Kids & diary - how much? Vegan opinions too please!!

[twoplustwo]

Ok, so today was my ds's 8 year old well visit (don't look at his birthday, I know we are all off. )

So dr says the usual eating blah, blah?
Me: Yes, he is a great eater. Lots of variety.
Dr: Milk or diary?
Me: He isn't a big milk/diary consumer but has some every day and gets the minimum.
Dr: Ok, good (moves onto next topic)!

(Now I think, I said minimum, but I don't really know what that is and I am really a numbers, facts, specifics kind of person - so for my own interest I ask)

Me: What is the minimum diary he should be having?
Dr: 18 ounces!

Ok, we are no way, no how getting 18 ounces. I would say on his very best day we do 18 ounces. When I express that "oh, we aren't hitting that minimum" - she says "well 16-18 ounces."

But I would say we probably dont hit 16 ounces every day.

He doesnt like yogurt and eats almost no cheese - at least not on a daily basis. But broccoli is his favorite vegetable and we do spinach quite a bit too. Not sure how much calcium to calculate for that. He does drink milk every day . . . I would say 10-14 ounces on average. So we probably are not under by a ton. But that means that some days are less than 10 to average that.

We mix almond milk or coconut milke with regular milk half and half a lot (because he likes it that way) but there isn't a lot of calcium in the kind I buy, at least not the coconut milk, which is what we are doing right now - so those days it's less than straight milk.

So first off, is you child getting 18 ounces of diary a day?

How would calculate how much calcium is in his green veggies? "Don't bother" is an acceptable answer to this question.

And Vegans, I want to hear your thoughts because obviously your kids aren't getting any diary. So are you doing something else or are you all "18 ounces?!?"

I (mostly) like this dr., but I do feel she has some . . . um, opinions, that I don't always agree with 100%. So, let's discuss, because I need a 2nd opinion before I go all gung-ho on sneaking more calcium into my son's diet.

[bananacake]

My kids have never had any dairy. We do almond milk, but only very rarely on cereal or in a smoothie. They both drink small amounts of fortified juice. My ped says it's enough. My 8 y/o is 80+ lbs and 4'9"

[greengirl19]

We're dairy free, except butter, for G's sensitivity. Honestly I think if he drinks a cup of milk a day PLUS green veggies he's getting plenty and I wouldn't worry about it at all. Most doctors probably don't believe that kids eat green veggies these days and the dairy industry has pretty heavily weighed in on things like the FDA's daily intake recommendations.

[knitlove]

I don't really worry about it. We don't do any dairy. Occasionally almond milk (more often when it is cold and we do hot chocolate with almond milk)and green vegies and almonds. I do occasionally ( when I remember to) give them a call supplement so I tell the Dr that.

[deena]

Wrong. Wrong. Wrong. He's all wrong. But that's a very standard question from pediatricians. I don't understand how they can get so much misinformation in med school. When are they going to catch up to the latest information? (When big pharma, the dairy industry, etc. get's out of their school's pockets?) Sorry. Rant over.

You will get good advice from mama's here. The less dairy the better in my opinion. I love cheese and sugary yogurt but I think of it as closer to junk food and DEFINITELY not a food I'm trying to get into my diet or my kids'.

---------- Post added at 04:50 PM ---------- Previous post was at 04:46 PM ----------

Dairy makes the body acidic, which leeches calcium from the bones, negating the calcium in the dairy. This was proven a decade ago. Dairy consumption is linked to osteoporosis.

Keeping the body in a more alkaline state, by eating lots of vegetables is really all you need to do to maintain optimum calcium. That's way more important than stressing about sources of and amounts of calcium in food.