Help!! 12 month old DD hates milk!

[hamburgers]

Just as the title says, my 12 month old DD refuses full fat cows milk.

I'm trying to make the transition from formula (Aptamil no.2) to cows milk and have had no luck. The transition from EBF breastmilk to formula was fine.

I've tried cows milk in a bottle, cows milk in a cup, warm, room temperature, cold - she's refused it all. This morning I even tried part formula part milk and she wasn't falling for that trick and pushed her bottle away.

She can tolerate small amounts of milk in wheetabix and porridge, just not as a drink.

DH says we should just stick to formula and bought her Aptamil No.3 which she happily gobbles up in a bottle.

Should I just stick to formula and try to reintroduce milk at a later stage or does anyone have any tips? How important is cows milk at this age as part of their diet?

Not sure if this is helpful, but my son can't have dairy so has oatly barista. It has a good fat content and a mild taste. If it is the taste she isn't keen on could you mix something like oatly barista with milk and see if it helps?

(The dairy free information was totally irrelevant to your post, sorry, just giving background.) Oatly may make the dairy milk more palatable is what I was trying to say.

The short answer is it not important at all.

DD has seen a pediatric dietian for milk intolerance and at 12 months she would have no milk at all.

What they need is 350mg of calcium and all children under 5 need multivitamins that contain vitamin D. That is three portions of dairy including yoghurts and cheese. It’s actually quiet a small piece of cheese.

Have you tried giving her Alpro growing up milk? (It has a giraffe on the front). It’s the soya equivalent of full fat milk.

Just give her milk in porridge and yogurts and cheese to eat.

My son did the same so I slowly introduced over 2 weeks, replacing 1oz of formula with cows milk every 2-3 days. Made 8oz bottle starting 7 of formula and 1 of milk, and made sure usual temp. Don't know if the slowly approach may work for you?

If she will still have the formula and you can afford it then keep her on that and try again with normal milk or whatever in 6 months or so, or do half and half and see if she will accept that

Look for bread and cereal forfeited with calcium too. Most 50/50 bread and Bear alphabite cereal.

She will probably be fine if she is able to tolerate yogurt and cheese. Alternatively like PP have suggested maybe an alternative milk would be more palatable to her. My DD2 is 14 months and has cows milk allergy so has oat milk which she happily gobbles down. As per another suggestion, there is also alpro growing up milk with a giraffe on the front which is suitable from 1.3 years.

Thanks for the suggestions! DD loves yogurt and cheese so she's getting a good helping of dairy from there. She'll have a petits filous after lunch and dinner and I do put cheese in some of her meals.

After trying part formula and part milk and her still refusing, I might hold off for a couple of months before I try again.

We can afford to keep her on formula but it's an expense I'd rather not have...!

Normal formula is made from cows milk so no concerns from that perspective - it's just more expensive and presumably more time consuming to make. For DS, when replacing day time breastfeeds, I gave him cow's milk in a no spill beaker and let him wander around with it. Milk is OK at room temperature for a couple of hours, id obviously throw it out after that. He slowly started drinking more of it. It did take a couple of months though until he was having a full beaker.

Try putting a TINY bit of nesquick in it - it's not as sweet as formula so doing this helped my daughter get used to the new taste.

DD1 was the same. She had milk on Weetabix, cheese, yoghurt and leafy green vegetables (also good for calcium).

I didn't do follow on milk and ditched the bottle at 12 months too. She still hates milk at 9.

No human needs the milk of another animal 😉 as long as she’s getting her dietary needs through food, just give her water or any suitable alternative that she likes.

Just as an aside, stage 2/3 etc is all marketing. No baby ever needs to move
on from Stage 1

We can afford to keep her on formula but it's an expense I'd rather not have...!

You don't have to. She doesn't need a milk drink at all if she's having yogurt and cheese.

I would also do what a PP suggested and start mixing it in to formula an ounce at a time, very gradually.

If not, alpro growing up milk or oatly barista are both decent dairy free options.

I really wouldn't keep up with formula past 12 months unless it was absolutely necessary. The follow on milks are an absolute con.

Tahini is very rich in calcium. Try it on toast or in sandwiches, or blend into other foods.

DS have never drunk milk he loves yogurt though. He was still breastfeeding at 12 months though same with DD although she would drink milk I never pushed it that much. It's not very sweet really and they don't actually need it, use the cheapest formula you can you don't need to change stages.

In fact That's a bad move the manufacturers make them sweater on purpose so they will have more sugger. Try stage 1 for a bit then cows milk it won't be as sweet.

its really not a big deal if she doesnt drink milk. Sounds like shes still getting dairy

DD never took a bottle so no formula and stopped bfing at 15 months, would never drink cows milk either. She has milk in porridge and eats a lot of yogurt/cheese so I don’t stress it. I also never liked drinking milk!

I hated milk as a baby and I still do! She'll be fine as long as she's getting the calcium etc another way xx

Thanks again everyone for the reassurance. I'll stop stressing about milk intake I was under the impression babies absolutely need cows milk to substitute formula/breastmilk around the 12 month mark!