I am taking a nutrition class via the internet. I am required to post two Internet questions for my class.
- I have a daughter who will be two in August and she still takes a bottle. I would like to know if you have any suggestions on how to break this habit from her. Also, she drinks almost a gallon of whole milk every day?
I would also like to know if her drinking all of this milk could be causing her to be constipated?
- Start replacing one bottle every few days with a glass half filled with milk. Also, limit your daughter’s milk drinking to meals and snacks with no bottles when she goes to bed to prevent cavities. Weaning starts at approximately 4 to 6 months of age when solids like cereal are added to a breast milk or formula only infant food plan. Weaning continues up to 2 years of age when a child consumes a mature eating plan from a range of adult foods some self-selected, the rest provided by parents and caregivers.
Milk does not cause constipation. However, the volume of milk your daughter is drinking is preventing her from eating foods with fiber that would help prevent constipation. Also, she needs to have good sources of iron (red meats and leafy green vegetables like spinach) support her hemoglobin in her expanding blood volume as she grows.
