Do you encourage your teen to drink milk ?

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I sometimes wonder if mine get enough calcium. They sometimes have toast for breakfast , don’t want milk to drink. Will have yogurt at dinner time. Not sure about lunch at school. I pour glass of milk for them in evening but they aren’t keen and drink half of it sometimes.

I don’t think other people think about this? Maybe I am unnecessarily concerned. I just think they are still growing a lot and surely need a lot of calcium.

Mine eat quite a lot of cheese and yoghurt and we have a lot of leafy greens, so I don’t push the milk too much.

Yeah I know they say leafy greens is good, but we only really do brocolli occasionally. Tend to eat more peas and greens beans. Not sure they count as leafy

No we don't really drink milk.
We eat Kale, Cheese and fortified bread/cereals. So i hope that covers it.

I have three teens and none of them drinks milk. They eat cereal with milk, yoghurt, cheese, broccoli and they all seem very healthy.

I never drank milk as a child/teenager. I don't think it's necessary as long as they have an otherwise balanced diet.

Yeah that’s what I thought most teens don’t drink milk. But when I tot up in my head what they have had I tend to think they probably not really had enough. Supposed to me 1300mg a day. Maybe just better with an extra yogurt.

Teens don’t need to drink milk, some yogurt and cheese is fine.

I don’t need to, he drinks pints of it!

I had exactly this worry when my kids were little. They didn't drink milk once weaned and still don't. I asked our GP, yoghurt and cheese are completely adequate alternatives.

No, it's not something I've ever considered, not sure I've ever had a glass of milk as a drink.

My brother and I drank milk with dinner pretty much until we left home. My 2 have done the same. Haven't particularly done anything to encourage it, they've just always drunk it.

Milk gets put out as a drink at breakfast and with cereal.

Goodness no. You do know milk is a drink designed by nature as a baby and infant food/drink?
No one at that age needs milk unless they have serious illness in my opinion.

DD has never been a milk drinker, and will have oat milk through choice now she's 18. She does eat a quite phenomenal amount of Greek and natural yoghurt and lots of cheese so she's getting more than enough calcium. If you're worried just give them a calcium supplement..

It's an interesting concern, OP. If you look at the NHS pages on minerals, it says about calcium that a person should be able to get all the calcium they need from a balanced diet. I think it actually says that about every single mineral, but I can't imagine it's true about calcium. I have to make a deliberate effort every day – eating 3 to 5 servings of dairy – to make sure I get my 800mg of calcium, and I can't imagine that everybody is getting it almost by accident through a balanced diet.

But I only count the calcium I get from dairy. Dairy is the richest source of calcium, in any case.

If your children consume a couple of bowls of fortified breakfast cereal in the day, that probably goes a fair way to making up that 1,300mg.

I think it's probably not an issue if you all have a decent diet, but if you're that concerned about it, wouldn't a standard multivitamin + mineral be a better option than trying to push milk that you already know they don't really want on them?

Teen DD doesn't eat dairy. I give her a calcium supplement and daily multivitamin. DS drinks a half pint of milk (with nesquik) every morning. Hopefully it's enough - worked for his brother who is 6 foot 7! I'm not keen on the sugar but all in moderation etc

I don't encourage mine, but I can tell when he is going to have a growth spurt, as he will start downing pints of the stuff. I figure his body knows what it needs, so I more or less leave him to it.

Drinking milk is a thing in the US mostly due to marketing campaigns by milk companies.

Brits eat more yoghurt and cheese and very few UK kids have calcium issues

its more of an issue if you are vegan and midlife really as bone density starts to decrease so you need to make sure you get a very good diet or supplements

Give them a multi vitamin

It’s never even crossed my mind to offer mine milk to drink beyond the toddler years. My youngest is 14 and I have two now adult children. The 14 year old will sometimes make himself a milkshake I guess or buy himself some flavoured milk and he does eat a lot of cereal with milk. He’s also a big cheese eater and would have cheese every day.

Drinking milk on its own isn't really particularly good for you. Over the age of about 5/6 I wouldn't particularly be encouraging it. Definitely not necessary for teens.

Are you concerned about their growth?

If not, and if they have a generally well balanced diet, mostly unprocessed, with a decent amount of veg, they will be fine.

Maybe add some leafy greens like spinach/ kale etc into your veg rotation.

DS is 3 and even he doesn't drink milk any more it's just not necessary if you eat leafy greens, cheese and yoghurt.

I honestly don't know many children who drink milk, even in Reception when it's free the vast majority of kids I've taught would choose water over milk.

Humans are the only animal that drinks milk beyond infancy.

I hate the stuff. Never on my radar to offer my dc milk but they do help themselves occasionally.

I am glad you see my point @uhOhOP
i do feel it’s something people assume is just there in a balanced diet. But looking at my Greek yogurt in the fridge it is 144mg per 100g. Probably around 200mg calcium in a typical portion. So you would need 6 of these to get the required calcium for a teen. Maybe there are other little bits of 10/20mg in all the other foods they have, apples, bananas, bread, etc that add up too.

yea I maybe should just give a supplement but I would prefer to cover it with a balanced diet