Have just realised when friend asked what milk ds, has that he doesn't really have ANY, or at least only occasionally

[FrannyandZooey]

Is this a problem do you think? He was breastfed for bloody years and then when he stopped I never thought to replace it with anything. He eats a good diet including soya milk on cereal in the morning, plenty of nuts, veggies, wholegrains, beans, fruit, etc. Has a yogurt or some cheese probably every other day.

It had honestly never struck me before, that it was unusual for a child not to have any kind of milk as a drink, until she asked. He does like drinking soya milk, but I don't like him to have it as a drink often, because a) health doubts about lots of soya in the diet and b) it fills him up and makes him eat less of his meal. I don't buy cow's milk. What do you think?

Oh he is 4.5, tall, lean, plenty of energy.

DS1 stopped having a daily bf at 14 months - and he was 5 before he started drinking milk (and even now at 7 very rarely).

He eats other calcium rich foods regualrly so I'm not bothered (actually that's why I fed him until 14 months instead of 1yr.........as I didn't know how to get him to drink milk - I could have hugged the HV when she asked me what he ate.......I told her and she told me that it was fine!!!)

He's got a much better diet than most children and sounds like he's getting his calcium - probably in a more bioavailable way than just milk anyway.

Lots of parts of the world don't drink milk so I wouldn't worry about it.

Don't know how much milk a child ought to consume, but dd1 only has cow's milk on cereal and occasionally as a small drink with breakfast. She seems to prefer water...

But she does eat a lot of dairy so I assume her calcium intake must be adequate?

"probably in a more bioavailable way than just milk anyway"

you see that is what I want to hear

is there any way of telling whether they ARE getting enough calcium? Other than blood test?

oh god look where I have put the comma in the title

that makes no sense whatsoever [punctuation dunce]

Yes very dodgy comma. Neither of mine are big milk drinkers. DS (6) never has milk as a drink. DD (3) occasionally has a small glass. They have it on their cereal of a morning and this is quite often porridge or weetabix which tend to take more milk. They have yoghurts only occasionally, but both are cheese fiends. They would both have custard every day if I allowed it, likewise ice-cream. I do occasionally make a milk pudding like semolina or rice pudding. I don't worry and I don't think you should.

This might be worth a read

give him lots of parmesan cheese for calcium . tbh I come from a country where children drink less milk (after 2 I'd say) than here or USA, don't think it's a big problem, if they have a good diet and get plenty of sunshine/fresh air.

5yo DD doesn't really drink milk. She really isn't very keen on it. She does have diar and calcium in other products though - cheese, yogurts, etc.

I don't like milk. I have never had milk since being very tiny. As far as I am aware it hasn't caused me any harm.

Thank you all

I looked at the link and thought this was interesting, especially the final sentence

"Few data are available about the calcium requirements of children before puberty. Calcium retention is relatively low in toddlers and slowly increases as puberty approaches. Most available data indicate that calcium intake levels of about 800 mg/d are associated with adequate bone mineral accumulation in prepubertal children. The benefits of greater levels of intake in this age group have been studied inadequately.20,32 One study found a benefit of calcium supplements to children as young as 6 years of age.16 However, further supporting data are needed for this finding. Perhaps of most importance in this age group is the development of eating patterns that will be associated with adequate calcium intake later in life."

I believe that 2/3 of the world's population has little or no milk once weaned.......
AFAIK, the incidence of osteoporosis is actually lower - but since I am only going on half remembered reading and I can't provide any references, feel free to ignore this!

I can't provide any reference either, but I seem to remember that women are more likely to suffer from osteoporosis, as lots of calcium reserves are consumed during pregnancy by our babies. But as I said, I might have just made this up (dumb emoticon)

My 3 dc get through at least 6 pints of milk at least a day, costs me a bloody fortune