The little girl I babysit drinks INSANE amounts of milk everyday. (Age five, no health problems, in case that info is necessary.)
Anyway, her mom has to buy around five gallons of milk per week, just to keep up with the amount her kids go through, and the little girl is the one who drinks up the majority of it. I know milk does a body good and all that, but I’ve taken to telling her, “No, you may not have more milk until you finish your supper. If you are thirsty, have some water.” I guess because I figure the milkfat will fill her up instead of her supper, and, as I’ve said, I have no idea if she’s drinking too much milk.
So, anyway…is there such a thing as too much milk?
she must have been read a lot of articles about old women’s bones giving out…and figures she wants to be big and strong? I wonder if this little girl likes cheese and icecream too…
From everything I’ve heard, kids are pretty much self-regulating… They may say that they can live on nothing but peanut butter, or milk, or whatever, and it may look an awful lot like that, but if they start getting too much/too little of anything in their diet, they’ll switch on their own. In the meanwhile, just humor them… Their bodies can take care of themselves.
When I was a kid, my brother and I drank a lot of milk, too…so much that our doctor told Mom we were drinking too much, and she should stop buying whole milk, and go for the skim instead. Mom, being the frugal sort she is, decided that powdered milk would work just fine. That’s about the time my brother and I stopped drinking milk. After about two months, Mom realized that she had these boxes and boxes of powdered milk, and she kept having to dump reconstituted milk down the drain, so she wasn’t really saving any money. Eventually, she started buying low-fat (2%), and we started drinking milk again.
You can have too much of anything, but a young child isn’t in too much danger from drinking milk. The fat content isn’t a big worry until you get older.
We all do fine on breast milk and that has an enormously high fat content. Just think of all those babies with high HDL levels who must need Lipitor.
You know, contrary to popular belief, cow’s milk really is not that good for you in any amount. Ask your doctor about it next time you visit. My wife and I have quit drinking it entirely.
Umm, I hate to say this, Neutron, ol bud, but you have been listening to too much PETA propaganda. It is true, that for adults, especially those with lactose intolerance, milk is not that great. But for the average kid, it’s great, and WAY better than soda, or that “juice” which is 95% sugar water.
There most definitely IS such a thing as “too much milk”, and it sounds like this little girl may be getting it. Current advice is no more than 7.5 dl per day - somewhat more than three cups - for a child over the age of one. The milk itself isn’t really the problem, although it’s pretty high in protein which isn’t good for small kidneys. The real issue is that the child is filling up on the milk and not getting enough of other foods, and cow’s milk is nowhere near being complete nutrition for a human. So she’s missing out on the nutrients that aren’t found in milk.
True, milk is better than soda or apple juice. But that doesn’t mean that drinking buckets of the stuff every day is a terrific idea.
[of one. The milk itself isn’t really the problem, although it’s pretty high in protein which isn’t good for small kidneys. ]
that has never been proven - i’d like to know where you got this from
I think the biggest problem is (well actually are) the high amount of sugar though much better then soda or fruit juice and the hormones added to it
Yes, I think she is drowning her own appetite. We had this problem with my son (albeit at a much earlier age) who just loved loved loved his bottles and was eating nearly nothing.
While human breastmilk is indeed a perfect food that little ones can live on, that doesn’t mean that cow’s milk should be the staple of an older child’s diet.
And I don’t think it’s all PETA bullshit that milk isn’t so great. Yes, it’s better than juice, but making that argument assumes that all milk would be replaced by juice. That’s hardly what a prudent person would suggest. The object is to replace some of that milk with solid food.
Damnit, I wish I had my child nutrition book here in the office. I know they discuss this…
My primary concern would be about the few nutrients that cow’s milk is not rich in. Probably iron would be the most important, but perhaps vitamin E as well. (A diet of milk alone does not provide nearly enough iron.) As long as she’s getting these nutrients from other foods, I wouldn’t be too worried about it.
Veganism has been around a lot longer than PETA. There are very sound arguments for eliminating cow’s milk from the diet. For one thing, the bit about calcium in milk being an essential part of the diet is a crock. The high protein content actually inhibits the absorption of the calcium by the body! Plant sources are more readily absorbed by the body (green leafy vegetables, some legumes).
