Can a 16m old have too much milk? And how much is too much?

[laura032004]

DS2 drinks a lot of milk. At this age DS1 had dropped down to 4ish feeds per day (on waking, before and after lunch time nap, and before bed). DS2 is having goodness knows how many feeds, and is very difficult to satisfy in any other way. He isn't talking yet, but comes and cuddles me and arches his back to lie down in a way that means he wants milk. If I don't feed him, he will scream and squirm for literally hours until I do.

Anyway, short-ish term, is this a problem (apart from for me?). He doesn't eat a whole lot of food, but is eating three ok meals per day. He doesn't ever seem to need snacks like DS1 did, but I'm sure he's not getting hungry enough to want snacks. He's also not really drinking from a cup yet, again, probably never that thirsty.

I can cope with it for a bit longer, as he's OK out of the house, so as we get out more and he starts nursery etc, it won't be such a problem. I just don't want to do him any damage in the meantime. He was very slow to progress onto solids due to very bad reflux, so he's only been eating solids since he was just over one. We had to see a paed about something else, and he commented that he was pale, and started checking him for signs of rickets!

do you means he's still bfing, or is he drinking cow's milk?

When dd2 was 17 months old she had slightly low iron levels. This was because she wasn't eating much in the way of solids and had one illness after the other.

If you're ds is eating three meals a day, then that's vey good. It sounds as though he's drinking milk instead of eating snacks.

Is he happy, healthy in all other ways?

Did the pead take a blood test from him? if not, then I doubt you have anything to worry about.

I have a friend who is a paediatrician. She says she sometimes sees children will low iron levels because they drinking milk from a bottle constantly through the day. This means that there's constantly milk in the stomach, and cow's milk inhibits the absorption of iron. So the iron in the food they are eating isn't being absorbed. She says she doesn't see this in bf children.

Rickets is I think caused by a low vitamin D, which your body makes from the sunlight.

You say the pead checked him for signns of rickets? but did he find any signs of rickets? Did he say how to prevent rickets?

Thanks for your reply belgo. It's bm - he has v.little cows milk, a dribble on his weetabix for breakfast.

He didn't find any signs, and said that as he was now eating normal meals, he wouldn't do a blood test (I wasn't at all keen unless he was sure there was a problem as getting blood from DS2 is very traumatic for all concerned ). No mention of how to prevent rickets. He gets plenty of sunlight - has had 5 weeks in Cyprus this year, plus we're out for over an hour a day 'playing' in the street or garden. Obviously had sun tan lotion / UV sun suit in Cyprus, but we don't use suntan lotion daily in the UK unless it's v.sunny & there's a chance of burning (none at all lately!)

it doesn't sound like you've got anything to worry about .

I don't think the paed should have mentioned rickets, it's just made you worried.

There's more on the kellymom website.