At 3 years only milk diet.

[BellaClaudia]

I know somebody who knows somebody
who's little boy is on milk only diet.

he is said not to like anything and refusing anything besides
the bottle of milk.

he was nursed for a while.. don't know the details

I am looking for suggestions of ways to help the family but I don't know
any cases and possible soultions.

My own 4 year old who is extended nursling eats everyting especially
loves greens and she started solids at 6 mo with huge apetite that
lasts ever since.

so the topic is foreign to me yet I would like to help them somehow

There must be someone in this beloved forum who knows something..
went through this or has brilliant ideas...

I don't know if this child ended up on bottle after, instead or paralel to nursing.. I know also that the milk is not formula but just the milk..

I fear that this might not be enough to support a health and development of a chld at this stage but then again.. what do I know..

please let me know if you have any ideas that would be worthy
of sharing with the family that might help them to get out of the pit..

thanks.

[ann_of_loxley]

He could have a sensory issue. A lot of children with sensory issues have a hard time eating due to the feeling of the food in the mouth. It is too much for them to handle. So they just avoid it! Occupational therapy can greatly help with this!
Other issues that I have seen are speech issues linked with muscle weakness -which just makes eating plain hard work for them, so they would rather 'drink' their food that suffer the muscle fatigue.
Though its more than likely a sensory issue.

[nannymom]

When you say a bottle of milk do you mean cows milk or formula?

[calpurnia]

I think you are rather jumping to conclusions without much real information. There was a thread in the breastfeeding forums a while ago about a woman who was exclusively breastfeeding her 2 year old, because of an immune disorder.

[tinuviel_k]

You might also consider that some of those "I know someone who knows someone who..." kind of stories tend to get blown out of proportion, or have a LOT of information missing. If I did not know the family personally I would be reluctant to step in and offer advice.

[mrspineau]

it sounds to me like you just dont know enough about the situation or the people to be able to help.

[pauletoy]

I wouldn't trust information from a friend of a friend. I also wouldn't get involved since you don't really know what's going on with the child. It may be an exageration or the child could have medical issues. I would MYOB.

[annekh23]

If all the info is correct, then a 3yr old consuming only cows milk would be at very high risk of iron deficiency and a few other vitamins and minerals too.

But if there is any kind of medical problem they'd be using some kind of formula aimed at a child that age, if they could afford it, which could be an issue for some families.

[LynnS6]

If the story is true, they can see an occupational therapist or speech language pathologist who specializes in feeding therapy. Food aversions can be serious.

[laohaire]

Originally Posted by mrspineau

it sounds to me like you just dont know enough about the situation or the people to be able to help.

That.

[luv-my-boys]

Im going to err on the side that the situation you describe is correct not over blown and that the parents asked for your input.


Cows milk as the sole source of nutrition in a child this age is not nutritionally significant. In fact there could be several reasons why this is the case for this child all of which need to be looked into by a at aleast a medical professional.

1. sheer laziness on the parents part. yes it does happen, some people would rather just stick a bottle in kids mouth than make a meal for one. I have seen LOTS of time.

2. the child has food allergies and frankly milk is the only thing that feels "right" in their tummy. Especially young kids its hard to express that certain foods make them sick

3. food/texture adversions are another possibility. All my soons have small aversions to certain textures and therefore food. For instance DS hates mashed whatever so no potatoes/yams/anything that could be served mashed up.

structural issues like palate/tongue/teeth/throat need to be checked to see if there is something there that is prohibiting the child from eating comfortably.

4. is the child on a special diet? I ask because one of my sons was on a powdered nutritional supplement that we mixed with milk and so people though he was constantly drinking milk (which he was) but that was because he needed the medication and the milk helped ease his stomach taking it mixed instead of water.

[Pookietooth]

I don't know if there's much you can do, most people ignore advice from people they don't know well, and often even from family.

[Kailey's mom]

I'm POSITIVE that if you were to ask specific friends what I feed my dd, they will say she can only have "milk". In reality, she can only have elecare, which looks just like milk in her cup, but in reality is a elemental formula Most don't care to/ or can't remember the name "elecare" and just say milk. They know she has allergies, but many don't know what the allergies are, they just know she can only have "her" milk. JAT in this situation

[Momily]

I also think it's natural for parents who are worried about their kids diet to exaggerate when talking about it. I remember when my son was a toddler, a friend of mine complained about the fact that her toddler ate "no protein". Of course I was a little worried on her behalf. It eventually turned out that her child ate milk, cheese, yogurt, scrambled eggs, chicken nuggets, hot dogs, fish sticks, soups with meat in them, and rice and beans. However, her diet consisted of lots of healthy grilled chicken, lean beef, fish,which he would just pick at.