About DS drinking milk

[darwinsbabe]

I have a DS who is almost 3.

My DH drinks water all the time and we encourage my son to do the same but he always refuses and asks for milk instead. Even with the lure of diluting juice he will opt for milk. My DH thinks he drinks too much milk and not enough water and gets worked up about it. I'm just glad he's drinking and it's something healthy.

Aibu to tell my husband to calm down and continue to let my DS drink milk?

It's wierd the only stuff we eat that's designed as food is probably that meat they are trying to grow in petri dishes.

Milk covers many nutritional bases plus seeing as its mainly water it'll hydrate you too.

I'd buy him full fat organic milk. Kids need full fat not diet/light/skimmed stuff.

Then I'd buy him a fun drink bottle & a cup with an attached spiral straw that can only have water in them and make water/fruit ice lollies

Your DH is massively over reacting.

"The whole 'you need to drink x amount of water per day' is a relatively modern concept/fad." I suspect Evian have something to do with that gem. Interesting how Evian spelled backwards is naive......

The fundamentals of the dairy industry are a bit grim, though they are exaggerated in that video up there ^^.

The importance of calcium seems to be forgotten in this new wave of pseudo-scientific 'clean eating' though.

Just look up calcium requirements for a 11 - 14 year old and work out how much spinach you'd have to eat to attain them.

darwinsbabe make sure it's organic milk, at least he won't be overdosing with hormones.
Dairy cows in the UK are not injected with hormones to produce more milk. They are bred to produce more milk.

On the hydration angle, milk is around 90% water (give or take depending on skimmedness, etc.) so the likelihood of becoming dehydrated through drinking that and not water is a bit bonkers, tbh.

The fact that cow's milk does contain some less-than-pleasant "accidental ingredients" is a different matter, though, and you really have to decide whether you think those impurities are better or worse than the chemicals/sugars of juices. Personally, I'd rank them water > milk > natural fruit juice > artificial drinks, and if DC wanted lots of milk, or even quite a bit of fruit juice, I wouldn't bother too much. My personal issues set in at artificial drinks, but each parent really has to decide for themselves.

I practically lived on milk growing up (milk before bed at home and milk at school every day too) and have rock solid bones. Never broken one despite a few close calls where I've thought 'that will have done it!'

I think unless a child is lactose intolerant, the benefits of cow's milk totally outweigh the ethical/dietary concerns that lead a lot of adults to abandon it.

Excessive milk intake is linked with anemia in small children. It's also linked with obesity. Some milk is fine but all day long is to much.

I should add btw I that he drinks semi skimmed milk.

Personally, I would stick him on full-fat. Yes, skimmed has more calcium etc. in it but I wouldn't put a growing child on a fat-restricted diet unless he was actually on a proper, fat-restricted diet for health reasons.

Going off on a side-note, there's odds and ends of research out there that keep suggesting that it is better to eat full fat/sugar/salt food and just do so in smaller quantities than it is to eat bigger portions of reduced fat/artificial sugar/salt food, primarily because you switch intake of foods that your body is designed to process for chemicals and synthetic substitutes that it really isn't. We keep finding out that some of these substitutes have long-lasting negative effects, too. The last thing to hit the headlines a few days ago was about diet cokes triggering more strokes because of the artificial sweeteners. I haven't looked into that one particularly since I don't drink any coke, really (not because of some wildly virtuous life, I just hate fizzy anything) but it's worth bearing in mind.

I'd give him skimmed or better yet, almond milk. He'll end up gettting pretty hefty drinking those amounts.

DS was milk only until he started school, at that point he soon started drinking water too, as everyone else did so he joined in. There was no pressure, I explained school rules said water only. DS has always had a healthy appetite, still drinks lots of milk at 14, but drinks water too. I'm very happy with his milk drinking, beats the fizzy drinks so many of his friends have so frequently. And what is natural & healthy as a food / drink, what should humans eat? Tbh I don't think we are in a position to answer that. The whole family eats a fairly varied diet, I don't think milk is dangerous, it's relatively unprocessed in my mind. And he needs the calories!

Pinkandwhiteblossoms: He'll end up gettting pretty hefty drinking those amounts.

What amounts are in question? Maybe I missed it but I can't see any mention by OP of the actual quantity being consumed.

I saw a toddler with Diet Coke in a bottle yesterday.

So don't worry. You are a mile away from that

I'm 48 and my partner is 52 and we still drink a glass of milk every night with our dinner. Icy cold milk is lovely.

Almond milk???

Children need calcium to build their bones.

Almond milk - or as I like to call it, a large glass of very expensive cloudy water and sugar.

Your dh is getting his knickers in a twist about something relatively unimportant.

The only cutting down of milk I did with mine was before meals. DS1 had a dodgy appetite and it would get drowned if he had milk before eating

Almond milk is horrible (IMO). Seriously. I'm not keen on soy milk. Cashew milk is ok. I kind of like rice milk (although, it's basically just sugar is it).
But almond milk? it's horrible.

Oh and people nowadays are obsessional about dehydration. It's a big conspiracy by bottled water companies. People constantly sucking on water.

Cows milk is actually very unhealthy, and dont listen to what you hear about calcium, it was the dairy factorys that first came out with that nonsense

Does your DS like infused water? Cold tea?

he is being ridiculous. Your ds is drinking and eating. He will not be dehydrated. I don't drink much water. I drink diet drinks, tea, coffee etc etc. Undoubtedly this is not as pure as those who drink a litre of evian per day but I am perfectly OK. Your ds prefers milk. so what?

So much conflicting 'information'. It seems like scaremongering to me, It's wrong really isn't it?
When DS was small the advice was full fat milk or water, no fruit drinks or flavoured water or fizzy drinks because of the sugar.
I think as long as your boy has a healthy diet and is physically active I can't see anything wrong with drinking milk.

Almond milk???

Children need calcium to build their bones

Most almond milks have more calcium per ml than cows' milk.