Cows milk, soy milk or rice milk?

801logan

So my daughter is 14 months old and she is still nursing. What I want to know is does anyone give any other milk in addition? I would like to stay away from cows milk just because of what they say is in it. She doesn't eat a whole lot of regular food. But for the few times I leave her with a sitter what would she drink besides water? When I send pumped milk she won't drink it. I just don't want to give her something things that don't have any nutritional value.

blkbrd3

Water is good. What does she eat or consume when she's with the sitter?

801logan

Not really much. She likes rasins, any kind of cracker of cereal. She is super picky!! I have a hard time getting her to eat much at all.

blkbrd3

I'd take input from the folks here and perhaps speak with a breast feeding group before making any decisions. In my opinion there isn't any reason to worry as long as she remains in the same general growth curve. She's getting a ton of calories from you and will nurse as needed. When she's at the sitters drinking water is fine. If she gets hungry, which by the way is not something she'll hide or ignore, she'll eat either her usual or branch out to new foods. Another milk or milk type will add calories and nutrients. If she's not missing any, why worry about it?

blkbrd3

And it is not unusual for kiddos to eat more variety around someone else than they will around breast feeding mom, or any mom for that matter. Why would I try broccoli if Mom has ice cream and I know I like ice cream?

RedHeather

Does she like yogurt? Full-fat yogurt has plenty of fat and protein, and she can still drink water for hydration.

My pediatrician said start cows milk or full-fat soy milk at 12 months, so either of those is fine. Rice milk isn't much better than water in terms of protein and fat content.

801logan

I guess the only reason I thought to give her anything was so that she would have something to go to once she is weaned. Which we have to do by 2 so that we can try for #2. I have no idea how we are going to wean her. And that is funny you say that kids eat more when their mom isn't around. She will try lots of things at my sister in laws but then refuse the exact same thing at home.

As for the yogurt she will eat a bite or two but that's really it.

Patienceisavirtue

My little drinks cows milk or water at day care and though the day (and still nursing at 18 months). a friend of Mine has hers in almond milk because she gets really gassy on cows milk. I think this is one of those situations where you have to have your baby try it and see what happens.

There are pros and cons to everything!

momsquared

We use cow's milk but none of my kids drink very much of it at all. Even if you choose which you prefer it doesn't mean she will drink it lol. Mine like things made with different kinds of milks but they will not drink anything but cow's milk or use anything else in their cereal. They are just too thick. I would avoid soy and be careful of almond or other nut milks until you are sure there is no allergy.
I would just send water and keep trying a variety of foods.

tinydancer

we did full fat cows milk and almond milk. I nursed till they were at least 2 yrs but many times when I was gone for a break and didnt have any breastmilk so used this.

merilung

We use Baby's Only toddler formula - Freddie loves it, but he hates goat milk, cow's milk, and almond milk. I bought some soy milk for him to try but he hasn't had it yet. Like your kiddo, Freddie is still largely breastmilk fed and I wanted to have something similar for him to transition to when we run out of frozen milk.

merilung

radmamadread wrote:

That children need milk after infancy is a myth. After breastfeeding or finishing whatever formula is in the house, they should drink water and be offered a variety of foods. They don't have to learn to be hungry, after all, they demand to be fed as infants. Biggest anxiety of parents of toddlers is that they won't eat. They usually don't eat very much and certainly demand to eat much less frequently because they are busy. But they will eat, especially if allowed some (messy) independence in self-feeding. They have to learn to eat a variety of your home foods, whatever they are. Most important is to avoid early substitution of processed/convenience foods. The early years are important in that respect. If offered artificially-sweetened, fake food early and often, that's what they'll prefer. If offered milks and juices (both much sweeter then breastmilk or even formula), that's what they'll prefer.

I largely agree with this, but what about babies being weaned early (before they wean themselves) for any reason? My almost one year old is still getting 90% of his calories from breastmilk. We do baby led weaning, he eats healthy foods, we don't allow any juice, sweetened milks, processed foods, etc. but he still gets most of his calories from milk, so I think it's important to not push him to rely 100% on solids before he's ready, since I'm the one weaning earlier than he would on his own.

Breastmilk is SUPER sweet though. There are 17 grams of sugar in a cup of breastmilk and only 13 in a cup of cow's milk - my formula is only slightly sweeter at 17.28 grams of sugar per cup.