Are three glasses of milk necessary for the daily calcium intake of a 3-year-old kid? What if the kid eats yogurt? How big the glass should be? It a glass a serving?
Milk is just a convenient way to give kids their calcium (and vitamin D) because most will drink it, especially when chocolate or some other flavoring is added. There are, of course, other ways.
A glass is eight ounces, I think.
Peace,
mangeorge
There are 291 mg of calcium in eight ounces of milk. Three glasses would provide 873 mg.
The RDA (Recommended Dietary Allowance) of calcium for children aged 1 - 11 years is 800 mg.
You can see where the three glasses recommendation comes from. (Actually, not all the calcium is absorbed, which is why some leeway is given.)
Calcium is good from any dairy source. There are a million different types of yogurt, so an average is hard to give, but plain yogurt has approximately the same calcium content as milk.
The RDA was created by a cabal of physicians intended to keep patients sick and doctors rich. Unfortunately I don’t have a cite but check out this link:
And so you send us to a site maintained by GlaxoSmithKline Consumer Healthcare??!! That’s supposed to be a more authoritative source of information on what food additives to buy?!
Do you mind if I ask for an independent supporting source that actually recommends 1500 mg of calcium for a 3-year-old?
Heck, while I’m at it, how about a source for your cabal comment?
Wouldn’t happen to be a dairy farmer, would ya, Exapno Mapcase?
Gee, mangeorge, don’t you think your joke might work better - or at all - if I were advocating more calcium instead of less?
Three glasses of milk a day is not a good idea. The benefit of calcium is not worth ingesting the hormones and saturated fat that you get in milk. And I doubt your kid drinks skim milk.
The best place to get calcium is from broccoli, or pretty much any thing that’s leafy and green.
I don’t know where you studied math, but the way I figure it, 1500 (which is what the link above advocates) is more than 800.
Oh, and aeropl, most children under 2 need more fat, including saturated fats, in their diets than adults. So skim milk is a bad idea for that age group.
You’re right. And who posted that link, exactly?
First off my response was somewhat tongue in cheek. Secondly, I do trust a pharmaceutical company with some of best biochemists around who don’t sell calcium supplements to know a little bit more than those doctors from the 1950’s who also advocated sitting in a wooden cabinet filled with lightbulbs. Once again, tongue in cheek.
And for the record, I liked dropping the different foods in the kids mouth and seeing how much calcium they had. Calcifun!
This reminds me of that old joke.
A college student in Boston wheels a full basket of groceries to a check out line with a prominent sign reading “maximum 7 items”. The cashier looks at him and asks, “Are you from Harvard and can’t count, or from MIT and can’t read?”
The RDA for children is 800 mg. That’s the number I was advocating. I don’t know of anyone who says that children should get as much as 1500 mg of calcium a day.
So, yes, I was saying children should get less calcium than Kid Charlemange’s site said.
BTW, RDAs are constantly re-evaluated and new recommendations are issued regularly. They are not from the 1950s. Kid Charlemange, your understanding of science is about on a level with aeropl’s. And your ability to product humor is on a par with mangeorge. Not a good day for you, was it?
And how about remembering that the original question was about the health of GIGObuster’s kid? I take questions about childrens’ health issues very seriously, and happen to know something about this particular subject. If you don’t - and it’s obvious that you don’t - why not take your humor to the Pit where it will be better appreciated?
Cheap shot coming;
“And your ability to product humor is on a par with mangeorge”.
Hmmm. MIT grad, I assume? Or was that Davis.
GIGObuster, if you’re concerned, you should probably talk to your kid’s doctor or do some research. Quite a few children (and adults) have a problem with the lactose in dairy products.
No, mangeorge, very few 3-year-old children have a problem with lactose.
Even in those cultures in which the vast majority of people grow up to be lactose intolerant, only a minority of children as young as three are intolerant. In those cultures where adults are not normally lactose intolerant, the percentage of 3-year-olds who are intolerant is in the very low single digits.
Some children do get what is called secondary or temporary lactose intolerance as a result of gastrointestinal diseases or stresses, but as the name implies they can return to drinking milk when their intestines heal.
It is irresponsible to post information about children and their health that has little or no basis in fact.
As I said, I know this issue well. I implore you and the others who are here making fun of the subject not to post unless you actually know what you are talking about. It’s taken me twenty years of research to feel comfortable making these statements, especially when a child’s health is at issue.
It is always a good idea to talk to a doctor about health issues, although I have found through experience that many doctors are not as well informed on such issues as lactose intolerance as one would hope. That doesn’t mean that getting health information through questions to random strangers on line is an improvement. Is is especially bad when people give answers that they can not possibly back up with facts.
I take this very seriously and I don’t have much of a sense of humor about this sort of misinformation. Sick kids are not in the least bit funny. Let’s try to keep them healthy.
GIGObuster, I’m sorry that this had to happen in your thread.
My granddaughter, now 16, was sometimes lactose intolerant as a baby and as a child. As she’s gotten older she seem’s to better tolerate dairy, but usually take’s Lactaid when eating ice cream and such.
If the OP is having trouble getting the child to drink milk there may be a reason. The symptoms can be very mild, and only occasional, as they were in my granddaughter’s case.
Here’s a site with some information.
I looked at the replies in this thread and didn’t see anything threatening to GIGObuster or his kid. 
Peace,
mangeorge
Well, don’t feel bad Exapno Mapcase, unfortunately it is not my kid but my brother’s, I am still single ( because I’m available, or 
since I am lonely).
The question was generated because of a visit by a grandmother with the attitude of “if it was on TV it must be true!” regarding the three glasses of milk issue.
I needed to picture just HOW big a glass is, and finding info to give to the grandmother so she doesn’t push the idea that 3 glasses of milk should ALWAYS be given, regardless if other sources of calcium are being given to the kid.
That’s good news G. Remember that while calcium is important, it doesn’t matter all that much which foods the calcium comes in. Milk, yogurt, other dairy products or non-dairy products can all work, as long as he or she eats them.