What does your toddler drink & how much drink per day?

Casey - posted on 12/18/2010

It wasnt so much that I made him wean, at around 11 months he started wanting less milk, he would feed last thing at night before bed, once during the night and then again around 6am, then after his first birthday he started asking for breakfast instead of milk,over 2 weeks he cut out morning and night feeds and then stopped drinking much at night, he would suck for security for a minute or two then want to go back to bed so i started him on cows milk for that night feed and he took it straight away, he never really asked for it again after that, he pretty well fed just for comfort, he wasnt drinking much moreso eating, weetbix for breakfast, fruit for lunch with crackers and cheese then mashed vegies for tea, he has always loved food.

Diane - posted on 12/07/2010

Thank you everyone for responding. I realize I worded my question poorly. I didn't mean to say that I was trying to take milk away from him, but since he was drinking over a quart of milk per day he did need to decrease the milk intake & then gradually over time it needs to continue to lessen at least a little.

But in the past few weeks he suddenly doesn't want milk at all. I do still encourage it at breakfast & he's good about drinking it then (usually 6-8 oz). The rest of the day he gets either very diluted juice or just plain water. I loved the suggestion of rooibos tea & have some in the house so I made him some, but he had an allergic reaction (he has several food allergies & we just did some blood tests regarding that yesterday). So I'm going to work out the food allergy issue & then possibly offer some other herbal teas & see how he does with that, just for variety really.

Randi - posted on 12/07/2010

My 20 month old son has 30 ounces of soy milk, 20 ounces of juice, and about 40 ounces through the course of the day.

Laura Zoey - posted on 12/06/2010

Casey, how did you get him to wean at 13 months? My son is also 20 months and he still asks for boob like 7 times a day! I feed him meals at the table and give him water too, but he has never eased up on boob time :) I was reading that most kids don't self wean til after two years so maybe that's how Eric is, but at 13 months he wasn't even eating three meals a day! I could barely get him to eat any food in a day until about 18 months.

How did you do it?

Casey - posted on 12/05/2010

my son is 20 months and self weened of the boob at 13 months, he now has 140ml of cows milk at night and only water during the day, he will drink up to a litre of water on any day.

Kate - posted on 12/05/2010

I Give both my sons water they love it during the nite.. My youngest son he has half milk n dosent want the rest. he still has calcium during the day ie yoghurt etc

Paula - posted on 12/04/2010

My son has never been a fan of milk so I struggle to get one cup down him. It is full cream which I will continue until he is 2. I do give him heaps of yoghurt and cheese to meet the calcium needs. He loves water though and always has a couple of cups on the go. I give him a little diluted juice with breakfast as he sees his older sister getting it.

Danielle - posted on 11/30/2010

I find that my 19 mo old daughter is drinking alot of milk and gets very fussy without it because she has a lot of teeth coming in. I offer her food all throughout the day, sometimes she'll want some and other times she wont. She used to eat ALOT but in the past month more than half of her diet has been milk.

Louisa - posted on 11/30/2010

My daughter is 19 months, she has a sippy cup of milk first thing in the morning and before she brushes her teeth at night, she won't drink water in the day, if I only offer water or milk in the day, she just won't drink - last time I tried she refused to drink for 48 hours other than her bedtime and morning drink and I got too worried to keep at it, but she drinks about 6 cups of very diluted squash a day and brushes her teeth regularly so I don't think its a problem. She eats absolutely everything except for brussel sprouts!

Ashley - posted on 11/28/2010

my so is also 19months old He drinks milk water and juice. I give him milk in the mornings and lunch at snack time he gets water or juice and dinner he gets milk or water but he drinks water every day( even when he dont want to) and he only gets juice when he's a good boy.

Bernadette - posted on 11/28/2010

why take the milk away? My daughter is the same age, and drinks lots of milk (cows milk) and lots of water, and that's about it. She has had juice on a couple of occasions, but is not really interested in it, which is something I'm glad about due to all the sugar, etc. Milk is good for calcium, etc, and I don't see any point in taking it away. I lived on milk (hardly drank any water unless I was really really thirsty) up until early adulthood! I have never had a broken bone. I still drink it a fair bit today, although I drink more water than milk now. My daughter looks like being a big milk drinker as well, and I have no intention of trying to get her to give it up.

Cindy - posted on 11/27/2010

my daughter is 19 mo old and I give her 8 oz of milk a day and 8 to 12 oz of juice. I dilute the juice so she gets plenty of fluid because she doesn't like pure water. Always use 100% no sugar added juice. This amount was recommended by my dr.

