recently stopped breastfeeding 1 year old - now refusing all milk - any advice?

[tichey]

Hello,

I stopped breastfeeding my dd two weeks ago just after she turned 1. She has been exclusively breastfed since she was born and has never had formula milk and very unsuccessfully had bottled expressed milk only a few times.

Since I stopped breastfeeding, she has refused to drink milk at all. She will drink water fine from a cup, and has cows milk in her cereal every morning.

As she has never really bottle fed, I initially tried putting the cows milk in a cup. I have tried it at different temperatures, diluted with water, at different times of the day, and have also tried giving her a bit of formula. None of this is working. She gets into a real state and just pushes it away.

I have been giving her lots of cheese and yoghurt since she stopped having milk. I have spoken to my health visitor, who says I should not worry, that it is just a phase.

I am worried, though, as it has been two weeks now and there is no improvement at all. Even with yoghurt / cheese, she is not getting the recommended amount of calcium.

Does anyone have any experience of this who could offer advice? She does not seem to mind the taste of cows milk in her cereal, so why won't she drink it?

many thanks in advance for all your help...

My DSs wouldn't drink milk at first when I stopped Bf at a year. They did come round to the idea eventually, so my advice is to stick with it, try every delivery vessel you can find(!) (mine are happiest with beakers and straws), and try one or twice a day (I just stuck with offering cows milk at bedtime). In between, it sounds like you're doing everything right, milk in cereal, yoghurt, cheese etc. The only additional thing I did was to give them "milkshake" which was Innocent smoothies mixed with milk every so often if I thought they were lacking. They only need 350ml of milk at this stage which isn't masses if they have a good breakfast. Good luck!

AllBuggiedOut,

Thanks so much - that is really reassuring to know that it eventually worked for you.

I will try a straw as I have not tried that yet and also like your innocent smoothie idea - anything is worth a try!

At the moment, I am offering her milk in the morning and last thing at night, but I am lucky if even a drop gets in her mouth!

Although she does have quite a big breakfast, I don't think she is getting much more than about 150ml of milk a day at the moment, so quite short of the 350ml recommended amount.

Did you find that a particular temperature for the milk was more successful?

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I did warm (body temperature I suppose) for the milk, and straight from the fridge for the milkshakes.

i stopped breastfeeding at 15 months, dd hated cows milk and would spit it out, i remained unbothered by this (a reaction will just encourage it) and upped the amount in her weatibix, then offered shredded wheat at breakfast so she started drinking the end of the milk out the bowl.

I bought a special bright pink beaker which i only put milk in, she didnt drink to begin with then developed a taste for it and was knocking it back! Now she will drink it if she wants.

She also now loves 'babyccinos' if we go out, which i think is good in cold weather if a tad poncey!

She is now 17 months so it is slow progress but it gets there in the end. btw i hate milk and wasnt bothered if she drunk or not so i think she decided to like it, sil really pushed the milk and her dd wont touch it now.

Stopped feeding my ds2 in Aug at 1 yr, same thing refusing cows milk to drink, so persevered with formula 'growing up milk' as tastes sweeter thought it might be the issue, gave it to him in avent beaker warmed for 20 secs, after 2 weeks he started drinking it, gulps it down now. Did'nt get stressed, found he took to the morning one first as he was thirsty. Hope this helps!

Thanks everyone for such good advice and I will try not to get too strsssed about it - I just have visions of dd never having milk. I should try to chill though like all of you and it will probably come soon!

I have been trying to give it to her at around body temperature which is about 25 secs in the microwave so I will carry on with that.

Thanks for all the tips about milk receipes - Loopsy Mummy. I will try some of those! although when I tried her on rice pudding a few weeks ago, she spat it out! Anyway, worth another go.

hippyracer - good luck with stopping breastfeeding completely. I found it really, really hard and was quite upset the first few days as it was my dd's favourite thing too. I found that it helped if when she woke up in the morning, instead of me going to get her and feeding her milk, my husband would go and feed her her cereal straight away....Then I would only go and see her after she had had her breakfast and had a full tummy and was feeling a bit better..

I will keep you all posted. It is good to know that this is not just a problem for me and that your babies have eventually had the milk

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Just as an alternative suggestion, would you consider relactating and continuing to bf?

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My dd (1 year old) sounds similar to yours too! she has been exclusively BF from birth, no expressed milk/no bottles. At the mo she is on 2 feeds - 1 first thing and 1 last thing at night.

I'm planning to drop the morning one this w/e when my dh can (hopefully!) give her some cows milk from a cup...mmmm we shall see what happens cos she loves her milk in the morning...

The HV also said that she may not drink the cows milk and just to make sure she has loads of yoghurt/cheese etc which she does...

Wish me luck!