Three year old won't drink milk

[abelenkpe]

Help! My son refuses to drink milk, eat cheese or yogurt or have anything to do with dairy products in general. He doesn't even eat pizza. He says no to smoothies, ice cream, milkshakes, lasagna, spaghetti, enchiladas, quesadillas, even macaroni and cheese. I am at my wits end about how to get proper calcium into his little growing body. He takes a daily vitamin, but is that enough? Is there anything else with a secret supply of calcium that he might go for? Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated as always. Thanks!

[eyesroll]

1. There's calcium-fortified orange juice, but also:

Almonds, beans, leafy greens, some fortified cereals, fish.

You may also want to ask the vegetarian/vegan group. Good luck.

[mzteris]

2. sometimes kids

instinctively avoid foods that may cause a problem for them.

Here's a page on food calcium sources for vegans. . . http://www.vrg.org/nutrition/calcium.htm

[mrgorth]

5. 1st 2 replies are gold

Don't force anything. Just get him calcium other ways. He may come around. I come from a big milk drinking family. I had a steel beam dropped on my hand once and didn't break anything.

[qb]

3. I don't blame him. I think milk is gross. (I'm lactose intolerant)

"Silk" Vanilla Soymilk is the smoothest soy drink I've ever tried. Fortified with calcium, A & D and high in protein. You might also try fortified Rice Dream, although that has less protein.

[LibertyLover]

4. My daughter is adopted from China

and drinks very little milk. She does eat cheese on occasion, but not regularly. She like ice creams and ice cream desserts, but we don't allow those on a regular basis. However, the calcium fortified orange juice has been a godsend. She drinks several glasses of that a day and according to her pediatrician is doing just fine. The last time the kidlet was at her office we asked her pediatrician to check the calcium levels (she was having blood drawn any way). The results were just where they should be for a child of her age, weight, etc. The good thing about the calcium fortified oj is that it also has vitamin D in it for the absorption of the calcium. I hope that helps.

[trotsky]

6. Pudding?

Tapioca has some calcium in it, so it's even higher than regular pudding.

Green leafy veggies and broccoli are also great sources of calcium, but there might be even bigger struggles to get him to eat those.

[midnight armadillo]

7. try chocolate milk

That worked with my older son, who at age 4 now guzzles regular milk daily. It took chocolate to get him used to the taste and texture.

[Tab]

8. He might be lactose intolerant

Milk is overrated at later ages anyways, I think, as long as you can get some calcium, but I am lactose interolerant. It seemed to crop up around the age of 16, although I didn't figure it out until I was 26, but I stopped drinking milk. It made my stomach upset.

I don't know if people with this condition are generally the same or not, and perhaps your child is too young to identify it, but I've noticed that the closer to liquid dairy is, the worse I feel.

- Milk - can't even touch it.
- Yogurt - like it, but it comes back to haunt me
- Cheese - soft, melted - not good
- Hard cheese, tolerable
- Soft ice cream - not good
- Hard ice cream - more tolerable.

At least for me, it's stomach upset, may be diarrhea, but generally feels like my stomach is boiling. I give into ice cream sometimes, just 'cause I like it, and am willing to pay the consequences, and I like harder cheese (cheddar, etc), but soft cheese, yogurt, and definitely milk are off the menu. Melted cheese in moderation - not too awful. Cheeze-wiz or E-Z Cheese does a number on me.

You could see if he'll tolerate a harder cheese, like slices of cheddar (if not too sharp) but it sounds like his body is rejecting dairy. In that case, see if he goes with soy milk

Failing that, a multivitamin or something (ask your doctor) because he will need calcium coming in), but if he's lactose interolerant like me, I don't blame him for rejecting milk. For me, it caught up with me later, but I guess it can happen at any age.

Good luck!