What milk for your toddler?

[meiteoh]

Hahaha, yeah, I meant bioavailability. Sorry, long day at work and all.

Re the milk & quantity, that's the thing - all this while, we have been told that milk is good and there is no such thing as a limit so pump your kid full of milk. But recent studies also show that too much of a good thing (be it milk or even supplements) can be bad as well. From the bunch of papers that I have seen it has been proven that more than 650ml of milk can lead to iron depletion especially if your child's diet is low in iron. Yes, while the recommended amount is 16-20 oz, any more and it can lead to increased risks of this or that.

What you have mentioned is important to note - "We should encourage them to take as much milk as they like as long as it does not affect their appetite for their main meals."

A lot of mummies forget that milk is not meant to be a main meal when their babies become toddlers. Often we hear of many instances where toddlers drink more milk than eats more solids and prefer milk over solids. This, I think you'll agree, isn't right.

But hey, just my two cents on the matter. Hm, strange coz all this info I got is from professionals specializing in paed nutrition and substantiated by a host of other academic journals (paed nutrition, etc) and studies together with associations like AAP. Some are quite recent as well. I am aware that you're a nutritionist by training. Which field did you specialize in? Maybe you can share your sources as well - would like to check out differing opinions on the matter.

 

[Mummy to Baby V]

Before turning vegetarian 3 years ago, I started reading books and papers on nutrition. Personally, I won't encourage "We should encourage them to take as much milk as they like as long as it does not affect their appetite for their main meals."

1. The quality of milk / dairy products can be questionable nowadays: processing, additives, growth hormones, antibiotics, etc. I'd go with moderate intake. When my boy's already good appetite increases, I'd increase the volume of varied food and fluids in his meals and snacks, instead of increasing his dairy intake without limit.

2. Too much milk / dairy intake may not be good for health: Some reasons already mentioned by meiteoh. I'm still cautious about taking in too much animal protein from milk / dairy. The dairy industry has very strong support and we may not get the full picture of the benefits / risks of dairy products.