The Good Nutrition from Whole Milk
Good nutrition is important for keeping the body functioning normally,
preventing disease and maintaining healthy weight. Young children need
to drink milk for their growth and development.
Whole milk is rich in calcium, vitamins, minerals, enzymes and fat. While the
heart keeps it all running, our bones help keep it all together. Healthy bones
are necessary for young children. Consuming enough calcium to maintain
and promote bone health is essential.
We can avoid many bone conditions that may develop later in life by ensuring
that our children receive enough calcium in their diet. Therefore milk and other
dairy products like cheese and yogurt should be consumed every day.
Robert Steele (Paediatrician at St. John's Children Hospital Springfield, Missouri ) said that the typical diet for children contains more that 30% calories from fat. So, the amount of fat that enters the child's diet is depended on the source, whether it is milk or food.
According to Healthy Eating Index (HEI) 2001, only 38% to 39% of children meet the dietary recommendation for total fat (30% or less of total calories from total fat). This is a major concern because poor eating habits in young children may impair their growth and development and serve as the foundation for poor eating behaviors as adults.
“Young children do need plenty of fat in their diets. Essential fatty acids are those that cannot be made in the diet. Infants are particularly vulnerable to deficiencies in essential fatty acids” said Sue Gilbert, consulting nutritionist.
Sue advised that parent should provide their children 2-3 cups of milk. She said that it’s not surprising that the most common concern of a toddler’s parents is that their toddler doesn’t eat enough, especially vegetables. While what they eat may not look like much, keep in mind that toddlers are small.
In the report ‘Infant and Young Children Feeding’ (World Health Organization, 2001), Dr. Graeme A. Clugston stated that proper infant and young child feeding is fundamentally important for human survival, growth, development, health and nutrition. The fact there were 149 million malnourished children under-five worldwide – is ringing evidence that inappropriate, inadequate, unsafe feeding of infants and young children is still very prevalent.
According to Dr. Graeme, the role of proper feeding in infants and young children over the first 2-3 years of life is crucial, because this age-span is the critical time of programmed organ growth, development and metabolic programming with windows of opportunity that may be irreversibly closed once it has passed.
Dr Ellen Girerd-Barclay, (Regional Advisor, Nutrition and Health, UNICEF) added that the first few years of a child’s life are most important because early childhood development is the foundation of human development and lifelong learning. It is known that good nutrition and rich experiences affect brain development. 40% of an adult’s mental ability is formed within the first three years of life.
In children, the right amount of food intake is seen as steady growth. In the report ‘Towards Healthier Mother, Children and Families: a nutrition guide for community health workers’ (World Health Organization, 2002) stated that skimmed and condensed milk are not good for babies. This is because skimmed milk is milk from which most fat has been removed and condensed milk contains a lot of sugar.
World Health Organization (WHO) advised parents to monitor the child’s growth and development. This encourages prompt action before any complication sets in, and when the condition is much easier to correct. Here is some information that parents should use to monitor their child’s growth:-
A healthy child:
• looks well and is not too thin or too fat;
• has a good appetite;
• is happy and playful;
• has eyes and hair that are shiny;
• has skin that is smooth and has luster; and
• becomes taller and heavier at a steady rate.
A child with nutrition problems:
• seems not to be getting heavier or taller, or only very little.;
• looks weak, thin;
• is not interested in other children or with play;
• has dull eyes and hair; and
• has dry skin, sometimes with discoloration and seems to peel or has sores or lesions or
looks pale.
Whole milk might also be better if you have a very picky eater who is simply not getting enough fat and calories from the rest of his diet. Please provide advice from Paediatrician and/or a Registered Dietician if you feel like you are in this situation.
References:
- World Health Organization
- Healthy Eating Index ,2001 (USDA)
- Report ‘Infant and Young Children Feeding’ (World Health Organization, 2001)
- Report ‘Towards Healthier Mother, Children and Families: a nutrition guide for community health workers’ (World Health Organization, 2002)
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