Community > Articles
Milk, It Does A Body Good. Or does it?
What if I told you to drink three glasses of gasoline a day, would you do it? Even at today’s prices it would still be cheaper than drinking milk and even though I am not advocating the consumption of gasoline, it serves to show that before we put anything into our personal gas tanks (i.e. our bodies) we need to ensure that it works with our system and it won’t cause any knocking or pinging!!
The dairy industry has done an amazing job of convincing us American mothers (and Dad’s of course) that cow's milk is a must have in our child's diet. The milk mustache worn by celebrities has sold us on the idea that if our children do not consume three 8oz glasses of milk a day then their bones may snap in half due to a calcium deficiency. However, there is a growing body of evidence that for many children milk may in fact have quite the opposite affect including my own. His chronic constipation and skin rashes had my mind boggled. A once 12 hour sleeper had begun waking through the night requesting milk. His diet was becoming more and more limited to just dairy products by the day.
It was not until we tried a diet elimination trial that improvements came. Saying goodbye to cow's milk products was a painful three days with tons of tears every time yogurt was denied and lots of rocking through the multiple bedtime requests for milk. However, the improvements were immediate. Within a week the rashes had begun to clear, he was back to pooping daily with a lot less pain, and he was beginning to try foods he never had before. As a behavior analyst I was immediately able to recognize the behavioral principles at work, but at the same time the underlying biomedical etiology was undeniable.
So how do you attempt a diet elimination to see if it helps your child? It is quite simple; don't provide them with any casein (a protein found in dairy) containing foods. Obviously, any decisions should be first discussed at length with your child's pediatrician. The next step is to make a list of all foods your child will eat. Children require approximately 800 mg of calcium every day, 200 of which is often obtained from non-dairy sources. Thus, increasing foods such as broccoli, spinach, and soy products and/or supplementing appropriately can compensate for the removal of dairy. For those foods, such as cereal that require a ‘milk’ like substance, try using a substitute such as almond or soy. However, beware as many children have soy sensitivities and the almond drinks contain large amounts of sugar.
Where does this all leave us? Ensure that you are aware and understand exactly what you are feeding yourself as well as your children. With the most of our foods being ‘processed’ nowadays we have to be especially vigilant to ensure that we are getting the food and energy from sources that nature intended and not from the biggest or cheapest producer!
This information is not a tool for self-diagnosis or a substitute for medical treatment. You should speak to your health-care provider or make an appointment to be seen if you have questions or concerns about this information or your medical condition.
