Does your 4-5 year old drink milk? What kind?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My now 9yo doesn’t drink any cows milk at all. We drink almond milk in oatmeal, smoothies etc. Look into other sources of calcium, protein, healthy fats. Humans are not designed to drink cows milk which is why a lot of kids just don’t like it. We end up adding chocolate too it just to get them to drink it, makes no sense.

Lots of kids love milk. Does that mean they were meant to drink it? And most kids dislike vegetables. So do many adult! Does that mean we shouldn’t eat them?

I don’t care if people drink milk or not, and there are environmental reasons to avoid cows milk, but this argument makes no sense.

some do and that’s fine if you want them to drink it. But given all the lactose intolerant people we have plus the kids grabbing the choc milk at school and not the regular milk I would still stand by my point.

Kid's grab chocolate milk because kids LOVE sweet things because their taste buds develop sweet receptors before all others. Breast milk and formula are sweet for this reason. If you give kids the option of something sweet/sugary, they will always take it. It has nothing to do with proper nutrition. It's just how they are programmed.

My take on this is that for a long time people really pushed dairy on kids because nutritionists and pediatricians had decided it was the easiest ways to get kids protein, calcium, and fat. Then they started fortifying milk with vitamin D, which a lot of kids don't get enough of, and it seemed like a no-brainer. But of course it turned out that most kids could not handle the amount that was being pushed on them (when I was a kid we were encouraged to drink these huge glasses of milk daily "for health", it was ridiculous) and some people are actually lactose intolerant and it was bad.

But that doesn't mean humans are not "meant" to consume dairy. Humans have consumed dairy in different forms all over the planet for thousands of years. We are omnivores and can derive nutrients from a variety of sources. I'm not saying that every kid needs milk or it's the only way to get them these nutrients, and I'm definitely not suggesting you force kids to consume it if they need it filled with sugar and chocolate to be palatable. But I've heard this line -- that humans aren't meant to consume cows milk -- many times and from both a nutritional and evolutionary standpoint it is nonsensical. Drink milk or no, it doesn't matter to me, but don't declare what humans (who have been drinking milk for a very long time) were meant to do like it's ordained by God or something. The human body is a just an animal organism and is highly adaptive in terms of nutrition.

[Anonymous]

Apparently an outlier here also. My three-year-old drinks 2% organic milk. Our pediatrician said to switch from whole milk when she turned two (she was/is 10th percentile for weight so the recommendation was not BMI related). I give her full fat yogurt and cheese.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Apparently an outlier here also. My three-year-old drinks 2% organic milk. Our pediatrician said to switch from whole milk when she turned two (she was/is 10th percentile for weight so the recommendation was not BMI related). I give her full fat yogurt and cheese.

This is outdated thinking.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My now 9yo doesn’t drink any cows milk at all. We drink almond milk in oatmeal, smoothies etc. Look into other sources of calcium, protein, healthy fats. Humans are not designed to drink cows milk which is why a lot of kids just don’t like it. We end up adding chocolate too it just to get them to drink it, makes no sense.

Lots of kids love milk. Does that mean they were meant to drink it? And most kids dislike vegetables. So do many adult! Does that mean we shouldn’t eat them?

I don’t care if people drink milk or not, and there are environmental reasons to avoid cows milk, but this argument makes no sense.

some do and that’s fine if you want them to drink it. But given all the lactose intolerant people we have plus the kids grabbing the choc milk at school and not the regular milk I would still stand by my point.

This is OP. I feel torn about this. I’m not a huge fan of dairy as it is supposed to be inflammatory, but we keep no sugar yogurt in the house. But pediatrician did recommend a glass of milk. We do not eat much meat very regularly and we don’t do a lot of heavy carbs - eg we often eat eggs in the morning, but often dinner will be fish or vegetarian with vegetables. I do drizzle extra olive oil. Just thinking a preschooler may need the calories and fat/protein, so thinking of adding milk back.

Don't give your child an adult's diet. Make an appointment with a child nutritionist asap

What do you mean by an adult’s diet? He eats what we all eat. I’m just saying we eat less meat and less heavy carbs than what’s traditional.

NP. And it sounds like you are low carb - that’s not appropriate for your child.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:She still drinks whole milk, as do we all.

+1 whole family drinks grass fed whole milk. Skim and 1% are not good for your blood sugar.

No milk is good for you, dummy.

[Anonymous]

Whole organic milk.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:What if there are mild concerns with adult’s cholesterol? Would 1/2-1 cup of whole milk and a serving of whole yogurt give you pause?

Nutrition science can't seem to agree. When I was in school as was taught adults should get skim, eggs raise cholesterol, but have heard studies saying eggs do not raise blood cholesterol and that your liver makes far more cholesterol daily than you consume in food.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Apparently an outlier here also. My three-year-old drinks 2% organic milk. Our pediatrician said to switch from whole milk when she turned two (she was/is 10th percentile for weight so the recommendation was not BMI related). I give her full fat yogurt and cheese.

This is outdated thinking.

It is still the standard pediatric recommendation, so unless or until the American Association of Pediatricians changes their thinking or recommendations, you are the outlier. People are going to do what their ped recommends.

[Anonymous]

My 4 year old rarely drinks milk as she prefers water. But her older sibling loves milk and we’ve always bought whole or occasionally 2% so they both drink that if/when they drink milk.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My now 9yo doesn’t drink any cows milk at all. We drink almond milk in oatmeal, smoothies etc. Look into other sources of calcium, protein, healthy fats. Humans are not designed to drink cows milk which is why a lot of kids just don’t like it. We end up adding chocolate too it just to get them to drink it, makes no sense.

My family is a 2 gallon a week family and my kids are only 4 and 18 months. Whole milk for the kids. Northern Europeans have been consuming dairy as a substantial contribution of dietary calories for centuries. Both of my kids have dropped weight percentiles when not on whole milk.

[Anonymous]

My 5 and 3yos drink 2%, one cup per day. They also eat plenty of cheese, yogurt, etc.

[Anonymous]

Only whole milk and yogurt.

[Anonymous]

As a family, we drink whole milk and eat full fat yogurt. My kids (2 and 4) love milk and we easily go through 2 gallons a week.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Apparently an outlier here also. My three-year-old drinks 2% organic milk. Our pediatrician said to switch from whole milk when she turned two (she was/is 10th percentile for weight so the recommendation was not BMI related). I give her full fat yogurt and cheese.

This is outdated thinking.

I’m a pediatric nurse and every single pediatrician I have worked with recommends this. It is a standard recommendation.

[Anonymous]

My 5 yo drinks 2 cups of whole milk on most days. Sometimes gets some more milk in with cereal.