How to transition when she hates milk?

GuitaristsGirl · April 2012

With DS, the transition from formula to WCM was easy - I offered him warm milk in a sippy, in place of his warm bottle, and he chugged it! From there, he never looked back. Kid LOVES milk.

Now, with DD, it's time to think about transitioning her off of formula. . . but she hates milk! We consistently offer it to her in a sippy at meals and etc., and she takes a sip or two then chucks it across the room Embarrassed I once offered it in place of a bottle (i.e. when she was hungry), and wow!, was she pissed!

What do I do? Seems like a silly questiom but the only way I know to move from formula is to replace it with milk...

Mouseygail · April 2012

I know some people here added kefir to the milk to change the flavor. Others tried gradually mixing milk in with the formula to get their child used to the taste. DS didn't really drink much milk for the first few months...just a little here and there, but he loved cheese and yogurt, so I didn't worry too much about him missing out on the fat and calcium from the milk. (and he loved drinking water, so I didn't have to worry about fluids either)

GuitaristsGirl · April 2012

Mouseygail:
I know some people here added kefir to the milk to change the flavor. Others tried gradually mixing milk in with the formula to get their child used to the taste. DS didn't really drink much milk for the first few months...just a little here and there, but he loved cheese and yogurt, so I didn't worry too much about him missing out on the fat and calcium from the milk. (and he loved drinking water, so I didn't have to worry about fluids either)

What about from the standpoint of making him full? When it was traditionally bottle-time, would you just offer more finger foods?

Mouseygail · April 2012

I guess I never really "replaced" his bottles, I just dropped them. I frequently offer him snacks, but never at any regular interval. Once the bottles were dropped, he started eating even better at meals, so I guess he probably WAS hungrier, but like I said, I just offered snacks here and there.

kgs0505 · April 2012

Try putting it in a bottle instead of the sippy and see what happens. M loves milk too, but the sippy thing we are still working on. He plays with it mostly. But give him fluids in a bottle, he'll suck them right down.

jamalynn · April 2012

My friend had something similar with her daughter, but the transition was from BM to cow's milk. Her DD didn't like milk so she did vanilla soymilk (or almond milk) because it was sweet, then transitioned to original soymilk (or almond milk) as it is less sweet, then eventually to cow's milk. Maybe just start with something a little sweeter than cow's milk and slowly wean him down.

ladychicago · April 2012

Ditto PP...have you tried milk in a bottle? Anna freaked out when we gave her a milk sippy instead of a formula bottle, but a milk bottle was no big deal. Mind you, she drank water out of her sippy like a champ, so it wasn't a sippy issue. Probably more of a comfort and/or bottle association issue.

Once I figured out she would chug milk from the bottle, I knew it was a sippy issue and not a milk issue - and could tackle the problem appropriately. For us, we had to go cold turkey (which resulted in tantrums and little milk for 5-6 days), but once she knew the bottles weren't coming back, she started drinking milk from her sippy like it was no big deal.

kme930 · April 2012

ladychicago:
For us, we had to go cold turkey (which resulted in tantrums and little milk for 5-6 days), but once she knew the bottles weren't coming back, she started drinking milk from her sippy like it was no big deal.

We ended up going cold turkey also. My pedi encouraged us to not think of it as replacing the formula bottles with milk sippies, but rather a transition (in his opinion, all at once was easier than gradual) from one style of eating (almost entirely formula in bottles with some solids thrown in for practice) to another (almost entirely food with milk thrown in as a beverage). We didn't do any transition to milk until he was 1 year old, but we went cold turkey on dropping all bottles during the day and just focusing on food with one night time bottle.

He protested for about a week, but adding a little kefir got him used to the idea of milk (he loved the taste of yogurt, so it was palatable for him) and before long he was drinking milk sippies during the day like a champ!

And then we dropped the nighttime bottle. He didn't like that too much, but after a couple days, he got used to the new routine.

emmyloustu · April 2012

Another vote for kefir here! Eliza would take milk from a bottle just fine, but refused it in a sippy despite drinking other liquids in a sippy. Added some kefir, called it strawberry milk & that was that! We still add it once a day for the probiotic.

GuitaristsGirl · April 2012

Oh, wise ladies of SAIF, she's on my lap drinking milk from a bottle as I type! It never occurred to me that it would be a sippy problem, as it seems he knows how to use one given the large amount of liquid that runs down her neck! (Meaning, to me, that at least she knew how to get liquid out.)

So how the heck do I tackle this?? Ha!!

And what the heck is kefir and where do I buy it? Is it still something to try if her problem isn't really a taste aversion after all?

emmyloustu · April 2012

GuitaristsGirl:
Oh, wise ladies of SAIF, she's on my lap drinking milk from a bottle as I type! It never occurred to me that it would be a sippy problem, as it seems he knows how to use one given the large amount of liquid that runs down her neck! (Meaning, to me, that at least she knew how to get liquid out.)
So how the heck do I tackle this?? Ha!!
And what the heck is kefir and where do I buy it? Is it still something to try if her problem isn't really a taste aversion after all?

Kefir is essentially liquid yogurt & ours in a special section of our dairy case. Life way is the brand we buy.

Elizarevused milk from a sippy long after we weaned from milk in a bottle & the kefir was just the incentive she needed. She will drink all kinds of milk now in any vehicle!

emmyloustu · April 2012

GuitaristsGirl:
Oh, wise ladies of SAIF, she's on my lap drinking milk from a bottle as I type! It never occurred to me that it would be a sippy problem, as it seems he knows how to use one given the large amount of liquid that runs down her neck! (Meaning, to me, that at least she knew how to get liquid out.)
So how the heck do I tackle this?? Ha!!
And what the heck is kefir and where do I buy it? Is it still something to try if her problem isn't really a taste aversion after all?

Kefir is essentially liquid yogurt & ours in a special section of our dairy case. Life way is the brand we buy.

Elizarevused milk from a sippy long after we weaned from milk in a bottle & the kefir was just the incentive she needed. She will drink all kinds of milk now in any vehicle!

Mrs.Reem · April 2012

You could just replace it with water and give calcium rich foods instead. Milk isn't a natural replacement for formula/breast milk so it's really no big deal. We actually limit milk at our house. The girls drink mostly water but eat lots of yogurt and cheese.

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