DD refuses to drink milk..HeLP!

Bblund

My 14 mth old DD has refused to drink milk, soy milk, almond milk, if she sees its white she refused to drink it. When she turned a year, I was in the process of switching her over to whole milk but it never happened. The first few times I made her drink it she threw it up. Ive tried to put strawberry, chocolate, flavoring but nothing works. I've tried to make a smoothie for ther..doesnt work.  Fine. I accepted she doesnt like milk. She will eat chese, yogurts, oj with vitamin D. The probelm is at night she wants a bottle so these last 2 mths I give her water with a little apple juice. Fine, shes happy but she wakes up at night with a full diaper, wants a bottle again, and its a cycle.

This girl can cry to so I can;t let her cio at night. Any suggestions as to what to put in the bottle to make the apple/water juice have more consistency and not have her peeing her dipaer at night. TIA.

 

meh624

She doesn't need to drink milk. The other stuff you give her is fine. My 20 month old never drank milk unless it was in a bottle.  But once we stopped the bottle around 15 month (only 1 4oz at bedtime) he no longer drank milk..refused it anyother way no big deal. 

We never offered anything else in a bottle.  Water in a sippy thats it. 

If she is drinking a bottle before bed she is going to fill her diaper at night..it doesn't matter if it is milk or water.

Offer less oz in a bottle each night  for a while to make the transition and then just water in a sippy before bed or if she want somthing in the middle of the night.

I would skip the juice.

mpstochlinski8

The only advice I can offer is what was given to me that worked when my twins wouldn't drink any type of milk at 12mths...We tried every type, soy, almond, coconut, whole cows milk etc...I talked to the nurse at our pedi office, she told me to try cutting back water and to offer a bottle before any type of food and just keep at it, if they turn away from it to keep trying and eventually they would give in, it took a solid week or so and they slowly started to give into it. Once they were ok with milk I went back to giving them as much water as they wanted and it doesn't interfere with them drinking milk or eating now. She told me to stick to one kind preferably whole cows milk so we did and now they drink it no problem but aren't fans of it cold yet. If seeing the white is a turn off try a bottle that is a color that DD can't see maybe? She also told me to drink some or pretend and act so happy about it lol I still have to try that sometimes with foods they get fussy about it usually works well. I guess another thing you can try is the enfamil older toddler milk drinks its like formula but meant for toddlers. I think they make vanilla flavor, maybe that would fill DD up more at night. My LOs still don't sttn so not sure if a full belly has much to do with sttn. good luck! 

TiffanyBerry

Adding consistency won't keep her from peeing, especially if she's thirsty.  Heck, many adults wake up to pee.  I wouldn't worry so much - though I wouldn't give her any apple juice in a nighttime bottle as that is asking for tooth decay.  Change her diaper if need be, and know that it's going to be a while until she doesn't need to pee in the middle of the night.  (I say this as a mom whose kid wakes up when she pees, regardless of how much, and won't go back to sleep until the diaper is changed.)

M&M227

Personally it's no big deal if LO doesn't drink milk as long as your pedi isn't concern and LO is gaining fine.  I personally would also stop the bottle.  Give LO a cup with water and leave it be.  She'll drink when she's thirsty.

Mrs.Greg

One of my babies has refused to drink milk since we started giving it to her and her sister at one year.  I offer it to her with EVERY meal and she turns it down and ends up drinking water.  It's been fine, she eats a lot of other dairy products - yogurt, cheese, eggs.  But despite that, I felt like she needed milk (my own personal opinion) so just two days ago, when she refused the milk, I didn't have water ready for her.  I left the milk cup on her tray for breakfast, she took a few sips with her breakfast but not much.  Once she was out of her high chair for about 30 minutes, I gave her a cup of water and she drank a little.  At lunch time, she drank a bit more milk than with breakfast but still not a lot.  I offered her the water again after lunch.  With snack, she got her water cup.  At dinner time, she drank the entire cup of milk and I filled it up halfway again.  She drank milk all day yesterday and so far today.  I think if you just give babies what they want, they come to expect it but once you don't give in, well, they take what they get.  Within reason, of course. 

kgs0505

My son refuses milk too.  We do the same as you with other sources of clacium. 

There is no reason to give her anything but water around bedtime or the middle of the night.  Anything with sugar is going to rot your kiddo's teeth because it just stays there.  I wouldn't even try to add consistency to the bottle to fill her up if a drink is handling her just fine.  Maybe try leaving a sippy of water in bed with her so she knows it's there and can self-sooth herself to sleep, hopefully eliminating the screaming fit in the middle of the night. 

etude de la vie

This was my daughter....

It was okay until she lost weight (also picky eater) and the doctor started to get concerned. We tried EVERYTHING to get her to drink milk and finally we "tricked" her (after 6 months of a milk strike).

She liked apple juice from a juice box so what I did was get her with her cousins that are relatively the same age  (kids are more willing to try something if other kids are willing) and I bought horizon organic strawberry milk for all the kids.

I told her it was "strawberry juice" and put a straw in it and passed one to each kid. They started drinking it and she took a sip. Her favorite flavor is strawberry (loves strawberry anything) so I knew chocolate was a no way and regular milk was no way. After she drank it I started buying strawberry flavored pediasure (so she would gain weight) and she freely drank it but never called it milk! It was always "strawberry juice." She stayed on that from about 16 months until 2-2.5 where she finally was 50% for weight and height. We also worked with her on eating issues all of which is now better. 

Now at 3 I can put regular milk into a sippy cup and just do a splash of pediasure but even now if I call it milk she says "no milk" so I say "do you want your pediasure or special strawberry  drink" 

She hardly ate cheese and gags at yogurt so I also buy Danimals drinkable strawberry yogurt for her  (it is a little high in sugar but it is the only yogurt she will eat...and ironically won't eat any but the strawberry flavored). 

I agree with everyone about the apple juice! It will rot her teeth and doing that in the middle of the night is a horrible idea. I ONLY give my kids apple juice from a juice box so I am never asked to put it in a sippy or a bottle. Water goes in character sippy cups, milk goes in clear sippy cups, and I buy fruitable apple juice which has veggies and only 7g of sugar in a juice boxes. They get those when we are out at the park or out to eat, or rarely at home. No confusion.....no tantrums!