Monday, March 23, 2009

Milk No More

My toddler has recently given up milk. Maybe it was for lent or something, but I never told him about it. :-) He doesn't fuss about it or anything just takes a sip, decides it's enough and won't drink it. I tried all the tricks that I used to get him to take it over formula to begin with, such as adding strawberry flavor, but to no avail. Hmmmm. So here's a few of my tips for sneaking in some calcium and such w/o a fight over milk.
Disguise it! My monkey eats oatmeal nearly every morning of his life, so instead of fixing it with water, I add milk to it. He doesn't care and it makes me feel better to know he's getting a little of the good stuff.
Substitute other dairy. I push cheese and yogurt to make sure that my lil guy is still getting some good dairy in his diet.
Lead by example. I drink milk in front of my toddler. It's worked some. He will occasionally ask for milk when he sees me or his daddy drinking it. It's great!
Try, try again! We all remember this mantra, but it holds true. I've taken a 'break' from milk with my little one for now, but I haven't given up on having him drink it and enjoy it in the future. For now he still gets his one cup of juice and the rest of the time drinks water. I will give him a small cup of milk from time to time just to test the waters, but I'm not pushing it. I think he'll come back around on his own eventually.

1 comment:

Matt and Emily Sealy said...

My toddler went through a stage like this as well. He used to drink 2 cups of milk a day, then, one day, stopped. At first I was worried about it, but just kept giving him substitutes like cheese and yogurt. I stopped offering milk for about two weeks, then tried it again. He has taken it ever since then! Maybe it is just a phase these guys go through!