1 year old won't take milk!!! - Infant Care (up to 18 months old) Message Board

simplyheather · 07-21-2008, 10:30 AM

Hey, I haven't been on here for a while, since I was pregnant, but now I have a problem.

My son just turned 1 this past Saturday, and for months he has been refusing to take formula. The only bottle he would take would be as soon as he woke up in the morning, and for the rest of the day he would throw it on the floor. I have tried EVERYTHING. The doctors said it was ok he was giving it up, and not to worry.

Well, this last weekend I started trying to do the transition to Whole Milk... that went over well *note the sarcasm!!! lol*
I tricked him the first day and for his morning bottle he had a mix of milk and formula... but refuses to take milk the rest of the day. I tried warming it up, keeping it cold, I even put some flavoring in it.... NOTHING! He refuses to drink milk at all. I am worried b/c he needs it so much. I just don't know what else to do! He will drink his juice and water, but not the most important thing! He also is VERY stubborn! And I tried to just not give him anything so that he'd be so hungry he'd drink the milk (kinda mean, I know but good ole doc told me to try it!!) And he just threw a fit and cried for an hour and half (usually a happy boy) until I just gave in and fed him. I just don't know what to do anymore. I'm getting frustrated.

He eats well as far as food is concerned. He'll eat anything I put in front of him for the most part, but just won't take the milk.
Should I try to change to 2% or something?

Any suggestions would be so much appreciated!!!!

Heather

daisychain_0506 · 07-21-2008, 11:52 AM

I changed my DD onto whole milk when she turned 1 and that was 6 weeks ago. Until then she was breastfed. She still doesn't like it much. I have used 1% the odd time when I ran out of homogenized. She will drink it more. Breastmilk is thinner than homogenized which is why I think she likes 1% better but I don't want to give it to her regularly. What I do is mix full fat milk with water so it's a bit thinner and she'll drink more then. That way she is still getting the fat etc that they need for brain development but she's also getting a bit of water which won't do any harm. It's better than 2% because then they are missing the fat which they need. Gradually I'm lessening the amount of water that I mix in (started at about 75% milk/25% water). She also eats enough for an army and sleeps through the night so I don't worry about her not getting enough nutrition or being hungry. There are also ways to get milk into them in other ways....scrambled eggs, breakfast cereal etc

Good luck.

Viktorria · 07-21-2008, 05:07 PM

Heather, a friend had a similar issue. She would add either a little bit of sugar or chocolate syrup to the milk to sweeten it and make her son want it more. This isn't the healthiest solution, so she used it short term and gradually transitioned to straight milk.

luckydarlin · 07-21-2008, 06:57 PM

When I tried switching my daughter to milk back in April when she turned one, she wanted NOTHING to do with it. I ended up giving her some strawberries one day and she loved the taste - I then flavored her milk with the strawberry powder flavoring (which the doctor told me "whatever works is absolutely fine") and she's liked it ever since.

My only suggestion would be - for now while you are still trying the transition, be sure to give your little one lots of dairy in other forms until he will take the milk so he is at least getting that. If he likes oatmeal, mix it with the milk and if he'll take that, he's at least getting something too.

Good luck! ...who said babies LOVE milk?!?!?!

forevergimpy · 07-22-2008, 12:22 PM

Heather,
I'm new to this board but have gone through this as well. My daughter went through quite a milk refusal stage. We made sure to give her plenty of yogurt and cheese. She also loves avacados which have lots of good fat in them.
As with any food refusal, we just kept offering it to her. Eventually she did accept it and now LOVES it! Our doc suggested trying the flavored Rice or Soy milk to see if the refusal was in any way an indication of allergy, but in our case she just refused that too. Another thing to note, she does great with organic whole milk but doesn't like regular milk (and has tummy problems with it to boot). Keep trying, and good luck!