Milk For Kids: 2 Cups A Day, No More And No Less

Milk, it does a body good. But how much milk does the most good?

According to new research from the University of Toronto, while milk builds bones, too much may not be so great for children’s iron levels.

Milk is fortified with vitamin D, which can be hard to manufacture naturally without sufficient exposure to sunlight. But for some reason that’s not entirely clear, drinking milk can decrease iron stores; kids who slurp up lots of milk tend to have severe iron deficiency.

The solution? More specific guidelines for how much milk children should drink, advice that doesn’t currently exist in any helpful form for parents. The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) advises vitamin D supplements for kids who aren’t drinking four cups of milk a day. But the AAP’s iron recommendations state children should be drinking just two to three cups.

“One of the most common questions pediatricians get from parents is how much milk should my child be drinking?” says lead author Dr. Jonathon Maguire, a researcher at St. Michael’s Hospital in Toronto. “The amazing thing is, children’s doctors don’t know.”

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