2 year old drinks no milk

[daphnedoo12]

Hi,

Exactly as the title says, my 2 year old drinks no milk at all. He stopped his night bottle at 18 months, but he ate cereal every morning with milk.

He's always refused to drink it, we've tried different alternatives and he's just not interested. Now he's gone off cereal too, has fruit, yoghurt and croissant.

He has minimum butter, he does eat cheese. He loves pasta so I'll do a milky creamy sauce and he'll eat that.

Is this enough? I had no worries until the health visitor mentioned he should be having half a pint of milk a day, no he definetly doesn't.

Is this okay?

I didn’t worry about milk after they were 1. Just made sure they ate yogurt and cheese.
Funnily enough two of mine have dairy allergy now they’re grown up.

It's fine. As long as he is getting a varied diet don't worry.

If you stop and think about it there is something unnatural about drinking another animals milk anyway. And Certain cultures in the world just don't touch milk.

I wouldn't worry. Is he healthy and growing?

Get some multi vits With calcium. Make sure he eats yoghurt and Cheese.

Mine was the same. I didn’t worry about it. She still doesn’t drink milk or eat butter or really like cheese but does have cereal & yoghurt. I was still breastfeeding at 2 but I don’t think I would have worried if I wasn’t.

I used to cook lots of things which contained milk. Things like: rice pudding, pancakes, custard, white sauces, cheese sauce. Also would have preferred not to, but one dc from about 12months would only drink milk if it was with milkshake powder or hot chocolate, my GP said this was perfectly fine

Butter melted on potatoes or vegetables is another way of getting dairy in. My 2yo doesn't seem to like cheese, which is really inconvenient!

It’s not about milk but calcium / vitamin d both of which are essential for growth & in the UK milk is probably the most cost effective way to take this in on a daily basis. What other countries where people don’t eat dairy is irrelevant because kids get their calcium in different ways (eg every school aged child in China / Korea / Japan is expected to eat fish, fortified tofu, and fortified soy milk. In the Gujarat yoghurt is eaten more often milk, flour is fortified, food is made from scratch and often with veg / fruit picked from the farm that day and the sunshine year round means there’s no need for extra vitamin d.).

So in my opinion if all he’s eating is yoghurt, a bit of butter and a croissant then he isn’t getting enough calcium and so you need to offer a supplement that offers it. Or offer him fortified dairy alternatives eg tofu / plant based milk / fish with bones like sardines.

Supermaket veg like broccoli, even when frozen, doesn’t have enough calcium left in it by the time it gets to us so you would need to need kilos of the stuff to meet requirements - far better to just take a supplement and take the worry out.

I couldn't get my DS to drink any milk after about 10 months, he refused any type in any cup or bottle. He also dislikes cream cheese, creamy sauces and hot chocolate made with any milk. I gave up worrying and gave him yoghurt with honey which he will eat, and he will also eat very mild hard cheeses. He's 6 and a half now and totally fine - tall and healthy!

Do you mean breast milk or formula or cows milk? My DC have never ever had cows milk. I know it sounds a bit odd but I never even contemplated giving it to them.

Calcium overall is the goal b