having trouble with cow's milk
So Nora pretty much hates cows milk. We can get her to take a few sips, but she obviously dislikes the taste. Once she figures out what is in the cup, she usually won't drink anymore. Today we're going to try watering it down and yesterday we successfully put it in her bottle of BM without any fuss (prob a little less than 3:1 ratio of BM to cows milk). My Mom so thoughtfully asked if I wanted her opinion (I didn't need to hear it... I already knew....) and she says I need to quit breastfeeding during the day and quit offering her BM during the day and that she will start to like cows milk. I have some concerns with this:
1- I want her to have some sort of milk. If it's not cows milk, then my milk is the only choice and I don't want to dry up if she's not going to take cows milk...
2- my Mom is not always right... she said I would have no trouble getting Nora to breastfeed and she was crying right along with me when she wouldn't latch... I told her that not every child likes cows milk and she was surprised by this... hence she just thinks it will happen, just like BFing...right...
3- I don't want to pump during the day to keep my milk supply up while experimenting with cows milk only during the day...(like i said, if she won't drink cows milk, I'd rather her have BM then no milk.
We've only been trying since Sunday and I think in total she's maybe had an ounce of cows milk (well maybe more since she took it in the bottle of BM yesterday)
WWYD at this point? Anyone have any advice or suggestions that I'm not thinking of? My co-worker (62 year old Great grandmother if that tells you anything...) said she told her granddaughter to put chocolate syrup or caramel in the milk to sweeten it up and that worked for her... 
hmmm... Anyone have helpful advice?
Re: having trouble with cow's milk
Cow's milk is a big change, for a FF or BF baby. If you've only been offering it since Sunday, I wouldn't get too worried about it yet. We took 4 weeks to transition from formula to milk, and by the end of the 4 weeks he was drinking milk just fine. But the first week or two he didn't really want it. It's just so different from what they are used to. And others take the approach of mixing milk and BM/formula in reducing ratios until they get used to it.
Personally, I wouldn't go sweetening it just yet. But I have heard of other people doing chocolate or strawberry milk at first to get them to drink it. I've also heard of adding yogurt to the milk and making a "smoothie" for them.
Could it be the temperature? When you give her BM in a cup, do you warm it?
does she like yogurt? put some yogurt in the milk (not a lot), and have her drink it like a smoothie. you can try the same with fruit, just give it a whiz through the blender.
does she like cheese/other dairy? i think they just have to get 16 oz total of dairy/day. do you WANT to wean her? if not, i wouldn't worry about it.
Not everybody likes milk. I don't. I have never liked milk. Once I stopped nursing, I never drank milk. I do like chocolate milk and milk in my cereal, but I don't even like the way plain milk smells. I know there are several people on the board who don't drink milk or whose kids don't drink milk. It's pretty common. Nora never HAS to drink milk. She can get her milk in through cheese, yogurt and other milk products.
IMO, even if you weaned today, it certainly wouldn't guarantee that Nora would ever start liking milk.
You shouldn't stop nursing until you and Nora are ready. I think that babies/toddlers see breastmilk completely differently than cow's milk, since nursing provides a connection to mom and BM tastes totally different from cow's milk. Breastmilk is better for her anyway, as it's custom made just for her.
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I would just keep offering it to her. Savannah drinks goat milk (has a cow milk allergy) but the only times I remember her refusing it were when she was used to nursing instead (which was a lot, she would throw major fits). I think she was protesting having a sippy instead of boobie.
My mom gave me condensed milk with corn syrup in it. I'm no expert but I wouldn't do that. I was addicted to sugar from birth!
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It took Natalie a really long time to drink a good amount of cow's milk. When I was weaning her from BM to cow's milk, she hardly drank any cow's milk. I weaned over a total of 5-6 weeks. She finished nursing when she was about 13 mo. old. She's now 16 mo. and is just starting to drink more than 8 oz. a day (yesterday she had a record 16 oz. -- not sure if she'll repeat it again).
DD doesn't need to get the same amount of cow's milk that she's getting from BM. If you're not yet ready to wean, definitely hold off; however, once you do wean, she might not be one of those children who drinks a lot of milk. That's fine. As long as she's getting fluids from water and fruit (still has enough wet diapers a day), she can get her dairy from other sources -- yogurt, cheese, etc. It's not the amount of milk they get a day that's important, it's the amount of dairy. Our pedi said since Natalie is on average drinking only about 8 oz. a day, one yogurt and one oz. of cheese a day would fulfill the amount of dairy she needs. We have occassionally given her chocolate milk (only as part of her afternoon snack because I don't want her to only drink chocolate milk). I also have friends that mix milk with yogurt to make smoothies. I use cow's milk in her oatmeal in the morning too which adds some more dairy for her.
Good luck!
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I had to slowly transition AT. When we started he was drinking 6oz of Form. So I started with 5oz of form, 1oz of CM. Did that for a few days then slowly increased the CM over the Form.
I know it is harder since your trying to keep your supply up.
We also had to warm it up in the beginning to get him to drink it.....now he drinks it stratight. It took a good 2 weeks to get him used to it. Just keep trying. GL!
I hope this is not discouraging to you, but I'm just going to give my experience since J is like Nora and also hates cow's milk.
I feel like I've tried EVERYTHING and he still won't drink it. Here's some of what I've tried...almond milk (dr. rec.), adding chocolate syrup, mixing fruit in sort of like a smoothie, and we've stopped nursing when he was about 13.5 months old. None of it helped - he just doesn't like the taste (I'm the same way). I try to make sure he gets plenty of other calcium & whole milk fat options (like the YoBaby yogurt). Other than that, I feel like I'm fighting a losing battle and dumping a lot of expensive, organic milk down the drain.
It took me a long time to come to this place & be OK with him not drinking milk, but I'm finally OK with it.
Hope things improve soon!