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I've always said "cows milk is for baby cows". Children don't "need" milk.
If your children don't like milk, then don't force them to drink it. You can get soy or almond "milk" and supplement them with liquid vitamin.
If you feel you must absolutely give them milk in some form, try yogurt --- but watch those kids flavored yogurts; they are loaded with sugar (more sugar in a 4 ounce cup than an entire can of soda!)
School? Gets home at 6:30? I thought he was only a year and a half in age. What kind of school would he go to, where he would be getting am snack, lunch, pm snack, and not come home til 6:30? And then he goes to bed at 7:30...so, you only see your own child long enough to get him to school, then long enough to get him to bed at night?
Something is definitely off with this situation, and whether or not he's drinking cow's milk seems secondary.
He's probably in day care. The day care by my job has some parents who drop their kids at 7am and not picking them up until 6pm, five days a week.
School? Gets home at 6:30? I thought he was only a year and a half in age. What kind of school would he go to, where he would be getting am snack, lunch, pm snack, and not come home til 6:30? And then he goes to bed at 7:30...so, you only see your own child long enough to get him to school, then long enough to get him to bed at night?
I believe she is calling daycare "school." It's fairly common for children to only spend a couple hours at home each night with working parents before bedtime.
Quote:
Originally Posted by AnonChick
Something is definitely off with this situation, and whether or not he's drinking cow's milk seems secondary.
I agree something doesn't seem right. I suspect he's not getting fed enough food at daycare and that's why he is so hungry. The fact this daycare allows bottles at 18 months is an indication that the daycare isn't top notch. It's possible that he's only getting bottles at daycare and the OP doesn't know it.
The OP needs to make some surprise visits to daycare a lunch time. She needs to see if her son is being fed food. Talking to them about it won't work because they won't tell her the truth if they are doing something wrong.
When my children were 18 months, they ate more food than me! It always amazed me how much food they ate. I'm talking full adult sized serving of adult food. We fed them the exact food we were eating. We didn't make "kid food" plates with only items they liked to eat. We'd make our own family meals and cut up food and make a big plate for them. They ate what we ate and a lot of it.
In addition to daycare, it seems that he might not be getting fed enough for dinner too. It doesn't sound like Razz is home long enough to make a real adult meal for her son. He might be getting small servings of kiddy food at night and not a real home cooked meal.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Razz2525
Hopes, he usually has a bottle in between meals, so he'll have breakfast at home (which may include a bottle, may not and fruit and sausage), a snack in the morning at school, then lunch, then his bottle right before naptime, an afternoon snack, and then another bottle at around 5pm. When he gets home at 6:30, he rubs his tummy and goes "Hunry" and we feed him dinner in a hurry. He is ravenous. Then he has a bottle before bedtime which is 7:30pm. I'm always surprised he wants this bottle when he just ate himself silly an hour before. For awhile there a month or so ago, he was waking up at 1am screaming and when I came in with a bottle, he would drink it like he hadn't had any food for days. The pediatrician said to stop that because he'll get used to eating at 1am, which is exactly what happened. I tried to ignore his crying but after a certain point, I'd just go into check on him to make sure something else wasn't going on, and if I determined he was hungry, I would give him some water. That solved that issue pretty quickly and no more 1am crying.
I've cut out one of the bottles for school and the morning bottle may go away too. He eats a lot. He may have had a full dinner and then if he sees any one of his still eating, he says he's still hungry.
Razz, your son is so hungry because he's not getting fed enough food. Something is wrong with at your daycare. He is not being fed enough food during the day while he is there. See my comments above in this post. I'd seriously consider changing daycare providers. If you send the food to the provider for lunch and snacks, you're not sending enough food or they aren't feeding him what you are sending.
Yes, Lehigh, didn't quite see that coming, but I'll answer nevertheless at my peril...
Yes, my husband and I work fulltime. My boys go to preschool full time, from 8:30 to 6pm (day care with a curriculum and writing/reading enrichments, swimming, Spanish, sign language - believe me, I know some may be rolling eyes but my boys have thrived there developmentally and I've been with them over 2 years - I switched schools once and we were back within weeks). A teacher who works there also babysits for us and brings them home around 6:30 if not earlier some days. Granted, I don't get to spend much time with them after work (6:30-7:30 with the baby and 8:30 with my older one and mornings getting ready for school), but we maximize our time together on weekends. Such is life right now.
The baby has breakfast at home, and then once at school, he has banana slices and "cutie" tangerines and a Gerber cereal bar; lunch which consists of pasta and vegetables, or fish sticks and sweet potatoes, whatever I put in a thermos; and then bottle before naptime. Then there's snack after naptime, which is YoToddler organic yogurt and some cheese, more fruit or cereal, and then another bottle around 5pm. I've replaced one of the bottles with water until I figure out a milk substitute to put in his lunchbox since I think he's feeling the loss of that formula bottle. They've tried giving him a little cow's milk in a sippy and he rejected it.
