How to Get Your Toddler to Drink Milk?

Keep offering the milk in a cup. If he wants it, he'll eventually come around to drinking it when he realizes that milk comes in a cup for a big boy and that bottles are for babies.

Try warming it up. My son will only drink it warm in a sippy cup. You can also try putting a little chocolate in it (not much, just a bit). In a sippy cup, fill about a 1/4 chocolate milk & 3/4 regular milk. My daughter likes vanilla milk & strawberry milk.

Try giving him organic whole milk, which tastes better, lasts longer in the fridge and is healthier than regular milk. Costco and BJs sell it for about $3 per 1/2 gallon carton.

My slim 3-year old also won't drink milk, but he loves Yo Baby Organic Yogurt, mozarella string cheese and the little Babybel gouda cheeses. Whatever you do, stay away from Pediasure (Kid's Ensure) - it's calorie packed but your son can become addicted to it and favor it over most foods. It took months to wean our son off it, by mixing it with organic milk.

Also stay away from chocolate milk in any form - the chocolate and sugar in it can limit calcium absorption. "Although both cacao and chocolate are rich in calcium, they contain oxalic acid as one of their 300 plus compounds. Oxalic acid interferes with the body’s absorption of calcium. Not only does oxalic acid prevent cacao products from being good sources of calcium but oxalic acid also interferes with calcium absorption. If you are consuming traditional chocolate with sugar then calcium loss is even greater as sugar excretes calcium reserves from our body even more so than oxalic acid.."

http://nourishedmagazine.com.au/blog/articles/examining-t...

http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/calcium/an01294

PS - check your son's weight against normal weight height charts. Our son is 39" and 31 lbs and looks slim compared to his friends but is actually average for his age:
http://pediatrics.about.com/library/growth_charts/nboystw...

My daughter will not drink plain milk either. I mix a little kefir into it, and she LOVES it. Kefir is similar to a drinkable yogurt, and Nancy's brand has one that is just fruit sweetened, no sugar added. It comes in different fruit flavors, and she loves getting to pick out which flavor we get each week at the store.

Does he eat any other dairy? I would try and focus on getting him to eat whole milk cheese and yogurt. You could also do frozen yogurt as a treat. Also if you put those yogurt tubes (I would do organic b/c there's no high fructose corn syrup) in the freezer, they're kind of like popsicles. Butter will also help to fatten him up. You could also try making smoothies. My 2.5 year old loves those! We make them together with some fresh fruit, ice, milk or yogurt, maybe some honey..whatever you want really and that could help introduce some milk into his diet too. I would keep giving him milk in a sippy or whatever and even if he won't drink it yet, just keep offering it to him. Have you warmed it inside these new cups? Maybe he just isn't used to the cold milk? Keep trying..eventually he will drink it again. I think it takes something like a 1000 times to introduce a new food to a child before they will eat it consistently, so although milk isn't totally new, it sort of is!

Have you tried fruit smoothies? What about yogurt? Yogurt smoothies? You just need to keep trying different foods.

As for his size, how tall is he? Is he really too thin, or just a small person? I remember being forced and forced to eat and having people make such a big deal out of me being too skinny. But then a switch was thrown after I was treated for anemia and I've been struggling with too much weight ever since.

I do not believe any child will starve. Unless they actually get some disease or problem from malnutrition, I believe it's best to just let them regulate their eating, choosing from a wide variety of foods you set in front of them. It's your job to put it there. It's not your job to cram it down his throat or bribe it down. I actually do a little bribing sometimes, but only with kids I know will go for it.

Why are you trying to push milk on him? May be his body is not processing milk well and this is his way of telling you....
You should be happy your baby refuses all the bad foods (cereals, milk, lollypoop, sweets) feed him fresh fodds and be happy. Skinny kid is way healthier thatn a chubby one!

Try Nestle strawberry powder. My 4 year old daughter guzzles huge glasses of milk whenever I make this for her. It adds protein and calcium, as well as other vitamins/minerals too. One thing, it does add some sugar, so I wouldn't advise making the mix everytime your son needs some milk. But it might help get him on track with drinking it out of a sippy. I have used this trick on my 13 month old too, when I switched her from formula to milk, and it really seemed to help. My husband was worried she's ONLY want strawberry milk, but she drinks it straight up all the time now. The strawberry milk just helped her get used to the whole idea.

Hope this helps! : )

I have a 27-mo old who is 24lbs on a good day, and he is touch or go on milk too. His GI doc and dietician have me adding Nestle Instant Breakfast ($8 at Sams for 24 packets) to his milk. Comes in chocolate and vanilla at Sams. Regular grocery have it in strawberry too. Same nutrients and calories as Pedisure, but a lot cheaper.

I am also adding a special powder called Duocal (recommended by GI doc) that is 50 calories per scoop. I haven't seen the weight gain, but at least he is holding his weight now and growing taller, which is a good sign. I also think it makes the milk tastes yummy.

Anyway, try the Instant Breakfast to get the milk down.

I used ovaltine to get my youngest to drink milk.

God bless!

I have a 3yr old that also does not like milk. He went from super expensive formula to goats milk and when we stopped the warm sippy cup before bed time, we gave up milk for good. I say stop trying he can get all he needs from other foods including yougrt, cheese and other healthy foods. I agree with the other parents that milk is not a most for our bodies.

Why not just give him the bottle back? If it's only at night time then I don't see the big deal in a bottle. Also, you could try adding some chocolate syrup to his milk. 2 Tablespoons of chocolate syrup only have 100 calories and 20 g of sugar. not bad for you at all and very yummy!

With my kids I didn't give them warm formula or milk becasue I didn't want to have them refuse a cup becasue it was cold. Also my kids never drank milk so I gave them choc milk. My dr's always said that wasn't good but I would rather them rink choc milk than no milk at all.

As for making your child gain weight he may just be a skinny kid.

sugar free nesquick and or kid ensure

try pediasure its expensive we have recently started to half pedia and half milk she will not drink straight milk but downs the pediasure

contrary to what many believe in this country you DO NOT need to drink milk from a cow, meant for a calf, to be a healthy human. there are whole countries that never have even seen cows milk. All your child needs is to be eating a varied diet that contains high calcium foods and your child will be fine. what about all the people who cant drink milk?

Milk really isn't good for us to be drinking anyway....the millions of dollars dairy farmers spend on advertising will disagree. If he is getting protein and calcium from other sources, I wouldn't push it.

All good suggestions. Also consider giving him milk with crushed ice.. He may find it to be a treat.

A bowl of cereal with milk counts as milk..