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Home > Portable Practical Pediatrics > What Should Your Young Children Be Drinking? (Pedcast)


	Podcast:		Portable Practical Pediatrics
	Episode:		What Should Your Young Children Be Drinking? (Pedcast)
	Category:		Kids & family
	Duration:		00:08:58
	Publish Date:		2019-12-03 21:40:43
	Description:		Image from Pixabay If you stroll through a grocery store or scan a coffee shop menu, it’s impossible to miss the ever-expanding array of non-dairy, mostly plant based “milk” options available. Given this, it’s no surprise that just last week, Dean Foods (the biggest producer of milk products in the U.S.) filed for bankruptcy. Things are definitely changing. But if the consumption of cow’s milk by children is diminishing, what does this mean for their long-term health? Is drinking cow’s milk essential to your children’s good health? And what about all those other beverages that your children drink have access to? When is their consumption appropriate for your children? Seems like the perfect time to delve into the current recommendations for your kids, and discuss the landscape of "milks". Musical Introduction The New Report The American Academy of Pediatrics recently released a consensus panel report that summarizes their beverage recommendations for children from birth to 5 years of age. Their report is important for two reasons: a significant portion of your children’s daily calorie intake comes from liquids and the drinking patterns they establish in their preschool years generally persist into later in their life. What your kids are drinking is important and deserves some serious thought. But keep in mind that the panel’s recommendations do not address medical situations in which specific nutrient guidance is warranted to manage acute or chronic conditions. For those children, your child's pediatrician or gastroenterologist needs to be consulted. The Panel’s Recommendations: Here is what this new report recommends for children without special medical conditions: No water less than 6 months and then plain water encouraged after that. Breast milk or infant formula are the only milks appropriate for children under 1 year of age. No cow's milk until 12 months, whole milk from 1-2 years of age, then 20 ounces daily of skim or 1% milk for 4 and 5 year olds No Fruit juice under 12 months, then a maximum of 1/2 cup of 100% fruit juice for 1-2 year olds. For 2-5 year olds, a maximum of ½ to ¾ cup of 100% juice is allowed. No added sugar or flavors, of course. And read those labels carefully - added sugar is sneaky. Additionally, they make it very clear that flavored milks, toddler milks, all sugar-sweetened beverages, low calorie/diet drinks, and caffeinated drinks are NOT recommended for children of any age. This is a no brainer! Don’t even think about it! What is New in this Report? What is new in this panel’s report? Plant milks are not recommended for young children unless there the child has special medical circumstances. Here is a snippet from the report with the reasons given for this recommendation: An analysis (funding source not reported) compared cow’s milk with 8 common nondairy beverages (almond milk, cashew milk, coconut milk, hazelnut milk, hemp milk, oat milk, rice milk, and soy milk). The authors observed that cow’s milk has higher protein content and quality compared with all of the nondairy beverages analyzed, with the exception of soy milk. They also noted that although most of the plant milks were fortified with calcium and vitamin D (in equal or even greater amounts than those found in cow’s milk), there was a lack of evidence to indicate the bioavailability (meaning absorbability) of the nutrients added through fortification in these products. Finally, they observed that—unlike the detailed information available in the USDA National Nutrient Database for Standard Reference about the quantity of several micro nutrients in cow’s milk—similar data for most of the nondairy beverages was not available, which further complicated the comparison of their nutritional profiles with that of cow’s milk. They concluded that cow’s milk should not be removed from the diets of young children unless there is a medical indication,
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