do your children drink raw milk?

[tatsu15]

Hi

I live on Oahu, so we don't get the opportunity to try raw milk. We are visiting the mainland soon and planning on having our 2.5 and 19 month old daughters try some. Is it really safe? Did your children ever have adverse reactions to raw milk? Thanks!

[Isaac'sMa]

My brother and I grew up drinking raw milk and turned out okay!  We never had any adverse reactions and liked the taste.  My older brother wouldn't drink it b/c he was a teenager by then (ten yrs older than me) and used to the taste of homogenized milk which definitely tastes different! I think he also thought it was a bit gross so my mom bought "store" milk for him and the rest of the family drank the raw milk.  My dad especially likes/d the cream!  I also have great memories of making butter from the cream. Yum!

As long as you have a reliable, clean source, it shouldn't be a problem.  You can always try a small amount at first to see how they tolerate it.  

[Arduinna]

We had our own dairy animals when dd was little and she drank raw milk with no problems.

[Lilymomma]

My kids will drink it!  They will drink anything but 1% or Skim (they reject it!).  My almost 4 year old prefers pasturized but non-homogenized.  My 1.5 year old twins will drink both or breastmilk.  I don't particularily like the taste- but that is because I was 23 before ever tasting it, and there is a little bit of a different taste! 

[cocobean]

My 2 year old DS drinks it every morning.  He loves it!  As do I!  Know your source and you'll be fine.  If you're not used to it, the taste is different and takes some getting used to.  But once you do you can never go back.  Since we started drinking it about 7 months ago I ran out once.  For less than a week.  We decided to get organic thinking it was better than regular(now I know that's not true) and we all felt terrible!  It tasted like crap!  So I'm very careful to never run out now! :)

[velcromom]

When I was little, my mom would go to the farm down the road and get glass jugs of fresh milk from them. We never had any trouble with it. Of course back then nobody called it "raw", it was just milk. My kids drink it, and do well with it. They can't drink pasteurized milk or eat store-bought yogurt without getting a rash & tummy problems, though, so when we don't have raw, we don't serve milk.

[Llyra]

The only reason raw milk would be unsafe is if it's been contaminated, in one of two ways: either the cow is sick (with things like brucellosis and Johnes disease, or tuberculosis), or if it's been handled in unhygienic ways. So you look for a reliable source-- your farmer should be testing the milk regularly, and should be using safe, clean handling practices. My kids drink raw milk all the time-- from a certified farm that tests once a week and uses an established protocol for handling the milk safety that includes clean equipment and immediate refrigeration.

[meemee]

my now 8 year old only drinks raw milk and has since seh was about 2.

if she drank any other she'd immediately get tummy aches and tummy upsets. 

its only lately that she has been drinking what i call 'real' raw milk - right after milking or within half an hour. udder to bucket to glass jar to mouth. 

i grew up only drinking raw milk. but as someone said that's the only milk one got.

[blessedwithboys]

We just got our first half-gallon today and it is the bomb!  My 8yo ds is having some issues with it being "gross" but he's picky anyways.  LOL  It is the yummiest thing I have ever tasted and I will never go back.  :)

[Elizabeth2008]

My brothers and I grew up on it (until we were in highschool and the dairy we bought from finally succumbed to pressure from the pasturization fanatics and stopped selling raw milk).  We never were sick.  In fact, I usually won the perfect attendance award in elementary school :)

DS who is 4 has been drinking it for over a year. 

[spughy]

I started giving DD raw milk before she was 2 and she's never had any problems with it.  But she will happily switch back and forth between raw and pasteurized - although I do notice that half-full glasses of pasteurized get left undrunk a lot more than raw.  She's 5 now.

[Mere]

My kids have grown up on raw milk and love it.  That said, maybe they just love milk in general, because when we run out of the raw milk we supplement with a local pasteurized milk and they don't comment on it.  However, we have a great raw milk source and everyone in my family has always been incredibly healthy (no specific correlation to raw milk there, but I like to think it all adds up!)

[CookAMH]

My 20mo DS loves his raw milk. He wasn't that into the pasteurized milk when we visited family recently.

[laneysprout]

My 3.5 yo drinks it and has since she weaned about a year ago.  We've never had any issues.