I’d be very concerned about this little girl drinking so much milk, for the reasons that have been listed here, plus that fact that cow’s milk itself is not good for you (as the dairy industry is spending millions to convince us that it is). And the argument that if a kid’s not drinking cow’s milk he/she is drinking sugary juice is an insupportable assumption. My children drink water, soy milk, rice milk and juice. It’s not either/or. Parents are in charge of what their children consume. Offer junk and that’s what they’ll eat.
Not sure about children’s kidneys (but drawing similar conclusions seems sensible) but here is some information about the excess of protein in the American diet. It’s from the web site of Dr. John McDougall, a physician and nutrition expert “who teaches better health through vegetarian cuisine.”
good article ellen (the link).
but it appears to me that Dr. McDougall has a axe to gring w/ the low carb diet, and I find some of what he says as fact to be at least not determined yet.
Last time I checked the leading cause of kidney failure is diabeaties - which for the most part comes from too much sugar not too much protein- but i could be wrong about this
Right. MacDougall’s take on milk is that other animals don’t drink it past infancy, so it must be not just unnecessary for humans, but harmful to humans. Obviously that doesn’t follow.
It’s true that humans can get enough calcium through green, leafy vegetables, but it’s also true that (1) most Americans don’t eat nearly enough green, leafty vegetables anyway and (2) most Amerincans don’t have enough calcium in their diets anyway. This is especially a concern for women, particularly women with a family history of osteoporosis. I would agree that milk may not be the ideal source of calcium for humans, but it is the most palatable source, at least for most Americans, and it is a good source, if not a great one.
As far as the OP is concerned, however, I wouldn’t be as concerned that a child was drinking too much milk as I would be that she was drinking too much, period, and not eating enough solid food. Milk is no substitute for real food, and I wonder how the mother would feel if the child was drinking the same amount of plain water, or of juice. I think people tend to get complacent about milk being “good for kids” and lose sight of the fact that what is necessary for all of us is a healthy and varied diet.
Chris, I had the same problem with my little boy. To be honest, I don’t know how much of a health problem it is, but it did bother me that he would prefer to drink his meals than eat them. Reminded me too much of an alcohlic.
So, my solution was to measure out what I considered to be a reasonable amount of milk each morning (24 oz of low fat) and let him be the one to choose when to get it. Same with juice, one 100% fruit juice box per day. At first, he would quickly drink it all up in the morning, but gradually he learned to space it out. Now, there is sometimes actually leftovers at night.
Now, if I could just get him to eat foods that aren’t white or beige, we’d be in business.
I don’t know a whole lot about McDougall; someone I know is following his diet and when a hit a link at a veggie site I use, his stuff came up. I wish I had time to search for more.
I tend to be for moderation in most things. For example, though I never drink milk, I put half and half in my coffee. (I am NOT vegan; I do eat yogurt also.)
Regarding the overconsumption of milk: one of the pediatricans in the group I go to, an old doc, says that he used to tell parents to limit children’s milk for the very reason you mention. If it’s good for them, then more has to be better. Now, however, he’s got to issue the warning for juice. Since the advent of the juice box, some parents tend to let kids suck it down all day, then wonder why they won’t eat supper.
(and I think your solution regarding your son was very sensible, Tatertot!)
Kids can definitely drown their appetites with milk and juice. I sometimes resort to giving drinks only between meals.
However, someone (Ellen, I think) said that calcium is better absorbed from other sources. I think the research doesn’t support this. Protein may inhibit some absorption, but oxalic acid (found in spinach, beans and other vegetables)is much worse. You need 10-15 servings of spinach or beans to equal the calcium of a serving of milk. The exception is turnip greens and mustard greens which are very good, bioavailable sources.
The main problem, of course, is getting your kid to eat even one serving of these foods, let alone 10-15.
Fortified soy and rice milks are a good alternative if you have objections/allergies to milk, but if you don’t there is no good health reason to keep kids away from dairy products. Quite the contrary.
I can’t believe what I’m hearing… PETA and vegans have demonized milk to the point where one would think it’s the devil’s drink.
Come on folks, pull your broccoli out of your you-know-what and think rationally for a change. Sure, excess consumption of anything isn’t good, but by-and-large, COW’S MILK IS NOT BAD FOR YOU.
According to Stephen Barrett, M.D.:
“If cow’s milk were ‘that bad,’ you wouldn’t need PETA to tell you. The FDA would have removed it from the marketplace long ago. Instead of worrying about milk, you should be worried about the defective judgment of PETA and others of this ilk.”
