wdw restaurants and milk (bottle related q)

[Chabby]

Is she on cow's milk yet? Not all babies tolerate it well, DS threw it up completely. Make sure your DD does at home before you go through all the hassle only to realize you need soy or something else.

 

[rachael95]

But can you carry cow's milk around with you un-refrigerated for it to become room temperature?

Actually, yes. If you buy the organic shelf stable individual containers of milk. You can get white and chocolate milk from most grocery stores. They usually sell them for about $1 per carton. Not a great deal for everyday use, but awesome for your situation when traveling. The brand we have at our stores is Horizon Organic. It's actually pretty tasty. Keep in mind, once opened, they need to be refrigerated. But they are only about 8 oz per carton so that's really just one serving.

As for if you want to order from a restaurant, I've heated a bottle several times just asking for hot water in a cup.

How I got DS to switch from BM to cold milk and even to cold formula milk was to just stop heating it as much a little at a time. I started taking it out of the heater a little sooner every time until he would drink it straight from the fridge. On a related note, I also started to add ice to his sippy cup when I give him water. That way, if we're at a restaurant and he wants water, I don't have to specify "no ice". Though now, he prefers his water to have ice in it and seems disappointed when there isn't any.

 

[rachael95]

I also just thought of something. If your daughter will drink formula, what I've done several times is just put the pre-measured formula in bottles and then add water when I needed it. That way, I don't have to worry about refrigeration and it's lighter to carry.

Maybe she'd be willing to drink formula instead of milk for the trip?

You can also buy the shelf-stable pre-mixed formula too. It's a bit more expensive but you don't have to mix it up and I think my DS always preferred it.

 

[Angel Ariel]

Is she on cow's milk yet? Not all babies tolerate it well, DS threw it up completely. Make sure your DD does at home before you go through all the hassle only to realize you need soy or something else.

We are in the process of weaning her now, so we'll know by October (when our trip is) if she'll take it.

 

[bookgirl]

DD just turned 1 this week, and I'm going to start weaning her from breastmilk. I've been EPing for the year, and as happy as I am to have been able to provide bm for her, pumping is taking too much time out away from her other needs now and I need to cut back.

We're heading to WDW in October, and I was wondering if you can order warmed milk? DD generally won't eat unless it's warmed (at least room temp). She will not eat/drink anything cold. Will the restaurant warm it up at all before bringing it out if I ask? ETA: I don't expect them to warm the bottle, just warm the milk. I would transfer the milk at the table. I'm just trying to figure out how to handle that part of our trip. With the breastmilk in March, I was able to keep the last pumping session room temperature (it wasn't hot) until she drank it, so it wasn't as much of an issue. Cow's milk isn't the same in that regard, though.

If they don't bring it warmed, what are some strategies others have used to warm it (if you have a child who won't drink it otherwise)? My nephew was the same way...wouldn't drink cold milk til he was almost 3. I plan to talk to my SIL about it, but they didn't travel anywhere like Disney when he was in that stage, though, so I was hoping for some expertise here!

Buy the little cartons of shelf stable milk ( I use horizons). They are fresh until you open them. If she prefers warm milk they should be perfect. My walmart sells them in the aisle with cereal where the Almond and Rice milk is.

 

[Angel Ariel]

I hadn't see the shelf stable milk before - thank you to everyone who suggested that! That will be a great option for our trip!

 

[Gracie09]

I hadn't see the shelf stable milk before - thank you to everyone who suggested that! That will be a great option for our trip!

Sometimes they are by the juice boxes sometimes in the natural foods section. Costco and whole foods carries them as well

 

[MSSANDRA]

Be sure to try to boxes of milk before you get to WDW. I thought they were a GREAT choice for travel and loaded up on them when DS was about 20 months (we had just weaned to whole milk and it was going great)....Well first night I put his little box of milk in the bedtime bottle (yep we were bad parents and he was still on the bottle). He took one sip and started crying. He would not drink it and would not go to sleep without his bedtime bottle. DH found a store about 5 minutes away for a pint of milk but oh the crying for that time it took! BTDT---Try it out first!!

 

[BrittneyMarie]

No advice, but can I just say that you rock for exclusively pumping for a whole year?

 

[Angel Ariel]

Be sure to try to boxes of milk before you get to WDW. I thought they were a GREAT choice for travel and loaded up on them when DS was about 20 months (we had just weaned to whole milk and it was going great)....Well first night I put his little box of milk in the bedtime bottle (yep we were bad parents and he was still on the bottle). He took one sip and started crying. He would not drink it and would not go to sleep without his bedtime bottle. DH found a store about 5 minutes away for a pint of milk but oh the crying for that time it took! BTDT---Try it out first!!

We will definitely try it first - thanks for the story!

 

[Angel Ariel]

No advice, but can I just say that you rock for exclusively pumping for a whole year?

Thank you It's been a long year, but it was worth it!

 

[garnetandblack]

No advice, but can I just say that you rock for exclusively pumping for a whole year?

This! DS was a preemie and I pumped for 6 months - it was tough because I never was able to pump enough and we had to supplement with formula. I felt like a slave to the pump - I pumped at least 4 hours every day. DS also had issues with AR and was failure to thrive, I had so much "mommy guilt" for not being able to pump enough milk for him. I kept thinking, "If he was exclusively breast fed he would be fine!" He's 3.5 and in the 75th for height and 50th for weight, so he is doing great now

 

[WantToGoNow]

Since you still have a little time, I would work on serving the milk a little less warmed every few days so that she can get used to having it colder a little at a time.

