For some reason, people think that milk is only for children. But it’s not. It should certainly be started in childhood to ensure that one builds up a significant stock of calcium that helps prevent brittle bones later in life. You don’t want to deal with broken bones in old age, do you? You should still be able to teach the young ones a trick or two in sports. I certainly intend to!

Now let me give you a quick class on how much milk you should be getting per day.
• From birth till 6 months, a baby should be getting breast milk only and he should get it on demand several times a day at least 2-3 hourly
• From 6 months to 1 year, continue breast milk with other complementary feeds like fortified cereals
• From 1 year to 2 years, the child should get at least 2 cups of full cream milk. The fat is particularly important to ensure proper brain development
• From 2 years to 8 years, your child should get at least 2 1/2 – 3 cups of skimmed milk or other dairy products daily
• From 9 years till adulthood, you should get at least 3 – 4 cups of skimmed milk or dairy daily

Remember that your milk intake should form part of your calorie intake per day. Be sure to take that into account. So guys, get your milk mustache going. It’s certainly one source of protein and calcium that you should not be ignoring. Be sure to check that the milk is also fortified with Vitamin D which ensures that the calcium is properly absorbed. If you are at risk of prostate cancer, be sure to discuss your milk intake with your doctor.

So, what innovative ways can we use to incorporate milk into our diets?
• Add milk to your children’s breakfast cereal. Either use it instead of water as the fluid for making your oatmeal in the morning or pour it over their cereal.
• Add milk to your smoothies. Juice and or blend the fruits and then add some milk to it and blend it all up. It tastes like heaven on earth!
• After running around and getting loads of exercise outside, when your children come in, offer a cold glass of milk. It could be regular milk or chocolate milk or just milk with a little flavouring in it like vanilla or butter scotch. Recent research shows that it’s a great pick-me-up after physical activity. The fact that it’s cold may encourage your sweaty I-don’t-like milk child to give it a try.
• Use milk to make home-made yoghurt and get your children involved and bond some more.
• You can use milk to make some super delicious milk shakes. Everybody loves a milk shake. An easy one to make is a combination of milk, some fruits (eg mango) and crushed ice. Put all into a blender and whizz away. Watch while blending because if you blend for too long, it becomes runny. You want it nice and sorta thick….and utterly delicious!

So, now you can rustle up more wonders from your kitchen. Go for it!