Milk guilt

Oh milk. I really don't like milk at all. The only time I drink milk is either in a milkshake or in my post-long-run recovery drink of pink bunny (aka strawberry) milk. I don't think I've ever thought to myself that a tall glass of milk sounded really yummy. Ever. Well, in my adult life anyway! That's why it always surprised me that my kids loved it so much. Like crazy love it. they guzzle it down throughout the day. I never really thought that they were drinking way too much milk; I assumed hey we're drinking the same amounts as other kids their ages.

I took P in for her well baby check up (the big two year old checkup!) on Monday. When we moved to Dallas, our old pediatrician gave us a copy of the kids' medical records. Which I promptly put in a box somewhere and haven't seem since. Turns out though that our old school 'I don't use electronic medical records' doctor gave us the ORIGINAL medical records and not just a copy like I thought. So now the kids have no medical records (that I can find anyway!). Anyway the moral of the story is that the doctor said in addition to the two shots my sweet P had to get, we should also check her blood to make sure she is not anemic. So we ended up getting a blood draw along with her shots and that was that.

I knew that excessive milk drinking could cause anemia, but since my kids eat a fairly well balanced diet - and eat fairly well - that the amount of milk they were given during the day could not be affecting their health. I did ask th doctor how much milk is recommended for toddlers and he said less than 24 ounces per day. I started to think bout how much milk I freely give my kids on a daily basis and was shocked. Their sippy cups hold about 8 ounces of liquid. My kids easily get that filled up multiple times throughout the day. And I'm not talking 3-4 times a day. Much more. So I did a little research.

Excessive milk consumption can cause a myriad of health effects, including anemia. Anemia can cause pale skin and brittle nails. I started thinking about Danny's nails, and how his toe nails split all the time and are thin and, well, brittle. I didn't wait for Piper's bloodwork to come back. I immediately scaled back on the milk. Now the kids are getting no more than 3 cups of milk a day. Instead they are offered water. Piper doesn't seem to have a problem with this, but Danny is not handling it so well. It's been a real challenge but I've stuck to my guns on this one and today he drank two cups of water and two cups of milk.

I am feeling incredibly guilty about this one. I didn't think that I was really hurting them by giving them milk. I thought they were pretty typical. Turns out not so much. Pipers bloodwork came back today and her hemoglobin levels were borderline. The doctor said to cut back on the milk (which I've already done and will continue to do so until they are at 1 - 2 cups of milk per day) and to give her a multivitamin with iron in it. I am dreading taking Danny in to get his levels tested because of his pale skin and brittle nails; I'm positive that they are really low. However, the doctor won't prescribe the vitamins until he gets the bloodwork done.

I really thought I was done having milk guilt after I quit breast feeding and introduced milk to the kids. I guess I'm not passed that quite yet. I know it's not horrible and h problem is being fixed...I just feel like I should have known better or asked our doctor for the blood work to check their iron levels sooner. Or just looked up how much milk a toddler is supposed to have a day. Oh well. It's taken care of now.