When to stop giving milk at every meal?

My twins turned 4 in January and I still give them
Milk with every meal but I am thinking I should switch to water instead. What does everyone else do for your 4 yr olds? My kids r normal weight and eat quite healthy and have decent appetites.

 

I think the key is the total amount of milk they drink in a day, not whether they have it at every meal. Toddlers and preschoolers aren't supposed to have more than 16-24 oz a day (some drs say no more than 16). Calcium hinders iron absorption, so too much dairy can lead to anemia. Also if they fill up on milk they can end up with nutritional imbalances.

 

I drink milk at every meal, so I have no plans to stop giving it to my kids.

 

We just give 4-5oz twice a day at this point... otherwise they would eat even less than they do. But more vitamin D doesn't hurt, so I don't think we'll stop anytime soon (and they eat a lot of dairy too).

 

Mine are only 2 1/2 but I know that growing up we had milk with every meal until we were junior high age and then it was our decision if we wanted milk or water. My kiddos only get water between meals so I will likely continue the milk well into their childhood.

Milk causing anemia is mainly a problem when kids drink so much milk that they are filling up on it and not eating a balanced diet. If your kids eat iron rich foods then they should be fine.

 

My guys get 6oz milk/yogurt(DD does not drink milk at all ) first thing in the morning and right before they go to bed. Decaf earl grey tea with breakfast, apple juice with lunch and camomile tea with dinner. And water in between all day and with snack.

 

I let the girls choose what they want to drink with meals (milk or water). Between meals they get water. They also have cheese & yogurt almost every day which pretty much covers their dairy requirement according to the food guide. On the other hand, they're horrible with veggies (I think Danika may have touched a carrot. Once.) and aren't much better with fruit so they also take a multi vitamin. And because we live in Canada they get extra vit D as well every day. So milk isn't really a necessity.

 

My kids usually like to have a glass of milk with breakfast and dinner. Their intake probably averages 12-16 oz a day.

 

Mine still have milk with their meals and water in between. No plans to stop.

 

My guys are only 2.5. We give milk at lunch and dinner. With breakfast they either have water or a few sips of orange juice (that's the only juice they have).
My boys are not big milk drinkers, especially DS2. He drinks maybe 5 ounces/day. DS1 drinks around 8-10.
My guys love their water which they have access to all day long starting when they get out of bed (save for when they think it's funny to spit it!).
Often times DS2 will ask for his water instead when we give him milk.
I don't worry about it in terms of calcium intake as they eat a good amount of cheese and yogurt.
I think of it more in terms of protein intake.
Either way, I can't force them to drink it. I look forward to the day when they can just tell me what they want (I hate pouring it and having it wasted!).

 

Mine are 5.8 and we still do milk at every meal, water in between and very rarely juice (parties, etc.). I have no idea when we'll stop. We had milk at meals growing up also.

 

Ours still get milk with breakfast and lunch and at dinner they can decide if they want water or milk (or lemonade if we have some made).

 

I drank milk with every meal into my university years.

However, I no longer think that much dairy is a good option for a wide variety of health and environmental reasons, so my kids only drink milk at most once a day now, some days they don't drink it at all.

There are no hard fast rules of what should or shouldn't be consumed--and a lot of the guidelines are outdated or paid for by the industries that would benefit from you consuming their products.

 

Like some other posters mentioned, I drank milk constantly growing up. To this day I love milk. My kids are the same, they drink mostly milk during the day unless they decide they want juice or water or something else. But I am fine with them drinking as much milk as they want.

 

What I posted is actually pretty standard advice; I've heard a number of friends say their pediatricians said the same thing. I just double-checked with a friend who's a pediatrician and she agreed. She said they ask at all well visits and if the child is drinking more than 20-24 oz of milk a day she'll let the parents know why that can cause problems. (Too much milk will hinder the absorption of the iron they're getting even in those iron-rich foods, so it is something to be mindful of even if they do eat an iron-rich diet.) She had treated kids for severe anemia caused by excessive milk consumption, and I've had a couple friends whose LOs were drinking about 30-36 oz/day who were found to be anemic as well and had to limit their milk intake after that among other things, so I think it's good information for parents to be aware of if their own pediatricians hadn't mentioned it.

 

You are correct that large amounts of milk (30+ oz a day) can cause severe anemia. I, too have treated patients with severe anemia and when asked the parents admit that the kid carries a sippy cup around all day and they go through gallons of milk a week. There is a big difference between drinking milk all day long and having a glass with meals. The key is that kids need to have enough servings of dairy to get adequate calcium, whether that is milk, cheese, yogurt, etc I don't care. To say a kid can only have 16 oz of milk is not enough if they don't eat other dairy or calcium rich foods. Anemia is easy to fix. Osteoporosis is not.

 

I'm curious; do you have a link that explains why young children need more than 16-24 oz/day of milk? Since that goes against what I've read in my AAP guide, what my pediatrician and a number of other pediatricians I've talked to/heard from said, the USDA recommendations, etc., I'd be interested to know more about where you're coming from with that. If there's conflicting research out there I'd be interested to read more from the other side.
And I wasn't saying they shouldn't necessarily get milk at every meal (depends on how big your cups are and how many refills they get ); just repeating the info I've heard consistently from reliable sources on how much dairy is healthy for kids this age.

 

well my kids drink no milk. :unknw:
one LO loves it - has it at dinner only. we do watered down juice or smoothies for breakfast. they do eat yogurt but other than that - they drink water alllll day long.

 

When I counsel my patients, I counsel on dairy instead of milk. If they have a child that eats lots of yogurt or the rare child that eats green leafy veggies, I'm less concerned. However, many children do not get their calcium requirements from food alone, which is where the milk recommendation comes in. I tell them they need 3 servings of dairy a day. Cheez-its don't count! Here's a good summary:

 

Thanks for the info! That's really interesting. And I agree with you on juice!