How much milk?

[BadFam1]

Hey, been reading a few threads about 2yr olds and food recently and it has made me doubt myself in regards to my DS.

DS is just over 22 months, and is a reasonably eater in terms of amount but pretty fussy in terms of content! I am trying to persevere with different foods that are more nutritious, but failing miserably! People keep telling me that if he is hungry he will eat whatever is given to him, but that doesn't seem to ring true in our house!

A few threads on here have referred to how much milk their DC are having and in comparison my DS seems to have loads. He only has two feeds a day now, one in the morning and one before bed, but his morning feed is about 9oz and then a beaker at night which he drinks 2 - 5oz. Is this too much? He will still eat a good breakfast after the morning feed so it doesn't affect his appetite for food as such, but should I be reducing this to encourage him to eat more food?

I have always been led by him, so if I have given him less and he has asked for more I have given it to him as he is pretty good at telling me what he wants. I am just wondering if I will have better luck with the different food options if he is hungrier?

How much milk do your two year olds have?

TIA

My personal opinion is yes he probably will be a bit more interested in u reduce/cut out his milk feeds. Milk is pretty filling especially if he's having quite a lot in one go.

My DD is similar age. She hasn't had a milk feed in a good few months (but do acknowledge all children are different) but I wish she would drink some milk but whenever I offer it to her she refuses. Unfortunately she got used to milk in a bottle at room temperature so doesn't like it cold in a cup! But she has calcium in other food groups so not too bothered.

Also worth mentioning that there growth rate slows down more (think about the first year in terms of their clothes: 0-3 months, 3-6, 6-9 etc. As you know it's not in 3 monthly cycles any more as they are not growing quite as fast). This in itself can impact on their food intake.

Don't focus on what he doesn't eat in one day but what he eats over the course of a week.

I do agree though that if he's hungry he will eat but if it were me I would ditch one of the milk feeds. There's nothing to stop you brining it back if you felt it wasn't the right decision.

Thanks for your reply.

Yeah I think I want to try and reduce the morning one and see where that goes. His morning one seems to be the most important to him as it's the first thing he wants when he gets up, but maybe reducing this will encourage him to eat a bit more throughout the day.

If it helps the morning one for my DD was the last to go. I know this isn't the "norm" but like you my DD had her biggest feed in the morning.

My 25-month old has approx half a sippy cup of milk, split throughout the day, but to be how at I wish he'd have a bit more! He's a very good eater though. Personally at that age I wouldn't have thought that the amount of milk they drink in a day makes a great difference to their appetite for food - I sort of feel they're old enough for their systems to know that those are two separate things (no actual evidence for this, I might add!) - but I'm willing to be told I'm wrong! When my son stopped bf at about 19 months that didn't seem to make any real diff to the amount of solids he ate.

My DS has 4-5oz in the morning and 4-5oz in the evenings. When he's ill, it's open season on milk. I do think if I took away his milk he would eat more. Personally, 20oz is too much as that's what a 6 month old baby who's being weaned has.