help dd wont drink cows millk want to stop bf help

[poltesco]

hi my little dd is coming up for 2yrs 1month. i've talked to the hv about stopping bf but she says not to stop until dd will drink cows milk! we've been trying scince she was one on and off and she screws her face up in disgust, we've tried banana, chocolateand strawberry milkshake, hot chocolate,warm milk cold milk and she just pulls a face demanding apple juice ( 1/4 pure apple 3/4 water ). i've seen 2 hv's and they both say the same. except 1 suggested only offer milk, saying its ok for 2wks to do this even if she dosen't drink the milk she gets enough fluid from her food and the 2bf a day, that can't be right can it? the other one said no just keep offering!

i could really do with some help with this i'm in no immedate rush to stop bf but i don't want to go on for much longer!

Not sure it's crucial that she drinks milk - does she drink water? The very dilute apple juice sounds ok - does she eat things like cheese or yoghurt?

agree with habbibu i dont think milk is vital i think it would be nice if she drank it but i wouldnt worry too much if she doesnt as long as she is getting her fat and calcium from other scources.

If she is having 2 x bfs a day she doesn't have to have cows milk and she doesn't need cows milk even if she was completely weaned, she can get calcium from green leafy vegtables, almonds, oranges, fish, wholemeal bread, etc. Quite a lot of cultures don't have dairy at all (e.g. Japanese/Chinese). In fact too much cow's milk can be a bad thing as it fills up toddlers leaving them with little appetite for food.

I have never drunk milk and my mum would give me a glass each a day and I would 'accidentally' knock it over every time, she eventually gave up . I wouldn't even drink milk/formula at 8 weeks when my mum's milk dried up due to medication so was on solids from then on with juice to drink.

She should be having water to drink as well as bm so you could try slowly moving from 1:3 apple juice to 1:4 then 1:5 and so on until she is on the recommended 1:10.

she does drink water but its mainly the apple juice. she eats 2-4 yoghurts a day and a fair amount of cheese, milk in her porridge and sauces, so yes she is getting her dairy intake put i can see what the hv's are saying.
but also dh and i would really like her to drink milk and we feel that it would help her to come of bm! cheese has a fair bit of salt, the yoghurts are kiddy ones ( my mum started buying them when she was around 9mnths i know i should have but my foot downso too much sugar for my liking, she did eat greek/natural yoghurt until mum but now she wont touch the stuff very fustrating.
she does eat wholemeal bread and green veg but its not garunteed that she'll eat it every day.

gosh I could have written this thread almost exactly 8yrs ago when DS1 was 14 months (so younger than your DD)

He wouldn't drink cows milk and I really wanted to stop. Spoke to the HV who said to me

"does he drink anything else" (ermm no not really a little bit of squash)

"does he eat cheese, yoghurts, other dairy products, other sources of calcium" - yes

Well he'll be fine then - stop when you want.

He still doesn't drink much 8yrs on - and we still haven't cracked the drinking water. But he's survived.

Don't beat yourself up too much about the drinking water thing NONE of my 3 DS's would drink it as babies/toddlers/pre-schoolers.

DS1 will now drink it under duress, and it's DS2's drink of choice.

thanks ToccataAndFudge it's nice to hear that i'm not the only one! your advise from your hv very different from the two i've seen could it be that dd is on the 9th centile for her weight and on the 75th centile for her height, in the past 5mnths she's put on 11oz so their abit concerned about her weight!