Do children really need milk?

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Do children really need milk?

Milk definitely does a body good. Water is your most important drink. Your kids should be drinking water at every meal. And that should be their staple. But children are not going to drink water and water alone. And milk is the very best alternative. It's got protein, it's got calcium. It's iron-fortified. It's Vitamin-D fortified. It's a great source of nutrition. Now there are lots of different milks out there. For the lactose-intolerant kids, there's Lactaid. For the milk-allergant kids, there's rice milk, soy milk, almond milk. And as far as I'm concerned, any milk is a good milk to have. I like low-fat or non-fat milk, but any milk is a good drink. When you look at studies that have been done between milk-drinking kids and non-milk-drinking kids, the milk-drinking kids are longer and leaner. They're healthier. But that's because the non-milk-drinking kids are choosing to drink juice or soda instead as their alternate drink. So as far as I'm concerned, you should have milk and water in your fridge. And for that one kid who just can't stand milk, calcium-fortified orange juice is a reasonable alternative.



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Cara Natterson, MD

Pediatrician & Author



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