Giving Your Baby Cow's Milk

I recently received this question from a reader and I know a lot of parents wonder the same thing so I thought I’d share my answer with you.

Question: How do you get your baby to drink cow’s milk. Or can you give them chocolate milk?

My Answer: Pediatricians don’t recommend cow’s milk for babies until they’re at least 12 months old, so if your baby is older than a year, my best advice would be to gradually introduce milk in a sippy cup or a regular plastic cup a little bit each day.

It sometimes takes quite a few tries for them to develop a taste for it since it tastes so different than breastmilk and formula. Start with whole milk so baby can still benefit from the extra fat.

If that doesn’t work you can try mixing half cow’s milk and half formula or breastmilk together so the taste isn’t such a drastic change.

I would avoid giving baby any chocolate milk. Not only is the added sugar unnecessary but problems can develop in the future. It could be very difficult to get baby to drink regular milk after having a taste of chocolate milk. If you really want to, I’d only use it as a treat once in awhile.