Too much milk? How to cut back...

I've been giving my little ones 5-6 ou. of milk in the morning and the same amount before bed in sippies. They have a few sippies of watered-down milk throughout the day in conjunction with water. My pedi says no more than 18-20 ou. of milk...'fraid mine are getting a bit more than 20 ou. and lately their poop has been rock hard little nuggets (a sign of too much milk right?) Any advice on how to cut back other than watering it down? They want a sippy of milk regularly so I want to appease them without giving them more than they need...

 

Are they getting other dairy products during the day (like yogurt)? I would continue with the amounts in your morning and bedtime sippies and perhaps offer them either two watered down sippies of 3oz milk & water during the day, or offer 1 6oz sippy of milk during the day and then the rest of the time they just get water sippies. That total would be about 18 oz, you could go a little less if they are getting other dairy products throughout the day as well.

PS: On a wholly unrelated note, I love your avi!

 

I would push other dairy-related products as well. My girls Love yogurt! Also, how many snacks do they get a day?

 

I've had some similar problems with my boys--they love milk, and would be happy to drink a gallon a day. Our problem is a little different because they wanted to drink it out of bottles, and I only gave it to them before bed and in the morning, but they wanted to drink like 12-16 ounces of milk in those two periods. I just took away the bottles, which helped some.

However, my former dentist is very anti-sippy cup, and he was telling me that it's really bad for their teeth to run around during the day with a sippy cup unless it has water. Now I'm not willing to totally give up sippy cups and move to regular cups for milk. So I just give them a milk in the morning and evening, and water during the day.

 

I'd keep 3 milk sippies but only give water otherwise... it's bad for their teeth to sip on milk all day (even watered down), plus it might fill them up too much.

 

I agree with Fran. :good: They might fight you on the water for a few days but once they realize they aren't getting milk, they'll drink it.

 

Jack has super bad constipation issues (James not at all) so he is restricted to no more than 16 total ounces in a day. We totally cut out milk during the day. They get a cup in the morning and a cup at night and the rest of the day they get water only. It was really hard the first few days, but now they don't even miss thier milk in the middle of the day.

 

Thanks so much ladies! I will try three 6-ounce sippies of milk/day and water inbetween. Really appreciate your terrific advice!

 

LAdies who have cut down on the milk.. has it increased their appetite at all?? I'm thinking that mine are getting too much milk (20 or so oz) and I'm wondering if that is the reason they are hardly eVER hungry??

Advice?

 

for my oldest when she was little she drank a lot of milk and wouldn't eat her food. With the twins, I'm seeing echoes of the same since they eat a lot more when I don't offer them milk first off. I give it to them after their meals now (which they have with juice or water). We have a new issue I'm working with now, the won't eat as much as they should because they KNOW they will get milk afterwards. I'm considering going cold turkey. Not sure how to do that since they also get breastmilk. (i'm stuck to that ball and chain pump for one and breastfeed the other)

Milk is a big constipator as well, so I would say yes that it could be a sign of too much being consumed, but you also have to take in consideration the other foods they've been eating. Foods high in iron, or with less fiber also block mine up.