I never warmed my kids milk or baby food so I didn't have this problem. My cousin did though with her ds who was just a month younger than my dd - it was a lot easier travelling when I could give her cold milk and room temp baby food instead of searching for a microwave or hot water to warm it.

 

[sb682]

I just want to point out that it's hard to find whole milk in the shelf-stable boxes. Most of them seem to be reduced fat or fat free. Kids ages 1-2 who drink cow's milk should get whole milk due to the need for fat for brain development.

And yes, OP, you are awesome for EPing for a whole year! Go you!

 

[Angel Ariel]

I just want to point out that it's hard to find whole milk in the shelf-stable boxes. Most of them seem to be reduced fat or fat free. Kids ages 1-2 who drink cow's milk should get whole milk due to the need for fat for brain development. And yes, OP, you are awesome for EPing for a whole year! Go you!

I will make sure to keep an eye out for that. Thank you

 

[Angel Ariel]

Since you still have a little time, I would work on serving the milk a little less warmed every few days so that she can get used to having it colder a little at a time.

As I said, we are working on it. She has no problems taking room temperature breast milk or food, it's just cold cold that she has problems with. I can't force her to drink it if she doesn't want it, all I can do is continue to work strategies to get her to take cold food, which we're working on. I like to plan ahead, and since I knew warming things was an issue on our last trip, I'm just trying to prep for this trip's slightly different issues.

I never warmed my kids milk or baby food so I didn't have this problem.

We didn't start with warming her food. We struggled with her eating solids for 2+ months. It would take 40+ minutes to eat maybe 1/2 container of baby food (stage 1 or 2). When we started warming her food, she started eating much better and had a great growth spurt. I'm going to do what I need to do to get my child to eat and grow well.

 

[sb682]

I just thought of something else. Will you have access to a microwave or another way to heat your milk at your resort? The AAP recommends no more than 16-24 oz (2-3 cups) of milk per day for kids ages 1-2. We gave DS milk twice a day: 8 oz. in the morning, and 8 oz. before bed. He had mostly water the rest of the day, sometimes diluted apple juice. If you do 2 cups a day and have a microwave in the room or resort food court/quick service, you don't have to worry about in the parks. If you take a mid-day break (which is great with little kids), you can do another cup in the early afternoon. On trips, I bought some whole milk from the grocery or convenience store and kept it in the fridge, or I bought smaller amounts and kept it in a cooler full of ice. I brought a Pyrex measuring cup from home (the stuff we do for our kids!) and warmed his milk in it. Maybe something like that would work for you.

 

[RoosMama]

I just want to point out that it's hard to find whole milk in the shelf-stable boxes. Most of them seem to be reduced fat or fat free. Kids ages 1-2 who drink cow's milk should get whole milk due to the need for fat for brain development.

And yes, OP, you are awesome for EPing for a whole year! Go you!

Don't know if this is at all a option, but my DD went from formula to soy milk, which is really easy to find in shelf-stable cartons. (I didn't want to buy 2 different cartons of milk all the time, plus we don't eat much meat so it gives her more protein.)

 

[corneredbycorn]

I just want to point out that it's hard to find whole milk in the shelf-stable boxes. Most of them seem to be reduced fat or fat free. Kids ages 1-2 who drink cow's milk should get whole milk due to the need for fat for brain development.

And yes, OP, you are awesome for EPing for a whole year! Go you!

While they should get whole milk, a week or so of reduced fat milk will not destroy a toddler's brain development. If you really don't want to go with reduced fat shelf stable options, you can always get powdered whole milk and mix it with water.

Also, while I don't agree with it, many pediatricians are starting to have parents give their babies 2% at one year, especially for larger babies. Even my super pro breastfeeding ped, who i never thought would jump on that bandwagon, told me that we are going to go ahead and keep my 18 month old daughter on whole milk because she's underweight, but the implication was that she would have wanted us to switch to 2% if we weren't dealing with weight issues. Even if we were told to switch, we wouldn't. We all drink whole milk around here.

 

[HulaMinnie]

Hey Angel Ariel! Good to read one of your posts since I feel like we have similar baby experiences (EPing + babies who don't want to eat!!). Keep up the amazing work, though! I'm getting ready to stop EPing. We're going to start DS on whole milk next week and we're hoping he takes to it well since we are also going to be in Disney in October. We finally got him to drink cold breastmilk (often doesn't finish the whole thing, though), but him eating solids is still a struggle, so I feel for you.

I was interested in the Horizon milk boxes, too. We sell them at my work but I have never seen them in whole milk (and I didn't see the boxes of whole milk on their website), but maybe there is another brand. I'll have to check the grocery stores. If I find some, I'll let you know!

If you find cold whole milk in the parks (there are some threads about where to find whole milk in WDW), to warm up DS's bottles we would carry around a thermos of hot water from our hotel coffee pot. It would have been more helpful if we carried around a piece of tupperware that our bottle would have fit into better to pour the hot water into. I'm not sure if you already use these, but the bottles with the liners tend to heat up a lot quicker.

Good luck! When are you going to be in WDW?