Got Milk? 8 Tips for Adding More Milk Into Mealtime

by Jyl Johnson Pattee on August 5th, 2011 | 1 Comment »

Mealtime—When I first got married, I was a little surprised by how much milk @TroyPattee drank. I thought I drank a lot of milk. I mean, growing up, my family had milk with dinner, which a lot of my friends told me was excessive. But, Troy's milk-drinking habits made my intake pale in comparison.

Fast forward many years to when we had kids. Being that we both loved milk, we naturally assumed that we would have milk-drinking kids. And, as planned, our oldest followed in our footsteps. But then, we had child number 2 and everything changed. He is a water boy! He can't down a glass of milk to save his life. We scratched our heads and wondered what we could do to ensure he drank an adequate amount of milk.

8 Tips for Getting Kids to Drink Milk

Here's some things that helped our kids drink more milk:

For kids that prefer water or another beverage, entice them to drink a small glass of milk before giving them their preferred drink.
Choose meals you can add milk to: cereal, cream of wheat, oatmeal, etc.
Add extra milk to their bowls of cereal.
Identify special snacks that are perfect with milk and offer only milk as the beverage with that food. Some desserts, for examples, go perfectly with milk. When we have brownies and chocolate chip cookies, my youngest guzzles the milk!
Don't be 100% set on having your child drink milk alone. Find ways to serve beverages that have milk in them: shakes, smoothies, and even chocolate milk are ways to disguise the milk flavor if your kids absolutely don't like it.
Model the behavior. Drink milk in front of your kids!
Explain the benefits of drinking milk to your kids.
Make it fun! Get big crazy straws, having milk drinking contests, offer rewards, and take pictures of your family with milk mustaches.

Now excuse me while I make my way down to the expo hall at BlogHer, where I'm excited to join the #gotmilk team, get a picture in my milk mustache, and hopefully, enjoy a big glass before diving into the BlogHer fun this weekend!

Want to follow the fun online? Visit http://search.twitter.com and type in #gotmilk #blogher11 and check out the Milk Mustache Campaign page on Facebook or @MilkMustache on Twitter.

What are your tips for getting your kids to drink more milk?

This post is part of the "Milk" Thanks-a-Latte campaign, for which I am compensated. The tips, opinions, and my milk-loving ways are all my own!

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Jyl Johnson Pattee

An active part of the Mom It Forward team, Jyl primarily writes about parenting, social good, and all things travel related. In a past life, Jyl was an award-winning copywriter and designer of corporate training programs for Fortune 100 companies. Offline, Jyl is married to @TroyPattee; a mom to two teen boys and a beagle named #Hashtag; loves large amounts of cheese, dancing, and traveling; and lives in the beautiful Rocky Mountains. Topping her bucket list is the goal to visit 50 countries by the time she's 50.