Believe me, they feed him beyond what I put in his lunchbox. They have a full kitchen and have hot meals brought in daily. When my older son refused to eat his lunch for awhile because he got picky, they FOUND something that he would like, even made a PB&J as a last resort so he wouldn't be starving. When the baby comes home at 6:30pm, he's not ravenous, he plays with his brother for awhile and then around 7pm, he's ready to chow down again and he gets his dinner, which could be what his brother is eating and a little of what we eat, hamburger, sweet potato, chicken. We keep trying with veggies but he tries them and spits it out. It doesn't matter if he's eaten to the point of popping because he'll tell us he's done -- if he sees someone eating something else, he will act ravenous again. He's 18 months and 30 pounds - he has a healthy appetite, not because he's starving. He is a strong little boy. As an infant, he would literally have to be cut off because he'd keep demanding breast milk and formula round the clock and a few times, he "popped" and spit up because he simply had too much in his tummy. He's always been this way. He's a scavenger eater just like DH. Don't leave anything left on your plate because he will want to eat it. He's gone into our garbage to eat a half-eaten pizza slice someone threw away. Ewww!
I hope that allays everyone's fears about this. I will try almond milk or rice milk. I want to stay away from chocolate syrup because of the sugar. Thanks for the ideas everyone!
You know what else I just thought of. When our daughter had her milk allergy, the ped suggested tums for a calcium supplement. They are much cheaper than the calcium chewable. Now I see they make tums for kids.
and don't forget to go out in the sun without sunscreen, so she can get some vitamin d.
Yes, Lehigh, didn't quite see that coming, but I'll answer nevertheless at my peril...
Yes, my husband and I work fulltime. My boys go to preschool full time, from 8:30 to 6pm (day care with a curriculum and writing/reading enrichments, swimming, Spanish, sign language - believe me, I know some may be rolling eyes but my boys have thrived there developmentally and I've been with them over 2 years - I switched schools once and we were back within weeks). A teacher who works there also babysits for us and brings them home around 6:30 if not earlier some days. Granted, I don't get to spend much time with them after work (6:30-7:30 with the baby and 8:30 with my older one and mornings getting ready for school), but we maximize our time together on weekends. Such is life right now.
The baby has breakfast at home, and then once at school, he has banana slices and "cutie" tangerines and a Gerber cereal bar; lunch which consists of pasta and vegetables, or fish sticks and sweet potatoes, whatever I put in a thermos; and then bottle before naptime. Then there's snack after naptime, which is YoToddler organic yogurt and some cheese, more fruit or cereal, and then another bottle around 5pm. I've replaced one of the bottles with water until I figure out a milk substitute to put in his lunchbox since I think he's feeling the loss of that formula bottle. They've tried giving him a little cow's milk in a sippy and he rejected it.
Believe me, they feed him beyond what I put in his lunchbox. They have a full kitchen and have hot meals brought in daily. When my older son refused to eat his lunch for awhile because he got picky, they FOUND something that he would like, even made a PB&J as a last resort so he wouldn't be starving. When the baby comes home at 6:30pm, he's not ravenous, he plays with his brother for awhile and then around 7pm, he's ready to chow down again and he gets his dinner, which could be what his brother is eating and a little of what we eat, hamburger, sweet potato, chicken. We keep trying with veggies but he tries them and spits it out. It doesn't matter if he's eaten to the point of popping because he'll tell us he's done -- if he sees someone eating something else, he will act ravenous again. He's 18 months and 30 pounds - he has a healthy appetite, not because he's starving. He is a strong little boy. As an infant, he would literally have to be cut off because he'd keep demanding breast milk and formula round the clock and a few times, he "popped" and spit up because he simply had too much in his tummy. He's always been this way. He's a scavenger eater just like DH. Don't leave anything left on your plate because he will want to eat it. He's gone into our garbage to eat a half-eaten pizza slice someone threw away. Ewww!
I hope that allays everyone's fears about this. I will try almond milk or rice milk. I want to stay away from chocolate syrup because of the sugar. Thanks for the ideas everyone!
What if your son sees you drinking milk and you share it with him?
My (now 18 years old) son was like that as a baby. He hated everything. I had to give him a daily vitamin with iron. The only thing that helped was I kept re-introducing him to the foods he kept spitting out. By the time he was 5 he was eating everything put in front of him.
Thanks. I read an NPR article this morning that said that you have to keep trying sometimes 15-20 times before it "takes" and they eat it, in addition to having a lot of it on your own plate! And I admit, I'm not a huge veggie eater myself, so it all makes sense. I think we give up too easily - "Oh, he doesn't like that, onto the next." We're going to stick to it starting now.
Thanks. I read an NPR article this morning that said that you have to keep trying sometimes 15-20 times before it "takes" and they eat it, in addition to having a lot of it on your own plate! And I admit, I'm not a huge veggie eater myself, so it all makes sense. I think we give up too easily - "Oh, he doesn't like that, onto the next." We're going to stick to it starting now.
Oh, yeah! Definitely! Always put it on his plate! Always! Even things he doesn't like. Just put it there. Let him ignore it or play with it or whatever he wants to do. Eventually, he'll pick it up and eat it after he has seen it long enough. Never give food selectively to children. Just feed them what you cook for yourself. This is where the saying "Mom isn't a short order cook" comes into play. You make one meal for the whole family and everyone eats that meal or ignores it. They're not going to starve if they refuse to eat. You're setting yourself up for a life of mommy misery if you cater to a "picky" eater.
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