Professor of Food Safety and Nutrition at IPB University Warns of the Dangers of Excessive Milk Consumption in Children

Prof Ahmad Sulaeman, Professor of Food Safety and Nutrition at IPB University, said that excessive milk consumption in children can pose a health threat, especially disrupting nutritional balance.

According to him, the amount of daily milk consumption should be adjusted to age and individual needs. Excessive consumption should be avoided.

“How much we should drink milk, it really depends on age. Since infancy, especially under 6 months, all nutritional needs can be met from breast milk. After that, breast milk alone may not be enough, and after one year of age, children need additional food or complementary food,” he explains. 

He suggests that for children around one year old, milk consumption should only range from 400 to 600 milliliters per day. 

“This is because milk, especially cow’s milk, although it provides protein, fat, some vitamins, and carbohydrates, does not contain all the nutrients the body needs for growth,” he explains.

“When children start to grow, what they need is not just protein and fat. He also needs fiber and other components that are not in milk,” he explained.

For this reason, said Prof Ahmad, the consequence of excessive milk consumption is that children will feel full and lose their appetite for other foods. As a result, nutritional intake becomes unbalanced.

“It is not good for children to drink only milk, later they will not be interested in other foods, as a result they do not get balanced nutrition,” he said. 

Prof Ahmad again explained, balanced nutrition must meet the needs according to age, activity, and body condition. It includes not only protein, but also energy from carbohydrates and fats, essential fats, fat-soluble and water-soluble vitamins, various minerals (macro and micro), dietary fiber, and other components that are important for health.

“If you only drink milk, it means that what we need cannot be fulfilled. It is even possible that because there is a lot of fat in milk, it can become obese (obese) fat,” he said.

In addition, it can cause a great dependence on milk. Children become less eager to consume other foods that are also important for their growth and development.

“Children can also experience iron deficiency because they don’t consume other foods that are rich in iron,” he added.

Therefore, she emphasized, the restriction of about 400-600 milliliters per day aims to keep children willing to consume other foods, so that balanced nutritional needs can be met optimally. (AS) (IAAS/NRA)