12 month old hates cow's milk

[Piglet]

I posted earlier in the week thinking that DD (a picky eater) was on a bottle strike, but now it seems that she drinks the FF, but hates cow's milk with a passion. I had been trying to introduce milk and was doing 50/50 formula/milk. She was refusing the bottles outright! Now that I have switched back to FF she drinks with no problem, but I would like to get her off the FF soon. I have tried sippies, straw cups, regular cups, etc. with no improvement. I think she just hates the taste.

So I am wondering - Is it worth trying soy milk in place of the milk? How important is milk in the grand scheme of things? Can I just add more dairy to her diet and eliminate some of the bottles? She is a picky eater, but loves cheese and yogurt. I just need to find moer food choices for her if I go this route.

Any suggestions?

Edited for clarity - I shouldn't type before I have my coffee

[ThreeofUs]

Try enriched soy that's got about the same sugar content as cow's milk. She might be allergic, but it's a place to start.

But, wait. You say she "loves cheese and milk" - is it only in formula that she hates milk?

[egoldber]

Amy refuses to drink cow's milk. I am still breastfeeding, but the ped was not concerned as long as she gets 3-4 servings of dairy per day (like cheese, yogurt, etc.) Calcium fortified soy or rice milk would also count. He also mentioned calcium fortified juices as an option, but most juices disagree with her. The concern is calcium (and also fat), not milk per se.

The biggest PITA is its hard to find when out and about, so I have to carry the Silk soymilk boxes with me. Its also a little hard to find soymilk that is calcium enriched but does not have tons of extra sugar. Most soy/rice milks are roughly equivalent to 2% milk, so I add fat to her diet in other ways. But she's super skinny. If she were higher on the weight charts, I probably wouldn't bother.

[Piglet]

Ivy - sorry for the confusion, I meant cheese and yogurt... duh!

Thanks for your suggestions!

[momma_boo]

My younger one never was a big fan of milk. When we were switching her to milk at one year, I ended up mixing milk and drinkable yogurt to flavor it. I think I initially did an almost half and half mixture, but gradually cut down on the amount of yogurt.

These days, she almost rarely drinks plain milk (still puts it on her cereal, though). She's a big fan of chocolate milk and the horizon vanilla milk boxes.

[ThreeofUs]

If she loves cheese and yogurt, and gets a bunch/day, then maybe she doesn't need a whole lot of extra milk.

If you're concerned about her calcium and other vitamin intake, I really would try the enriched soy. Many formulas are made with soy, aren't they? Maybe that's a taste she's used to....

DS refused to drink milk, and it turned out he's allergic.

[sunriseiz]

My younger one never was a big fan of milk. When we were switching her to milk at one year, I ended up mixing milk and drinkable yogurt to flavor it. I think I initially did an almost half and half mixture, but gradually cut down on the amount of yogurt.

These days, she almost rarely drinks plain milk (still puts it on her cereal, though). She's a big fan of chocolate milk and the horizon vanilla milk boxes.


Ditto! We 'spiked' DD's milk with drinkable yogurt (called it moo juice...she KNEW she didn't like milk!), but even so she didn't drink an appreciable amount until she was 2. Ped said not to worry as she was getting plenty of calcium elsewhere. I must say, it was really strange to go from a few bottles a day of EBM to no milk at all. We never did juice, so all she drank is water. Now, she likes milk and actually thinks it's a special treat! :)

Good luck!
Sunny

[ritacheetah]

Got another cow milk hater here. Ever since she was 1. I don't think she had a drink of milk her whole 2nd year. She loved yogurt, though, so I gave her a lot of that. Now she's 4 1/2 and loves soy milk and still loves yogurt so I'm not too worried.

DD2 is on & off with the cow milk. We'll see...

[bubbaray]

You could try enriched rice milk. We (mostly) weaned DD#2 to rice milk (she still nurses morning and night). It was no problem at all. The allergy nutritionist wanted us to switch to whole milk as soon as we got the OK from the allergist, so we then switched her to whole milk over the course of a few days. Rice Dream comes in original and enriched. We were using the enriched, but its still lacking the fat that children under 2 need.

HTH

[Piglet]

So how bad is this? On a whim I tried adding some strawberry (1/3 less sugar) Quik to the milk. She downed it in no time?! I will try to reduce the amount of Quick over the next few days!

[toby]

This may sound crazy, but I got this suggestion from a poster here. My DS didn't like milk so I added OJ and gradually cut back the amount. He drank it plain in no time. I wouldn't sweat the strawberry milk--some posters said that they used chocolate!