Knowing how much milk toddlers need
Last week, Baby Girl and I had been invited to see nutritionist Victoria Wells at Emma Cannon’s Fertility Rooms in Sloane Square. We were there to learn more about what women should eat when trying to conceive and during pregnancy, but I also had a chance to ask about something that’s concerned me in terms of Baby Girl’s diet. Milk.
For babies, there’s so much information on how much milk to give, and there’s a natural progression to drinking less milk and eating more solids after weaning. As Baby Girl has become older, I’ve been less concerned about milk, but she tolerates milk well and she’s continued to have milk in the evenings and in the mornings. More recently, however, I suddenly got worried I was giving her too much milk.
And I was probably right. After speaking to Victoria, I plan to ensure Baby Girl doesn’t have more than around 350ml a day, and I’ll be more conscious about ensuring milk doesn’t affect other meals, reducing her appetite for nutritient-rich foods.
Here are some of the tips from Victoria, which I found to be particularly helpful, to establish if 2-year-old Baby Girl was having the right amount of milk in her diet:
– Children aged between 1 and 3 require 350mg of calcium a day, and approximately 300ml of milk would provide this.
– The NHS says children under 2 should have full-fat milk to ensure they receive the extra calories and essential vitamins from full-fat milk. It further advises that after the age of 2 children can move to semi-skimmed milk as long as they are eating a varied and balanced diet.
– Calcium supports bone and teeth development and milk also contains vitamin D that helps the body to absorb the calcium. Other sources of calcium include other dairy sources, white beans, canned fish, green leafy vegetables, almonds and sesame seeds.
Read top tips from Emma Cannon for including milk in children’s diets on Mummy in the City next week
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