The nutritional advantage of cow’s milk in children and young people

It is quite common for parents to seek advice about the role that cow’s milk plays in their child’s diet, and whether their child still should, or needs to, drink milk. This article looks at the nutritional role of milk in a child’s diet, focussing on the pre-school and adolescent age groups, these groups have increased nutritional needs to meet their growth and development, particularly calcium needs for bone growth.

Milk as part of a balanced diet

The Eatwell Guide1 is a pictorial representation of the UK’s guidelines for a healthy diet, showing the proportions of different types of food required to make up a balanced diet, eaten over a day or week, for those aged 5 years and over. The Eatwell Guide does not apply to children under 2 years, and recommends that children should move towards the proportions of food types shown on The Guide, between the ages of 2-5 years.