My husband is adamant about not letting our daughter eat dairy. He has cited many studies showing the negative effects of dairy on the body, including being linked to allergies, and even cancer. He can get quite firm when it comes to dietary concerns for the household, while I’m more of a everything-in-moderation type of person. This means he doesn’t want our daughter drinking whole milk as pediatricians recommend for those transitioning from breast milk or formula.

I certainly have nothing against milk or dairy in general. Whole milk is the perfect next phase liquid for babies. They get the fat they need for their growing brain, plus calcium and other important vitamins. However, I want to respect my husband’s demand request so I started researching good alternatives for whole cow’s milk. Unfortunately, there isn’t really much out there. The top alternatives seem to be rice milk, soy milk, goat’s milk, none of which have the good high-fat content that is so beneficial for a growing baby and child.

I started to think that we’d have to go with whole cow’s milk after all. Then I started thinking: there’s got to be millions of kids out there whose parents are vegetarians and don’t give their kids milk. What do they do? I then realized that while whole cow’s milk is a convenient way to package the nutrients you should serve to your child, you can get all these nutrients from different foods. For example, we can take soy milk (which we already drink; we don’t consume cow’s milk) and feed her that while supplementing the fat that’s missing from other foods.

Avocados with it’s superior fat content is a good supplement to add to her diet. I can also give her bread drizzled with olive oil. I can put some sunflower seeds and other nuts through the food processor mix with sugar, a bit of oil or maybe soy milk and turn that into a paste for breads, or keep it dry an sprinkle it on cereals or just feed it to her as it is.

I think we’ve got a good game plan. For parents who are concerned only with what cows are fed (feeds with preservatives, etc.) and how that affecs the milk, you can also try USDA-approved Organic milk.

Wish us luck!

Every mom experiences this to some degree. Whether weaning from breast or formula to cow’s milk, babies and toddlers are notoriously awkward about drinking enough milk.

Pediatricians usually recommend around 16oz of cow’s milk a day for a one-year-old. My one-year-old was totally typical of weaning babies and thought he should drink one sip, then nurse 14 times a day. I despaired of ever getting him to drink enough milk to wean him without worrying that he would get enough nutrients. Other moms of one-year-olds have the same struggle weaning from formula.

Here’s some tips and tricks to encourage your baby to drink more milk.

• Mix pumped breastmilk or formula with the cow’s milk to get them used to the taste gradually.
• Try different cups – different styles of sippy cups, spouts, straws, valves or no valves, or even cups with no lids – most babies can drink from a cup with a little help. Let your baby pick out a cup. Yes, your son will probably want Dora The Explorer. Better Dora than no milk!
• Pretend it’s your milk. Pour a cup. Drink. Baby will want some. No, this is mine. Are you sure you want some? Well, ok, I guess you can have some.
• Flavor the milk. Babies often like vanilla, from a tiny drop of vanilla flavoring. Chocolate is another fave, a tip-of-a-teaspoon of Nesquik makes milk very chocolaty for a baby so you don’t need to worry too much about the sugar.
• Color the milk. My son used to insist blue milk tasted better than white milk. Whatever, dude, as long as you are drinking it, it’s all good. Use a tiny amount of food dye, or health food stores sell vegetable-based food dyes.
• Have something dry to eat, like crackers, or toast. Then offer milk. Thirsty babies usually drink.
• Milk on cereal counts, as does milk in sauces. Mac and cheese, and many pasta sauces have milk in them.
• Cheese counts too. And yogurt, and yogurt or milk in smoothies.
• Some babies like soy milk, especially the flavored kinds. Pediatricians don’t usually recommend soy milk unless baby is lactose-intolerant but a cup of soy milk does have protein, calcium and vitamins. Mixing soy and cow’s milk together tastes like soy milk, and has the goodness of cow’s milk.
• Temperature. Try cold, room temperature, warm. A friend’s baby only drank milk with ice chips. (Be careful with ice cubes, they could be a choking hazard.)
• Froth it up. A $2 cappuccino milk frother + warm milk = milk froth baby can eat with a spoon. Big hit with babies learning to use a spoon.

Mix it up. If one trick stops working, try another, and another, and another.

If you are worried baby will want to drink blue milk (or chocolate milk or whatever) forever, gradually reduce the amount of food coloring (or Nesquik ect.) until she’s drinking plain milk. And most importantly, don’t pressure your baby or insist they drink their milk. If anything, it will make them less likely to want to drink it, and give them a negative association with the new milk.

And good luck, Mama! It will seem like the battle of the century but one day your baby will be drinking milk like a champ. Promise!

What tips and tricks have you used? Share your secrets!

If you are pregnant or breastfeeding at this time of the year, you better stock up on your vitamin D supplements. Sunlight exposure is a good source of vitamin D however, those of you living in the colder regions won’t be seeing much of it for the next few months because of the winter season. Occasional peeks from the sun may not provide the dosage of Vitamin D necessary to benefit pregnant women and women who are nursing.

What is Vitamin D?

Vitamin D is a fat-soluble vitamin and is produced when the skin is exposed to sunlight, specifically ultraviolet B rays. It plays an important role in the maintenance of the body’s system. It regulates calcium and phosphorus levels in the blood to maximize absorption in the body. It also promotes bone formation and helps in strengthening the body’s immune system.

There are very few foods which naturally contain significant amounts of vitamin D. These include fish liver oil, fatty fish oils which are found in salmon, mackerel, sardines, tuna and eel, mushrooms and egg. Most of the dietary sources of vitamin D come in fortified form hence we have fortified milk, soy milk, cereals and the like.

The U.S. Department of Health strongly encourages pregnant and breastfeeding women to take Vitamin D supplements in the winter months to ensure that babies will not develop rickets or seizure. The Department has also noted a rise in the number of cases of Vitamin D deficiency among children in Asia, the Middle East, and in the Afro-Carribean regions. This is due to the fact that skin color also influences vitamin D absorption. The darker the skin, the less sunlight is absorbed. But fret not, the deficiency can also be remedied by taking Vitamin D supplements.