What's the obsession with the amount of milk a baby MUST drink?

[Trinaj]

My nearly 8 month old ds2 has started to go off finishing his feeds.
I'm not bothered by this as he takes plenty of water at meals and eats a very varied diet.
But my health visitor insists he MUST drink at least 20oz - 1 pt (sorry I still don't do metric! ) every day.
Well without a bloody drip I cannot FORCE him to take it.
I had this trouble with my dd and the health visitor got me really worried cos she never drank half hers!
But I really don't understand the insistance of it, why is it SO important when they've got a good diet?
Hope someone can enlighten me?

Isn't it the calcium they need rather than just the milk, in which case this can be made up with any sort of dairy product or if he doesn't like dairy at all rhubarb, dried figs, tofu, hummus, baked beans, almonds (you could use ground) are good sources. My dd (14 months) just doesn't like cow's milk, I still bf her, but I'm sure she doesn't get a pint from me. I think dairy calcium is just more easily absorbed and has higher levels. Don't worry, if he doesn't like it, what can you do? Does he have cereal in the am with milk?

I believe it's the calcium too. My DD won't touch cow's milk, she doesn't seem to like it, so fair enough I say. She does wolf down yogurt and cheese, so I'm not bothered at all.

the 20oz includes any milk in cereal, in foods, other dairy products and any non-milk sources of calcium so it doesnt all have to be in the form of a drink.

why are you seeing the hv at all?

if ds2 is happy and healthy, avoid her
if he's ill, see the GP

MrsB is right - you don't have to see the HV. And if you do see her, you don't have to tell her how much he is drinking if it's not bothering you. If she asks say something like "Everything is fine, thank you. If I have any concerns I will call you".

Is he happy? Healthy? Gaining weight? Eating a good diet? Then he's OK.

how would this work if you were doing BLW and the baby wasn't "eating" (as in swallowing) a great deal? do you get the calcium from the milk feeds?

it's a tricky balance

if they are eating a good diet milk may be less of an issue but if they are a light / reluctant / picky / uninterested eater, then milk feeds are more important.

Milk on demand is a good guide - if they're hungry they'll drink it...

i agree it's the balance of milk/food

DD was such a big milk drinker she was not really fussed about food - still the case really. I think the milk is important for the growth of bones which may not cause apparent health probs now but this weakness could show up later on that's why they make a big deal about it.

I didn't really phrase the first section right - she hasn't insisted to me, just mentionned that he still needs to drink plenty of milk (about pint).
He was going to health visitor every so often to check his weight as he went WAY up then dropped then up again!- Difficult bugger!
Anyway I'm not concerned at all just wondered why HV see it so important. I thought it was calcium but wasn't sure.
Thanks.