How can I get 18mo to drink milk??

My DS almost 18months,and simply refuses to drink milk. He eats yogurt, cheese, smoothies, and still has a morning & night BF, but just absolutely refuses to drink milk. We've tried drinking it in front of him in the hope that he'd want what we're having, but no luck. I'm not worried from a diet perspective, but it's just such a handy filler to be able to give them, plus it's cheaper to have cereal with milk than cereal with expensive Jalna yogurt IYKWIM. He has no allergy issues with anything, and DF & I both like the stuff, so it should be in his genes to like it.

Anyone have any ideas??

tried heating it up a little? try getting him to pick the cup in shopping, that way its his special cup. Mayb try a straw (it might be interesting to use a straw and take his mind off the milk).

Have you tried warming the milk Jan? Oliver won't drink it unless I heat it a little, I'm guessing that comes from still being breastfed also. Maybe try different milks also. Oliver won't drink anything but Zymil, the easy digest one. It has a slight "nutty" flavour. You could also try ricemilk. Other than that he may just simply not like the taste of straight milk. Good luck.

DD#1 won't drink her milk unless the temperature is just right. She will literally take the bottle from me (she still won't drink milk in anything other than a bottle), feel the temperature of it and hand it back if its not warm enough. So, definitely try warming it.

My DD went through a stage about 3 months ago when she wouldn't touch her milk at all and my MCHN suggested making milkshakes flavoured with fruit (so a bit like a smoothy but no yoghurt) or the tiniest bit of quik or something like that. Idea was to get her back to having milk in her diet, and then phase out the flavouring so she got back to plain milk.

I wouldn't worry about it. He doesn't need milk. Just make sure that he has 3 serves of calcium a day. If he is having yoghurt and cheese he probably gets that now anyway, and there are plenty of non-dairy sources of calcium as well. Truth be told he is probably better off just drinking water.

Genevieve is fine with cold milk on her cereal etc but will not drink it straight unless it is warm so it has to be the right temp for her. She is fine with cold water etc but milk has to be just right :rolleyes:

DD had hers warm too. She hated the taste of it at first so I added a tiny bit of milo (tsk tsk) to give it a bit of a chocolate flavour. Once she started drinking the milk I gradually reduced the amount of milo until it was plain milk.
She's never asked for "chocolate milk" etc so she obviously never noticed but did work for us :)

I like milk in things but wouldn't just go and have a big glass of plain milk, just personal taste I guess. Have you tried other milks such as soy, almond or rice milk? Maybe you could try one of these and a little bit of yogurt on the cereal and see what happens.

Oh and I just re-read your post and noticed you are also still bfing. So there is definitely no need for other milk, and with other dairy in the diet he will easily be getting enough calcium.