18 months- How much milk?

BabymakesFIVE10 · October 2010

My daughter is 18 months old and drinks ALL day long. She drinks about 5 sippy cups of milk and 5 cups of apple juice(half water, half juice b/c she drinks so much). She will not drink water alone. I'm considering watering down her milk to ease her off? How much should she be drinking? TIA!

led2009 · October 2010

Milk, she should be getting around 16 oz a day. As for water, I'm not sure what to do. DD only drank milk or water til she was 1. Now she gets juice mixed in it once a day. Otherwise, it's strictly water.

mason15 · October 2010

I'd wean off the juice before milk. DS has never even had juice at 20 mos. Well maybe once or twice, but certainly not daily. It's empty calories and not good for their teeth. Anyway, I'd try watering the juice down more. We offer milk only at meals and at bedtime, so he drinks the equivalent of 2 sippies a day I would guess. We leave water out, but he only seems to drink it at snack or if he's really thirsty. He doesn't walk around with water or anything.

iteachk · October 2010

DD drinks three 6 oz cups of milk every day, as well as 1-2 cups of water mixed with a little juice.

A*Bride · October 2010

Is she a good eater? I don't think it is a problem as long as she is eatting well but I would assume she is filling up on milk and juice. I only offer milk once in the morning, at nap and bedtime. Otherwise he only drinks water with occassional juice.

mma1029 · October 2010

I'd talk to your pedi about how milk your LO should have - ours told us to keep it under 24 oz per day, too much milk and it can start to seep other important vitamins and nutrients out of their body. DS has about a 1/2 sippy of milk at breakfast, 1/2 at morning snack, a full one at lunch and a full one at dinner, and water in between. Do you have an 18 month well-baby check up soon?

I'd cut back on the juice too, like other ppl said - no need for them to have it and maybe if you slowly back off the juice with more and more water instead over time, she won't notice and you can get her on strictly water.

excitedforlittleone · October 2010

My pedi said no more than 24 oz a day. He gets like 4-5 oz in the morning 4 in the afternoon and then 4 before bed.

BabymakesFIVE10 · October 2010

Thanks for all the replies and info! She isn't a *bad* eater, but she's very very picky. When we make something she likes (broccoli , green beans, pasta, etc) she will eat more than her 5 & 1/2 year old sister. But she won't eat anything cut up, so that limits us too. She just had her 1 year check up 3 months ago(we moved out of state and lost insurance for a month and then we had to be worked back in) at 15 months old. Her pedi didn't seem to be concerned, just said keep trying foods. She's 95th % in height and only 25th % in weight, which he also seemed to think was fine. She was 34 inches tall and 23 pounds at that appointment. and the juice, about 2 weeks ago I started actually only giving her about 1/4 of juice and the rest water, b/c she was drinking so much. She literally has a cup in her mouth all day long. I think we will start giving her a cup of milk at breakfast, lunch, and dinner. and offering water the rest of the time, hopefully she'll learn to love it.. LOL. Thanks for the help ladies! Sorry for the novel!

TeamK07 · October 2010

IMO that seems like a lot. My DS around 15 months was drinking a lot of milk - probably almost 40oz a day. I told the pedi that and she said he should be getting NO MORE than 24 oz a day (8 oz with each meal max) then have water inbetween meals.

To transition him to less milk - I offered water with a splash of juice between meals and offered more snacks. After a month or so he didn't need the juice in the water anymore and started eating more food at meal time (yey!). Also, if there is milk left over after his meal I put ice and water in it.

kennifer7 · October 2010

That seems like a lot of milk. our pedi said no more than 16-20 oz a day, she gets 8oz at breakfast and 8 oz at dinner, for lunch she drinks water, she would drink water all day long if we let her, especially if its super cold. anyway, she has only had severly watered down juce a handful of times cause to me its just empty calories and she loves water and i dont want that to change.

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