ORLANDO, Fla. - It's makeover time for milk.

The little paper carton has been a fixture in school cafeterias for 60 years. But these days it seems as dated as the ditto machine and about as hip as a principal's cardigan.

Enter "enhanced packaging" - chunky plastic bottles decorated with bright graphics.

More than 1,400 schools nationwide have started serving milk in the new bottles with screw-on lids, according to the Dairy Council of Florida.

In Seminole County, Fla., the school district ditched milk cartons this year in favor of the eight-ounce plastic containers. It is the first in Florida to do so districtwide.

Orange County, Fla., has done the same in its middle and high schools this year, but cartons will hang around in elementary schools.

"It's just a niftier-type container, more modern," said Lora Gilbert, director of food services for the Orange district. "What we're really trying to do is entice kids to eat better."

At Bentley Elementary in Sanford, Fla., 6-year-old Alexa McGriff didn't need convincing. She selected a bottle of low-fat strawberry milk, her new favorite. "It tastes good," the first-grader said.

Officials from the dairy council and T.G. Lee Dairy - which sells milk to Orange and Seminole schools - visited Bentley recently to spur interest in the new-look milk.

Four years ago, a study by the National Dairy Council found students bought more milk if it was packaged in plastic bottles and offered in more flavors. Nationally, milk consumption has declined, with the biggest drop during the past 30 years among children, the U.S. Department of Agriculture reports. Pediatricians worry that means youngsters aren't getting enough calcium.

The packaging push, along with flavored milks, could help change that, said Carol Frary, a researcher who studies children's nutrition at the University of Vermont.

Although the low-fat flavored milks have added sugar, they are far better nutritionally than soda, sports drinks or juice drinks, Frary added.

The downside is the cost. Each plastic bottle costs school districts eight cents more than the paper carton - costs the districts are mostly absorbing. That's why Orange is keeping paper cartons in elementaries, where milk sells well without a pretty package.

None of this mattered to 6-year-old Robert Greene, who quickly chugged his chocolate milk in Bentley's cafeteria. "It's already all gone," the first-grader said.