When weening off breastfeeding, what do you do if your child won't drink cow or soy milk or even formula?

Question

My daughter is just over a year old, and I'm trying to get her off the breast, but she won't drink homo milk, formula or soy milk. She does eat other food, but will not drink milk and I feel like she needs the protein and fat from it. Any ideas would be much appreciated.

An additional problem is that she won't sleep through the night without breast milk - my son took to milk and that seemed to soothe him, but without the milk, getting her to sleep through the night will be tough..

Answer 1

Give her breast milk in a bottle to wean her onto the bottle first, if she is not already used to bottles. Then start mixing cow's milk (or whichever you prefer) into breast milk, increasing the amount of milk or formula each day.

Answer 2

Once she realizes she cant get breast milk anymore she will opt for regular milk. She's just grown a taste for breast milk and the comfort of nursing.

If she's really having a hard time, try adding a small amount of fruit juice to the milk, that helps some babies.

Answer 3

MyrnRn is right humans don't need milk just the calcium. My daughter when weened didn't take a bottle. so we tried a tippy cup (of course we help hold it for her... ) and she drank breast milk at first then 2% milk; plus juices and water Oh yea she HATED formula too. Soon she was holding the cup herself and drinking on her own.

Answer 4

My doctore said to put a little milk with breast milk and then put less and less breast milk. But what worked for me was to put chocolate in her milk then I would put less and three days later she was drinking it with out the chocolate. But make sure you give her other dairy items while the baby doesnt like the milk like yogurt, cheese, etc

Answer 5

My 2 1/2 year old doesn't like whole milk either. She does like yogurt and cheese, which are good sources of calcium.

Answer 6

You can try goat milk. This is actually better than cows milk, easier digested.
Also, if you feed her good whole foods, she should be ok without drinking any milk.

Answer 7

Talk to doc if worried. Humans do not require milk. You can easily replace with calcium rich foods (cheese, soft as well as hard-yogurt-ice cream in moderation-some veggies, enriched cereals). Plenty of web sites to look up calcium sources.

Answer 8

See that she gets the nutrients milk provides from other sources.

http://www.askdrsears.com/faq/fn1.asp