouldn't touch that either. so now he never drinks any milk, so i just try to make sure he gets enough yoghurt and cheese. i also still give him baby custard out of the box too and i do make that with milk and he doesn't seem to notice, so i figure it's just a flavour issue rather than a food allergy problem. sometimes it can be a temperature issue too - are you keeping the cow's milk at the same temp as the formula?

good luck!

[jmosery]

My pedi said that cows milk is overrated and that as long as the child is getting 2-3 servings of dairy, than its okay. some kids dont like cows milk

he said that if they do, then no more than 20 oz. a day

so i wouldn't worry. not everyone likes cows milk. they can get what they need from yogurt, cheese, cottage cheese, string cheeses and othe dairy sources

[Reeby]

Thanks for all of your advice guys!  Well I have tried mixing the cow's milk with formula and she is now drinking just cow's milk!  I think it was the fact that I was trying to give her it in a sippy cup, maybe she is abit young for that still? (14 mths), I think she just associates milk with a bottle, as she drinks water out of her sippy cup no problem.  Thanks again!

[* Paula *]

That is fantastic news about her drinking the cows milk. 

If she still likes her bottle I don't think that there is any problem with them having a bottle for a while longer.  As long as you are able to wean her off it by the age of 2 it is fine.

We tried to wean our DS at around that age off his bottle, and he completely went off milk and would not even drink it out of a bottle.  Anyway, after a few months I decided to try and give him milk again, in his new milk cup and he has been drinking well out of it.

So yes I do agree, that the associate their bottles with their milk.

Congrats again.