Help...My 2 year old is on a milk strike because I finally took away the bottle

Lianne - posted on 01/10/2010

haha sounds jus like my daughter!! she loves her dr browns bottle!! she will only drink juice/water frm a cup!! so now she no milk all day and i give her a bottle of milk before bed thats the only time she has her bottle, she has milk on her cereal in the morning and thats it, and yoghurts!! i got some multivitims 2 giv 2 her.

Karen - posted on 01/10/2010

Do you do dessert with dinner? Dessert can be one piece of candy or a cracker with peanut butter and an M&M, or just something special. Maybe use that as a reward for drinking his glass of milk with meals. You could also use the milk mix-ins to make it fun and have him pick the flavor. Make it a reward thing - if he does his job he gets the reward, if he doesn't he doesn't, his choice. Also try yogurt, cheese, etc. for calcium (Dannon makes chocolate yogurt whips that my DD loves!) The other thing is that kids learn by example - do you and DH drink milk? If you don't he may be getting the idea that milk is not something that most people drink and he's viewing it as a penalty and he'd be more likely to copy what you do which is to not drink milk. In our house we all drink milk so we set the example and drinking or not drinking milk with meals is not even a topic for discussion or debate.

Erin - posted on 01/10/2010

My son did that too and I got worried he wouldn't get the calcium he needed. I would put pedisure in a sippy cup and eventually did half pedisure and milk then keep breaking it down again till one day he just started drinking straight milk again. Didn't take long for the actual switch but thats how I got him off breast milk and formula. It worked!

Geraldine - posted on 01/10/2010

I was breastfeeding mine and one evening had to go out. She refused to drink the formula milk in a bottle so my mother poured a little bit of red cooldrink flavour in. After that she refused to drink from me and only wanted her pink milk. I wasn't so happy about that, but maybe it will work for you too.

Bluma - posted on 01/10/2010

it shouldn't really matter if at 2 years old he doesn't drink his milk, try using regualr cups with meal times and he may start drinknig the amount of milk you would like him to

Jaime - posted on 01/10/2010

He's two and he's going to be stubborn because there will be a lot of transitions from infant routine to toddler routine (i.e. switching from bottle to cup exclusively) but I wouldn't stress about it. If he's eating balanced meals, rich with vitamins then going without milk for a couple of days won't do harm. I would definitely consult his pediatrician to find out if you should get some vitamins, but I would imagine just an increase in iron-rich foods and such would help to curb your worry.

Teva - posted on 01/10/2010

my daughter did the samething only drank milk from her bottle, she still doesnt drink it as much as she did but now i can get her to drink it outta a cup but i have to put a little chocolate in it to make it choc. milk. my doctor suggested it when we knoticed her weight started dropping because of it and the hydrated thing dont worry they will drink/eat when they are hungry,one day i had a stand-off with mine that lasted till bed time( lacking a couple small drinks of water) she finally drank her milk before bed time but every kid is different so just be patient with them and unless the doc tells you otherwise dont trip to much off him not drinking milk if your giving him other things ie;cheese, yogurt,etc. they have baby snacks that help too like yogurt melts and stuff