Got Milk? – How Much Milk Should Kids Drink
We’ve been hearing the, “Got milk?” campaign for years. School cafeteria walls are covered with posters of celebrities sporting milk mustaches. Even without these things though we know that milk, “does a body good,” and that we should especially encourage our young children to drink it. Have you ever wondered about how much milk should kids drink?
I saw an interesting report yesterday while watching the Health Works report on my local news channel. The reporter was telling about a recent study done by a Canadian hospital that had just been published. The study looked at how cow’s milk impacted the storage of iron and vitamin D in children.
The study found that children, ages two to five, should be drinking two eight ounce cups of milk a day. The reason for this was that the researchers found that this exact amount of milk resulted in the perfect daily amount of vitamin D and iron in the body. What I found interesting was that the study went on to say that you should not deviate from the two cup amount. To not drink enough would obviously result in a Vitamin D deficiency. The really interesting part though was that when kids drank more than the two cups they got a lot of vitamin D, but it caused the body to have a difficult time absorbing iron. Low iron, or anemia, is when the body doesn’t produce enough red blood cells. The lack of red blood cells can cause the body to become extremely lethargic.
At the end the reporter did add that the study found that children with darker skin didn’t always receive enough vitamin D from the two cups of milk, but that drinking more than that would still cause a low iron count. For children that need more vitamin D it is suggested that they get more from other sources such as drinking orange juice or eating fish or cereals that have added vitamin D.
Do you think your child is drinking the right amount of milk?
So funny I read this today, as a woman in the grocery store was insisting to me that noone ever needs cow’s milk. My youngest does get about that amount, he drinks whole milk and loves it. My oldest, now 17, could definitely stand to drink more so lately even when he drinks chocolate milk I don’t complain. I myself love milk.
I’m lucky because Nick loves milk too. I know so many kids that simply won’t drink it though. I liked it as a kid, but not so much now. Although a good piece of chocolate cake still makes me want some milk :-).
Hmmmm — do you remember if it HAD to be milk or any calcium? We don’t meet the 2 cups of Milk but they get the DRA from cheeses, etc.
The study looked specifically at cow’s milk. The study didn’t mention if other milk products had any impact. From the way it reads I think they felt that it had to specifically be milk. You can check out the report that I saw here.
Wow that’s really interesting, thanks for sharing this! I’m never sure how much my son should be drinking because everytime I look into it, articles either say none {because it blocks iron} or an obscene amount. I like this two cup thing much better. 🙂
They do seem to change their mind about what is and what isn’t good for you all the time. It really is hard to keep up!