Transitioning from breastmilk to milk

Momdeedee's story

July 05, 2007

My daughters had a tough time making the switch from breast milk to cow milk. One proved allergic so we finally got her drinking soymilk. The other was just (and still is) incredibly picky. She preferred water to milk and would spit out any milk that we gave her in any bottle or sippy cup. Finally, I got so stressed out about it that I bought strawberry milk and watched her happily gurgle down sugar and chemicals along with all those great milk nutrients. I couldn't decide if I was doing more harm than good and the guilt plagued me! So, thankfully, over the course of a couple months, I reduced the amount of strawberry and increased the whole milk, until she cluelessly embraced a simple cup of pure milk. I still feel like that sugar milk was the equivalent of giving her kiddie cigarettes. But frankly, nothing else worked! The only regret I have in hindsight is that our pediatrician did not seem bothered by her lack of milk since she happily ate cheese and yogurt, ice cream, etc, but I was the one that had the notion that she NEEDED to be drinking the milk. Sometimes it is hard to trust that these things all work themselves out in the end.