Patricia - posted on 11/27/2010

my son is the same age, he drinks or eats whatever you put infront of him. He is drinking about 40 oz of hole milk and about 8 oz of water or herbal tea we don't let him drink anything else

Linda - posted on 11/27/2010

I never really went from formula/breast milk to milk. My pediatrician told us our daughter needs at least 8oz a day of milk and I try to avoid juice. SO, I give her diluted juice for breakfast, only water throughout the day and then a cup of milk with her afternoon snack. She stays hydrated without extra sugars. If your son is used to having milk before bed, I would have that be the one time a day (as opposed to my snack time).

Samantha - posted on 11/26/2010

There's no reason to take milk away, it's still thebest thing for them, but if you are going to, besides water I give my son those V8 fusion type of drinks, or the Arthur's Smoothies, full servings of fruit and vegetables in there, if you're going to take away some milk you have to re-add nutrients that just aren't in juice. Also, I found that soy beverages had helped, more nutrients, different flavors and not all the fat.

Tammy - posted on 11/26/2010

hi, my daughter is also 19 months, i make sure she has 3 full bottles of milk a day thats all she needs

works out at 27oz, but she really only needs 21oz of milk a day :)

she also drinks a lot of juice and water which is normal at this age

Tobi - posted on 11/26/2010

Shaanu loves water so she drinks about 4 cups of water a day. She never liked milk so when I weaned her at 15 months I learnt if I put a tiny bit of drinking chocolate in her warm milk she will accept it.She has 2 cups of this daily.She also eats a lot of yoghurt so that keeps up her calcium intake and occassionally I give her diluted juice.

Brenda - posted on 11/26/2010

Hi Diane, Richard drinks +/-200ml 2%cows milk in the morning when he wakes up and in the evening before bed. Sometimes when he sleeps late i skip the morning bottle and only give him a cup of Rooibos tee (little sugar and milk added) he drinks lots of water in between and loves dinking a sip of his water/juice (very diluted) /tee with his lunch & supper meals. I am not sure if you are familiar with Rooibos Tee - it is a South African product and very healthy - rich in anti oxidants and no caffienne as you would find in cylon tee. I often give it to him plain without milk or sugar, as it has a sweetish flavour in itself. Try to get hold of some, otherwise give me your postal address and I will post you a packet.
Keep Well
Brenda Murray.

Tiffany - posted on 11/25/2010

My 19mth old son will drink up to 1 litre of water a day, he does not have juice at all and drinks very little milk since he weaned off BF at 17mths. I find he gets enough calcium from the cheese and yoghurt he has every day, plus the milk he has on his cereal each morning. The only reason for milk at this age is the calcium, and you will find that if they are having a serving of yoghurt and a couple of slices of cheese then they are getting enough calcium and don't need the milk.

Laura Zoey - posted on 11/24/2010

Eric drinkS breast milk 7-10 times a day now, idk how many ounces he is drinking, but it's enough. Whenever he asks for water I give him his cup, if he asks for boob I breastfeed him so I know he is getting what he needs.
Humans are designed to breastfeed about 3-6 years so if your son isn't getting human milk, goats milk is a good choice, and he probably should be substituted wit the goats milk at least until the natural weaning age of humans.

Lori - posted on 11/24/2010

My son is always thirsty, so I keep a sippy cup filled with very diluted juice filled all day long. I give him a splash of Fruitables juice that has fruit & veggies in it (because he is not always good at eating his veggies) and the rest water. He also drink about 2 sippy cups full of whole milk (cows milk) per day, one in the morning and one w/ dinner. I don't think the amount of ounces really matters too much at this ages as long as they are staying hydrated and getting enough calcium!

Theresa - posted on 11/24/2010

My daughter had gotten sick about 2 weeks ago. She had the roto virus and was throwing up when she drank milk. I decided it was time to ween her from there. She was filling up on milk and not wanting to eat enough food. So I only gave her about 6 oz of milk two times a day, so now she eats enough and gets full and sleeps even better at night. I give her diluted apple juice and she will drink water more now because that is all I would give her while she was sick. I do not give her milk before bed anymore. I hear the best thing to break a child of milk before bed is to give them water in their bottle it satisfies the need for the bottle, but they do not want the water and will eventually grow out of a bottle before bed. My daughter also likes smoothies, I like to put spinach, bananas, fresh strawberries, and water.

Allison - posted on 11/23/2010

My son drinks lots of milk and water. Every now and then I give him a cup of orange juice or Sunrype veggie/fruit juice. I want him to drink nutritious juices. I've heard apple juice is not nutritious in the least, so I've been avoiding that.

Alana - posted on 11/23/2010

My son also the same age will usually drink about 27oz per day. 3/4 of that is still milk and the rest is diluted juice. He wont drink just water.