Milk is a great food and contains lot of calcium, protein etc, EXCEPT IRON. On it’s own, Milk is fine till the age of 4-6 months, by which time child can be exclusively breast or formula fed.
After that solid food should be introduced to give them other nutrients and Iron. Babies who continue to rely mainly on Milk, become severely Iron deficient, leading to Anaemia. We regularly see children, mainly from South-East Asia who are given milk, mostly breastmilk even after 1 year of age as the main source of food. They are pale looking and severely constipated as there is no fibre in the milk which makes our Stool.
Children should be weaned off milk by the age of 4-6 months and offered variety of food including nuts, egg, fish, pulses, rice, fruits and vegetables. THE DIET SHOULD BE BALANCED, and they should continue to have about 500 mls of milk every day. Ideally by the age of 1, they should be eating Breakfast, lunch & dinner and having a Glass of milk, morning and evening (not bottle). Bottle should be thrown away as soon as possible as it leads to lot of teeth issues.
