To expect my 2.5yr olds to drink milk?

[Shelly32]

Both DDs used to drink quite a bit of milk. I still try and get them to drink a cup in teh morning before nursery and a cup at night. Neither seem to particularly enjoy it and one actually said she didn't like milk. They eat yoghurt and cheese so are getting calcium, but I thought that milk was quite important for babies/toddlers. Should I still keep trying to get them to drink it or leave them in peace?

At 2.5 they are starting to develop their own tastes, aren't they? I wouldn't see it as too much of a problem. If they drink other drinks (ie juice) you could maybe restrict those and offer milk instead if you think it's an issue?

All of my 3 went off of milk around that age oddly enough.

Like yours though, they still ate yoghurts and cheese so it never bothered me.

They're aged 20yrs, 13yrs and 9yrs now and fit and healthy as a fiddle.

I think it's OK if there's some cheese and yoghurt in their diet - some kids go dairy-free, after all.

When DS was about that age he wasn't keen on milk, but once a week once in a while when we went to a Costa/ similar, he would have a babyccino with a little sprinkling of chocolate and thought it was the biggest treat in the whole world, so occasionally at home I'd give him warm milk in a nice cup and saucer, and he'd drink that happily too. A year on, he drinks cold milk happily.

If they're eating cheese/yoghurt then I wouldn't worry too much tbh. There are lots of pudding that are quite milky that you could offer. Will they have milk on cereal/eat porridge with milk. I think the best thing is to offer it little and often, so a as drink with lunch instead of water/juice. You could also try adding cocoa to warm milk or some of that nesquick podwer to make a milkshake.

As long as they're drinking enough water/fluids and getting calcium somehow it doesn't matter.

If they're 2.5 they're on cow's milk I'd guess?

I wouldn't stress about it. It's not massively nutritious to humans anyway, it has calcium, but you can get that from green veg, other dairy and things like soya and kidney beans which might be ingredients in meals.

No my Dd went off milk all together at that age, she did like yoghurt and cheese.
Now she's 7 and has been asking for a small drink of milk at breakfast occasionally.

My BF forever DD2 has never drunk milk, absolutely hates it. Likes yoghurt, cooked cheese, milk on cereal and as she's got older milk shakes and hot choc.

She's 11 and I've never seen her drink plain milk and I don't expect I ever will.

DH hates milk with a passion, puts the bare min on cereal, but otherwise won't touch milky drinks of any kind.
He likes cream, yoghurt and loves cheese, but not plain milk.

I think by three your DC may be old enough to make their own mind.
(I'm told I spat out banana at 4 months, at 44 years I still do).

My dd is 3.5, and at 2.5 decided she didn't like milk. She eats yoghurts and cheese, so I'm not bothered. She will drink a cup of milk at breakfast sometimes, but only if she asks for it.
If you're concerned about calcium intake, you can get supplements.

my dd wouldn't touch anything other than breast milk, just didn't like it, and wouldn't have cheese or yogurt either after 18 mths. She will have chocolate milk now but that is it on the dairy front. Some kids just don't like it.

I've never drank cows milk. My mum stopped feeding me herself when I was 9 months. I've never broken a bone and am perfectly healthy although I believe as a baby I had to have calcium supplements.

So they know what they do and don't like.

I haven't touched milk since a young child, Ds doesn't want it now. We are,fine.

As long as they have a varied, healthy diet they will be fine.

Calcium in tinned fish, broccoli and many other foods.

Thank you for all the good advice. I don't like milk (had a strange craving for it when pregnant though!) so maybe they've inherited my taste!

Humans aren't designed to drink milk beyond infancy anyway, and most children naturally wean themselves off the breast between 2 and 7 years old.

Oh really? That's interesting! What do you mean by not designed?

Just read back..my words sound abrupt. I genuinely am interested.

If you don't consume lactose (the sugar in milk) then you stop producing lactase (the enzyme needed to digest milk sugar) - this is if you are Caucasian btw - so you can't digest any species milk.

Most other ethnicities are lactose intolerant (i.e. they don't make lactase) past the age of weaning from breastfeeding (so from around 2-7 years old) so they can't drink milk of any species be it human, cow, buffalo, goat, camel, cow, etc as their stomach won't tolerate it at all.

Caucasians have developed over the years a genetic quirk that allows continued production of lactase well beyond the natural age of ceasing breastfeeding (the only milk our species should consume if you think about it and then only until middle childhood) so that's why adults can tolerate/digest milks.

What Truthsweet said basically! The ability to digest lactose as an adult is a genetic mutation that started among Northern Europeans (iirc) some thousands of years ago, as farming animals for milk become common in some societies.

When you think about it, milk is baby food for mammals. Humans (some humans, not even most) are alone in consuming milk from other species, and milk beyond infancy/childhood at all).

I'm not Caucasian (mix of Asian/Portuguese and English) so maybe that's why I don't think much of milk... Although I have to say, I'm not intolerant to it.