Getting My 1 Year Old to Drink Whole Milk

Try organic. My 21 mo daughter was inconsistent with drinking milk until I offered her whole organic, and she loves it! My husband is a big milk drinker and loved DD's milk as a "treat" but he usually drinks 1% or fat free, so I recently switched him to fat free organic. He swears it is absolutely the best milk he has ever had and cannot believe it's fat free. It costs about 1 1/2 times that of traditional milk, but to me it is well worth it to know they are drinking a product that is better for them, the cows and the planet. Plus, she actually finishes a 1/2 gallon before it's expires :)

As far as the transition off the nipple, I would recommend skipping the bottle and going to a cup. Have you offered her anything from a cup yet? Try a sippy cup, a cup with a straw, or even a regular cup. It's not an easy transition whether it's from a bottle or breast, so be prepared to try a few things before you find what woks for her. I don't even want to think of how much I spent on different cups, just to have my DD prefer the $4 take and toss ones!

Good luck!

A lot of people have suggested soy milk. Before giving your baby soy milk, do a google search about soy milk and estrogen. There are so many other better alternatives (yogurt, goats milk, toddler formula). Since the jury is still out on soy milk's dangers, I would avoid giving it to my toddler. Adding sugar in the form of chocolate syrup to milk to get it to taste better just seems counterproductive (getting her to drink something healthy by making it unhealthy?). Also, a 13 month old really doesn't need a bottle; I would give her a sippy cup.

Humans do not need cow's milk you can get the good fat and protein she needs in other foods: goats milk has the closest protein chain to human milk also try rice milk, almond milk, soy milk from a sippy cup none of my kids took a bottle ever either. You could try skim instead of whole milk if you are still nursing once or twice a day. Does your child eat yogurt and cheese or walnuts? If so then she is getting good fats she needs for brain and body development. Good luck!
J. O

She doesn't need milk. Does she eat yogurt and cheese? Humans don't need to drink cow milk, in fact, many can't tolerate it! Try alternatives like soy and almond milk. If she doesn't want them, then just wait a month and try again.

The suggestion to mix the proportion of breast milk to whole milk is a very good one. This worked well for us with both kids. Our daughter, who required very expensive specialty formula, was particularly resistant to transitioning to milk. It took us about a month to slowly wean her to milk by gradually letting her get used to the taste and letting her system get used to the change.

Have you tried a different sippy cup? Most kids like the ones with the rubber tips first and won't go straight to the ones with the hard plastic tips. Do you offer it consistently? Every time she sits down for a meal it should be there in front of her. Don't force it on her just let it sit there and let her make the choice to try it. It will take some time but it will happen. Don't keep putting other stuff in it as that will only create a bad habit. If she truly doesn't like it try other kids of milk like soy, almond or goat's milk. Have you warmed it or are you giving it to her cold? She's used to your warm milk straight from the breast so cold milk from the fridge could be turning her off to it.

My first refused whole milk too when I tried to take her off of the bottle (formula fed though). Personally, I do not like whole milk either. I switched to skim and I had no problems. My doctor was not concerned about her getting enough fat in her diet (from the whole milk) because she ate enough cheese, yogurt, etc. daily to make up for it.

Just a thought and idea!!

Maybe she is like me I just do not like milk. I am with the other mom that stated there were other ways to feel your child's needs that milk covers.

Neither of my kids ever took a bottle. I started them with sippy cups early on. Try the Nuby brand - it has a soft spout that breastfed babies really like. Don't drive yourself crazy. Your daughter is never going to take it from you, when she's got you and your breasts right there. She is going to hold out for the good stuff. But once she is in a daycare situation, she will drink when she gets thirsty enough. There have been days where my daughter barely drinks anything, but she is fine. Your daughter will be fine.

Kids don't need milk to be healthy. My oldest boy doesn't like milk, and has a slight intolerance to it anyways, so he never drinks it, and he is very healthy. There are lots of healthy kids out there with milk allergies too. I would just focus on getting her to eat a healthy diet in general, if you're worried about dairy try giving her cheese and stuff.

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I had the same problem with my baby. We tried everything in the book. What helped with my little girl was putting it in a cup with a straw (I highly recommend the Take and Toss brand cups with reusable straws. They are as leak proof as a cup and straw can be) and adding strawberry syrup. I bought the Hershey's sugar free syrup. I started putting a good amount in her milk, then as she began to drink it more and more, I slowly started to put less and less. It was a very long process for us, but it worked. We started when she was 12 months and now at 16 she is finally drinking milk.

Also, I didn't have enough milk for this, but if you can pump, you can start with 3/4 breast milk 1/4 whole milk, then slowly start adding more and more milk every time. I was able to do that a few times and she drank it, but I couldn't pump enough to keep doing it.

Our pediatrician said that babies breastfed past 6 months are often milk snobs. That was certainly true for my little girl! ^_^ Good luck!

try different types of sippy cup and bottles. my one year old loved these little 'take and toss' type sippy cups that had indentations on the bottle part that he could grip and hold himself, and they were small enough that he could manage them. he used them for a long time. then progressed to sippy cups. also the nuk brand sippy cup worked well at the beginning. he also was never given a bottle until he started drinking milk at a year old.

Like others have said there's lots of ways for baby to get their nutrition. Like someone else has mentioned it may be that baby doesn't like the bottle itself.

One of mine hated the bottle. Went straight from breast to sippy cup(I'm embarrased to say how long it took us to figure that one out) :-) . A neighbor of mine had a similar situation. She went from breast to water bottle.

Good Luck!

I agree with Jen and Sarah. Your baby does not need milk. In fact we and other countries with the highest dairy consumption have the highest levels of osteoporosis in the world. Those cultures who don't drink dairy milk, or consume little have the lowest rate of osteoporosis.
I would suggest trying almond, rice, coconut, hemp and lastly soy milk. Just because of the high allergy rate to soy.
Good for you for exclusively breastfeeding your daughter!
L.