dislikes milk

my baby is 16 months old.. she dislikes milk(except her mother's) she does not takes her meals properly, after 5 or 6 spoons of yoghurt or any diet she refuses to take more... then sometime we have to force feed her... we have tried many flavours for her diet but after 2 to 3 days she develops disliking for that too.... we have to spend an hour or 2 to give her 1 meal....she drinks water n some tea very well but as soon as milk is added to it she stops taking it..  though she is an active child but her fussiness for food worries me a lot .. plz suggest what else we should do... p.s she has no lactose intolerance..

[Renee Radenberg]

If your measurements are correct, her weight is below the 5th percentile and her height is just above the 95th percentile for her age. At 16 months she should be eating on her own with finger foods with her fingers and/or a spoon. Suggest giving her breast milk (you have to pump) in a ‘sippy’ cup at meals and snacks only to help her to eat meals instead drinking only breast milk. Suggest giving her Pediasure instead of milk due to additional calories for weight gain. If you want to stopping breast feeding suggest weaning her off by mixing ¾ breast milk with ¼ Pediasure and see if she accepts and tolerates it. If she does, then after a week or so, try doing a bottle mix of ½ breast milk, and ½ Pediasure. Gradually go to a mix of ¼ breast milk and ¾ Pediasure then totally to all Pediasure. After weaning her, do not introduce breast milk again. If she still does not eat any solid foods, suggest having her evaluated for swallowing/chewing properly. Hoped this helped you.