Topic: Eating Schedule and Milk Question for a 15 Month Old

Some kids just don't like milk! I would give her calcium fortified juices, fortified dry cereals as snacks and other calcium fortified snacks. There is calcium in broccoli if she likes that! As far as healthy fats- try adding a teaspoon of a healthy oil- like flax seed oil- to her meals. You can either cook it in a bit of oil or just drizzle it over her food. It will add a richer flavor and give her the healthy fats she needs.
-S.

hi,

my son has a ton of food allergies, so he cannot have milk and other calcium rich products either. I went to a nutritionist at children's hospital and she said to put 1 tbs of calcium gluconate powder in his food a day (or in juice). I like to spread it out throughout the day so it isn't all in one meal. You can order it through Freeda Vitamins online.

She also suggested (for increased fat intake) for palm oil spread (spectrum, it is in the nature section of most stores). She suugested this because he can't have dairy, so if your child isn't allergic to dairy then just use butter. Any type of healthy oil is a great way to add good fats. Olive oil, safflower, sunflower, canola.

Hi, my 16 mos ds is the same way. Our trick has been to put frozen blueberries on top of the yogurt, he's a fiend for them. If there is a fruit your dd loves, try putting small little pieces on top of the yogurt on the spoon, so she's more focused on the fruit. For avocado, we mash up it up really well and mix it with salad dressing--Dr. Bragg's Healthy Organic Vinaigrette. It tastes really good, has a lot of great stuff in it (liquid amino acids) without too much salt and no preservatives. Here's another trick: whatever you want her to eat that she doesn't like, put it on a spoon and dip it in something she does like. She'll get the taste on the tip of the spoon that she likes, and open up for the whole thing. For example, I make a beef liver mixture (yuck, but it's high in iron) and dip it in pasta sauce, which he loves. It all goes down in one swallow. I also make a meatloaf that has broccoli and cauliflower in it, which he doesn't like, but dipped in apple sauce he eats it no problem. Jarred baby food fruit mixtures are great for this, you could take a spoonful of yogurt and dip it pureed banana, mmmmm. My son really likes the sweet potato puree too, I can dip pretty much anything in that and he'll eat it. As for fat, I mix it in everything! I melt butter on the meatloaf, mix coconut oil into black beans (it's great for building their immune system), cook things with olive oil, and mix in melted cheese. I also get in egg yolk wherever I can, the meatloaf has about a dozen yolks in it. It's really about sneaking what you need them to eat into whatever it is they like to eat.
Hope this helps!

Soy nut butter is a good option for fat and protien if you don't want to try regular peanut butter just yet. We also gave my son the flavored soy crisp those don't have too much fat but do have lost of protien.

Are you warming up her milk? My son would not drink warm milk. Sometimes I would even put ice in it and he would drink it. Try a calcium and vitamin D supplement as well. Try different kinds of milk. Some kids like strawberry milk. good luck.

Doe sshe like scrambles eggs? as you can put milk and cheese in that..try soy milk (vanilla is great) as that has alot in it..ice cream? pile on the ice cream. Are you eating it in front of her, maybe make her want it as you are excited to eat it for yourself? good luck

When my little girl wasn't liking meats, she loved refried beans. Have you tried them? They're loaded with protein and iron. You can make a quesedilla with them using a tortilla, and maybe try to sneak a little cheese in with it. Peanutbutter is another good one for adding fat and protein.
For the milk, try using a regular cup, she might like the idea of drinking like mom and dad. Or a cup with a straw.
I think they go through these phases to drive us nuts. As if we're not worrying about them enough already!

She doesn't really need milk its the calcium and vitamin D that she needs and a lot of foods are fortified w/ it now like juices, breakfast cereals, and some pastas we get smart pasta I don't know exactly who makes it but it tastes just like regular pasta, bread is another one that you can find w/ calcium and vitamin D you can also try a different type of milk there is much more than cow milk out there soy, enriched rice milk, almond, oat, hemp, and the list goes on. My son is allergic to dairy and soy and he drink both rice milk and hemp. Maybe she avoids the dairy because it bothers her stomach?

My kids loved to dip their food in anything, and you can make a number of dips that have dairy products disguised in them. We have a great chip and vegetable dip that the kids love to dip bread, chips, and veggies into.
Will she drink soy milks, it is possible that the cows milk upsets her tummy and that is why she doesn't drink it. There are flavored and plain soy milks that are good (silk is my fav) Orange juice has calcium often added to it, so you can make sure she gets calcium that way.
My kids don;t eat too much before bed, so she may not wake even without the bottle, but otherwise any high calorie little snack might to it.
You could do little cubes of chicken or turkey, little cubes of high nutrition muffins, or bread with butter.
Good luck. My second child ate so little at this age I though he ws performing photosynthesis like a plant, but he thrived.

You will probably find that the more solid foods she eats, the more gradually they are digested and the longer she will stay satisfied, not waking up at night. At 15 months, she is more than capable of going all night without food - she will make up for it during the day.

There is no magic to cow's milk - you can try many other products for protein and calcium. I made French toast with a good soy milk and really soak the bread - I use Nature's Promise Flax & Grain (Stop & Shop) and it's pretty "holey" so it soaks up the soy/egg batter. You can try humus and calcium-fortified juices, make soy flour pancakes, and so on. For the breakfast foods, I just make up a batch and freeze them between layers of wax paper - I pop out what I need and reheat in the toaster oven. It's just as easy as the prepared frozen foods, and much more nourishing.

As others have suggested, she may have a sensitivity to dairy products - it's often called an allergy but in thousands of cases it isn't a true allergy, just an inability to digest the food because of an imbalance in the body. My son was lactose intolerant for years (hence all the soy) but after we switched him to a particular nutritional supplement, he is no longer lactose intolerant - lots of cheese and ice cream in this boy's diet now, with no problems! There is a kid version and an adult version of the supplement - they have US government patents so you know they are safe, and they are used for infants up thru elderly people, even by pregnant women. They have all the right blends of nutrients so you are getting everything you need at the same time as everything else you need! That's key. My son has not been sick since - not a cold, not a missed day of school, not one antibiotic...And he can eat everything. It was great for me to stop worrying about whether he was getting the nutrients he needed, and he really has blossomed! And now he doesn't refuse the things your daughter is refusing. Just another way to go.