MilkSucks.co.uk: Make your baby happy

Cow’s milk is linked to ear infecti ons, colic, and diabetes.

Click on the image above to see PETA's anti-dairy billboard which features Bill Maher as a baby who urges parents to breast feed. (PDF Format, Adobe Acrobat req.)

Pediatricians are in agreement: The very best diet for infants is a baby's own mother's milk. It provides the optimal balance of nutrients needed for physical growth and brain development. Ask questions of experts, share stories, and find out all about raising your child without meat and dairy on VegSource's Vegetarian Parenting Web site .

Research studies link consumption of dairy products, cow's milk, and cow's milk-based infant formulas to colic (stomach cramps), chronic ear infections, and insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus (Type 1 or "juvenile-onset" diabetes).

Among study findings:

Type I Diabetes

A study of children in 40 countries found that the incidence of juvenile diabetes was directly related to diet: The higher the consumption of cow’s milk and other animal products, the greater the chance of developing diabetes. Conversely, children who consumed a largely vegetarian diet had a much lower incidence of diabetes.
– The American Journal of Nutrition
Muntoni et al., 71 (2000),1525-9

“Don’t kids need milk to be healthy?"

Humans are the only creatures that drink milk from the mother of another species. It’s as unnatural for a child to drink the milk of a cow as it is for a dog to nurse from a giraffe! Human children have no nutritional requirements for cow’s milk and grow up healthy and strong without it. Cow’s milk (and the products made from it) is laced with foreign, frequently allergy-inciting, bovine protein and frequently contains hydrocarbon pesticides and other chemical contaminants, as well as health-endangering saturated fat. Clinical experience suggests that cow’s milk is linked to numerous common health problems (runny noses, allergies, ear infections, recurrent bronchitis, asthma, etc.) that often keep people returning to their doctors’ offices, instead of to their jobs or classrooms. Parents should feel good about giving their children the many nutritious, tasty, nondairy alternatives instead.

ASK THE EXPERTS:
Michael Klaper, M.D., nutritional expert and author of Pregnancy, Children, and the Vegan Diet

A study of more than 800 children found that feeding infants cow’s milk formula is "associated with an increased risk of type 1 diabetes ..."
– Diabetes Care
Hypponen et al., December 1999

Click here for more evidence documenting the link between cow's milk and diabetes.

Colic

The Miller-Keane Encyclopedia and Dictionary of Medicine, Nursing, and Allied Health defines colic as "an acute paroxysmal abdominal pain, most common during the first 3 months of life …" Parents know it as heart-wrenching crying that can last for hours.

Since the 1970s, numerous studies have shown that colic can be eased by a switch from cow’s milk-based formula to soy-based formula for bottle fed-babies and by the elimination of all dairy products in the mother’s diet for breast-fed infants.
In a 1998 study funded by the National Institutes of Health, scientists found that taking babies off cow’s milk infant formula resulted in "appreciable decreases" in daily colic outbreaks. Eliminating cow’s milk from the babies’ formula resulted in a 69 percent decrease in the amount of crying and a 25 percent decrease in the amount of discomfort and fussing. The study offered three different hypotheses—all pointed to cow’s milk as the cause of colic.
– Acta Paediatr
Kulczyski et al., Washington University School of Medicine, 2000

Click here for more evidence documenting the link between cow's milk and colic.

Ear Infections

"Cow's milk is poison for kids! My children love healthy, vitamin-fortified soy milk—and they NEVER have ear infections or any of the other health conditions associated with cow's milk."

The mucus-producing effects of cow’s milk consumption are so well known that nearly all pediatricians now recommend the elimination of cow’s milk from the diets of children prone to chronic ear infections. Many children have allergic reactions to cow’s milk, including nasal congestion. When passages become blocked and irritated, ear infection is the frequent result.

I n his book Pregnancy, Children, and the Vegan Diet , Michael Klaper, M.D., explains how the proteins found in cow’s milk create a health hazard. He writes, "… a common reaction to such an assault by a foreign [bovine] protein in our immune systems is an outpouring of mucus from the nasal and throat membranes. … The resulting mucus flow can create chronic runny nose, persistent sore throats, hoarseness, bronchitis, and the recurrent ear infections that plague so many children."

One Georgetown University study found that about 30 percent of children with ear infections also suffer from milk allergies. Of all the foods tested, milk was the number one allergen. Scientists found a "significant amelioration" of ear infections when allergens were removed from the children’s diets. Indeed, up to 86 percent of ear infections improved when children stopped drinking cow’s milk and other allergens. The study revealed a "statistically strong linkage" between cow’s milk allergies and ear infections.
– Annals of Allergy
Nsouli et al., Georgetown University School of Medicine, 1994

Click here for more evidence documenting the link between cow's milk and ear infections.

Ready to switch to soy formula?

Nursing mothers, how about you? You can nourish yourself better by switching away from cow’s milk. If a mother consumes dairy products, some of the hazardous cow’s milk proteins will pass from her digestive tract into her bloodstream, and then into her breast milk.

Do the best thing for you and your baby—dump dairy today.

Click here for dairy-free alternatives.

For more information, check out this article about raising vegan children, this article about milk and diabetes, or this article about vegetarian diets during pregnancy.