How can I get enough calcium into DD without dairy?

[sambababy]

Help please! DD is 20mo and I'm pregnant with DC2. DD still breastfeeds twice a day, for nap and bedtime, but I'm stopping this ASAP as it has become too painful.

The problem is that even with 2 bfs a day (which were short, more or less just to get her to sleep), the paediatrician said she's not getting anywhere near enough calcium in her diet. She has cow's milk in her porridge which is 2-3 times a week, a scraping of butter on toast, cheese baked in some things, and homemade frozen yoghurt every so often. She doesn't like cows milk to drink or yoghurt (plain/greek with fruit or ones full of flavouring & sugar), and won't even try them anymore. Raw cheese gets spat out. She eats broccoli but not enough for her daily calcium requirements.

What else can I do? We thought about mixing some powdered milk into things she eats but it seems silly. Please say someone has experienced this? What did you do?

She did have suspected cow's milk protein allergy as a small baby but we see no signs of it anymore.

[PotteringAlong]

Can you make milkshake / smoothies? Will she drink those?

[5minutestobed]

Butter/cream in mash potato? Cheese in an omelette? Creamy pasta? Custard?

[sambababy]

Loves smoothies but as soon as I add yoghurt or milk she doesn't like them :(

[sambababy]

Creamy pasta is a good shout, I haven't tried offering that for a few months. Annoyingly she doesn't mind a small bit of cheddar in things but I can't buy that where I live. Grrrr. Have to do some investigating for a decent cheese (lives in Brazil)

[poocatcherchampion]

Why are you worrying about amount of calcium?

I have never thought about this but my suggestions would be ice cream, cream and custard.

Also. Milkshakes and other types of cheese

[Diggum]

What about ice lollies? Bit unseasonal but puréed fruit with yoghurt or cream mixed in and frozen?

I'd smuggle cheese into her as many of her main meals as possible too- bit of crumbled parmesan disappears into most sauces without raising much notice.

Would she eat mashed up weetabix with milk and banana as an alternative breakfast or is that too obvious for your pro-milk spotter?!

[Diggum]

Strike that, ice lollies are probably not unseasonal for Brazil.

[VegetablEsoup]

green veg are a good source

[dementedpixie]

In the uk the recommended amounts for age 1-3 is 300mls of milk or equivalent in other dairy products/non dairy sources. 350mg of calcium is the recommended daily amount.

[Marzipants]

Watching with interest. DS2 (nearly 3) has always refused milk since he stopped breast feeding at 16mo. (When he shouted NO at my boob and refused any sort of milk from them on.)

He'll drink a hot chocolate with marshmallows, though I think it's getting to the point that all the extra sugar in the drink is cancelling out any good from the milk.

Lots of cheesy sauces (usually cheddar I'm afraid) and he'll eat pick the ham out of a cheese and ham toastie.

[trixymalixy]

My DS is CMPA. A bowl of porridge every morning with non dairy milk gives him almost his full calcium requirement.

I honestly think it sounds like your DD will be getting enough if she's having porridge with cows milk.

[SmallLegsOrSmallEggs]

Oranges have calcium in them.
www.healthaliciousness.com/articles/high-calcium-fruits.php

Nuts (but only ground at that age)
There is more calcium in hard cheese (parmesan) than soft.

There is also some in things like sardines.

Milk actuallt has surprisingly little.
Soya milk and soya yoghurts have both calcium and vit d.


One of my dt cannot have milk. They both attended dietician, turned out the child on milk free diet got far more calcium because of soya than the one drinking milk.

[Rinceoir]

My 20month old hates milk and yoghurt too. She eats cereal but leaves all the milk in the bowl. I mix cream/yoghurt into meals (she's been dropping centiles so upping calorie intake) and I've discovered lately if I give her a little bowl of grated Parmesan/cheddar she will sprinkle it on her meal and eat it. Wouldn't eat cheese otherwise though! She likes salmon which is a reasonable non dairy source (can make lovely fishcakes from tinned salmon) and a spinach or pea/ricotta/Parmesan purée over pasta- obviously has benefit of green veg there too.

[Marzipants]

That's interesting about soya milk. DH already had it on his cereal, maybe time to start smuggling it into food too.

Stupid question - can you cook with it like normal milk?

(Sorry OP for blatant hijack!)

[Isoldeonetwo]

Homemade flapjack with chopped dried apricots. Apricot chock full of calcium .

[trixymalixy]

look here at the calcium content in porridge even before milk is added. I would give her porridge every day.

[faintlyoptimistic]

I mentioned this on a thread the other day... Hovis 50/50 has substantially more calcium than other loaves.

Also you could add frozen spinach to things like pasta sauce or curry or whatever.

Tahini is high in calcium too so hummus is another thing to try.

[ivykaty44]

www.globalhealingcenter.com/natural-health/10-fruits-rich-in-calcium/

Fruits that contain calcium, rhubarb and figs contain high levels of calcium but kiwi also contain a fair amount but good old tangerines or oranges are high calcium fruit and fairly portable and easy to eat

[EdithWeston]

Mashed sardines on toast?

Try the canned ones in tomato sauce.

[Snooksbury]

What about a calcium multi vitamin? You can buy children's ones from supermarkets, boots etc

[SmallLegsOrSmallEggs]

Yes you cook with soya milk.
or make angel delight

[trixymalixy]

If you look at my link below, calcium enriched soya milk doesn't have more calcium than cow's milk.

[SmallLegsOrSmallEggs]

But one dpya yoghurt has almost 1/3 the RDA for a child up to 3.

[SmallLegsOrSmallEggs]

Soya not dypa

[trixymalixy]

Yes, but a cow's milk yogurt has more calcium per mg than a soya yoghurt. It was just that someone was suggesting replacing cow's milk products with soya products to get more calcium which would not be the case.