Milk strike -- what to do?

Hope you don't mind my posting this here -- we're joining you guys in less than a month.

Anyhow, K&K don't drink a ton of milk -- about 8 oz. when they wake up, and then about 6 oz. in a smoothie after nap. They do eat a lot of yogurt and cheese, too.

Kevan has decided that he's not going to drink his milk in the morning -- he takes two sips and gives it back to me. I have tried warmer, colder, chocolate milk, smoothie, coaxing, threatening, everything. Nothing works. As you guys know, it is impossible to win a battle of wills with an almost 2-year-old, at least with my kids!

What should I do? This means he's only getting about 6 oz. of milk a day. He normally drinks water with a splash of juice with breakfast -- should I only give him the milk instead? I've tried, and he will NOT drink it. I don't want to withhold water until he drinks the milk -- or should I be doing that?

Should I just give him a yogurt in the morning instead? I tried with plain yogurt, and he turned up his nose. Should I just suck it up and give him flavored yogurt, despite all the sugar?

Should I get those little gummy calcium supplements? How much milk do kids this age really need? Thanks in advance!

(He eats fine otherwise, so I'm not worried about his nutrition in general.)

ETA -- Kevan drinks his post-nap smoothie as usual, so I don't think this is some sudden aversion to milk. Just stubbornness.

 

It's fine if they don't drink much milk, and our ped wasn't worried about calcium since both our kids eat a lot of yogurt and Amy eats a lot of cheese too. But he did recommend a vitamin D supplement -- apparently the recommended daily amt of Vit D for kids has gone up in the past few years. We've found the gummy ones at both Pharmaca and Costco.

Also, we give ours flavored yogurt now -- usually organic, but it still has sugar. I just wouldn't give them the sugar-free kind because IMO, real sugar is much healthier than artificial sweeteners. If you really don't want them to have the sugar, you can mix plain yogurt with baby food or pureed fruit (though, depending on what kind of fruit you use, you still might need a little sweetener).

 

My girls dont' drink much milk at all. It's fine by me and my ped. They get lots of cheese, yogurt, brocoli, leafy greens with calcium.

We always do flavored yogurt. It's really not that much sugar in my opinion for the benefits. I think yogurt is awesome!

 

QUOTE(Minette @ May 15 2009, 03:21 PM) [snapback]1314978[/snapback]
I just wouldn't give them the sugar-free kind because IMO, real sugar is much healthier than artificial sweeteners.


I couldn't agree more with this!

Joel has been a little difficult when it comes to milk... and eventually I found he'd drink it w/ strawberry flavoring. I tried chocolate, vanilla, but he wouldn't drink a sip until I did strawberry. I use the carnation instant breakfast powder because at least it's not sugar/flavoring only, there are quite a bit of vitamins and minerals in there as well, so it makes me feel a little less guilty for flavoring his milk. Also, after doing this for a couple of months now, he's starting to drink plain milk again in the morning, but not throughout the rest of the day, so I'm hoping it's a bit of a phase.

 

My kids don't drink any milk except in cereal. Milk is not medically necessary and it's no big deal they don't drink it as long as they are getting their vit D and calcium other ways. It appears your kids are just fine with the cheese and yogurt they are having.

I don't think giving them sugar filled milk is necessary or woth the trade off.

 

OMG we are so on the same page, Bear has been on a milk strike for about 3 weeks, and i can see he has lost weight in that time, and i am freaking out a bit (put in a call to the pedi today)

what i have been doing is giving him 8 oz--are you ready?--while he SLEEPS!! i put it in a nuby soft-spout and he sucks the whole thing down. i know it's a no-no, i was wary about the toothbrushing, but since i noticed him losing weight, i decided it's a trade-off and hopefully will only last a couple more weeks. he used to drink 6 oz in the morning and 6 in the afternoon, but now he's just down to those 8....so i'll be looking for more replies!!

these CHILDREN, i tell ya!

 

I wouldn't worry about it either. Mine really only drink about 6 oz in the morning, and sometimes milk with cereal, if they are having cereal for breakfast. Some mornings though they want orange juice so they don't even get the morning milk. But, they also usually have yogurt for either breakfast or lunch, cheese somewhere in there, sometimes a dark green veggie, beans, and then there's always vitamins. I've never felt like they "have" to have a certain amount of milk. They do get like half a teaspoon of Ovaltine in their milk to make it chocolatey. For yogurt, I still buy a big thing of plain yogurt (I'll make the TS homemade yogurt one day! ), and I cut up fruit and add honey for a sweetener. And, this is very important, I CANNOT stir it for them! They must stir it themselves!

 

Ditto pps - as long as they're getting calcium, D, protein & fat elsewhere, the milk really doesn't matter. Almonds have some calcium - do they like almond butter? And ditto the suggestion of plain yogurt with fruit. If they don't like chunks, you can puree it.

Funny how they pick absurd little things to be stubborn about! Where's the "tearing your hair out" smiley? :crazy:

 

Thank you, guys! I'm going to stop worrying about it, then, and just keep offering -- and then offering more yogurt later in the day. Both kids eat beans with gusto, but the leafy green veggies, not so much. I do hide spinach puree in meatloaf and meatballs...

Holly, good tip on the almond butter! Nadia likes it, so I do buy it, but hadn't thought to give it to K&K in a long time...they do eat peanut butter and sunflower seed butter, so I'm sure they'll like it.

Sandra -- no WAY! So Bear doesn't wake up at all during that? There's no way I'd be able to do that with Kevan -- for one thing, he sleeps face down with his blankie over his head and his butt in the air, and for another, I'd be petrified of waking him up. He's not losing weight, though.

Kelly, when Nadia was small, I used to make my own yogurt -- I obsessed about all the stuff in the Super Baby Food book for awhile. (That book is great at making a normal mom feel totally inadequate, yeesh.) I could never get it to work in a warm oven or whatever, so then I bought a yogurt maker. And then K&K came along, and I started buying tubs of yogurt at the store, LOL.

 

MIne don't drink any milk. They don't like it and it doesn't agree with them. They eat a ton of cheese and they eat yogurt so I have never been concerned. I myself hate plain milk so I know I didn't grow up on it. I'm sure what they are getting is plenty.

 

DS went on a complete strike several months ago and I was worried because it was so abrupt. I thought something was wrong.

We did go ahead with the Vitamin D Supplement and a regular vitamin. DD loves her milk but she's getting the supplements as well. They both think they are candy.

The pedi wasn't worried as long as he was getting calcium from other sources. Milk is NOT the only way to get the vitamin D/calcium in the diet.

Now, the weight loss. If you were giving whole milk, then that loss of fats would need to be made up somewhere. Peanut butter is AWESOME. Avocados are AWESOME. Bananas are great. Cheese is good, but not the sliced kind. We had to be careful, because we moved into constipation kind of fast! Summer is here and we'll be using ice cream for some fats, too.