Milk- Good or Bad??? What do I do?

[janasmith]

I have a 14 month old daughter who has been drinking organic whole milk since her first birthday.  After reading a little, I"m not sure if milk is all that good!  I did the organic trying to avoid any antibiotics or hormones in regular milk, but after reading it sounds like the organic milk is just as bad!  Ugh!  Is there anything else I can give her (she lOVES her milk!) that would give her good nutrients and calcium, but not the added yucky junk???  Thanks!

[Alenushka]

Green leafy vegetables

[ammiga]

Our kids get all their nutrients from food (and the baby still nurses). I made kale chips yesterday, and my dd ate almost an entire bunch of kale in one sitting. Lots of nutrients and calcium in there!

[mommy212]

I do a lot of smoothies with LO. You can use vegan milks, like soy, coconut and almond but they all have their own pitfalls. I think Coconut is the safest of those. DS loves smoothies with whatever milk we have on hand, a dollop of yogurt, spinach/kale/etc, a carrot and a bunch of blueberries or strawberries. You could easily make this without any milk and just water, fruit and veggies

[lilyka]

If you do milk go raw.

But my allergist said he would be out of a job if people stopped giving their kids milk.  That said a lot to me.  

At best it is unneeded.

[~Amy~]

I believe raw milk is a healthy food (not beverage) for children. If conventional was my only option, we wouldn't do milk at all for our boys.

[TiredX2]

Are you still  nursing?  I do consider milk an extreamly easy, nutrient dense way to get fats, proteins, calories and vitamins into young kids.   The AAP recommends a full fat milk source for kids under two simply because it is such a very easy fat source for kids who still are growing their brains so quickly.  If you are nursing, though, you can simply do that and skip other types of milk entirely.

Good luck with your decision.

[1love4ever]

Here is some excellent info on raw milk, I would certainly recommend it.  I would actually recommend raw Goats milk over cows.  It is more nutrient dense than cows.  Raw milk is SO much healthier than pasturized because it has so many more nutrients, and the bad thing about most organic milk is that it is ULTRA pasturized, which destroys almost EVERYTHING beneficial that is in it.  Store bought milk, even organic, is also homogenized, which makes it even worse for you.  If I could not get raw milk, I would not drink it at all.  Store bought milk is also stored in plastic(even the "paper" cartons are lined with plastic, which leaches chemicals into the milk).

Here is some info on raw milk.  http://nourishedkitchen.com/mark-mcafee-raw-milk-interview/ 

It talks about cows milk, but the same applies to goats milk.  Goats milk is also the closest milk to human milk.  I have a friend who adds some cod liver oil or fish oil (Carlson Labs brand) and also some organic molasses and vitamin A(I dont worry about this because I give DD organic carrots every day.  I shred them and chop up some spinach into small pieces and mix it into homemade applesauce with cinnamon) to her daughters goats milk every day for added nutrients.

Edited by 1love4ever - 7/8/11 at 7:54pm