Milk may be one item you’ll find in almost every fridge but despite it being an Aussie staple, milk is surprisingly misunderstood.

While milk is a great source of calcium for everyone, it tends to be mums with little ones who see milk as a high priority, even though teens need two to three times more calcium than younger children.

We took a closer look at what mums think about milk and found quite a bit of confusion. Here’s some facts and a few practical tips to help you get the most out of milk for your children.

Myth:  Children need to drink full fat milk.
Fact:   Full fat milk is only required by children under two. More than half the mums surveyed thought children need to be 10 years or older to switch to reduced fat milk. 70% of mums say they buy full fat milk specifically for their kids, which probably explains why you’ll often find two types of milk in family fridges.

Full fat dairy milk and cheese are ranked as the greatest sources of saturated fat in the Australian diet.  So, reach for reduced fat varieties of milk for the whole family once the kids are over two.

Myth: Full cream milk has more calcium than reduced fat or skim milk.
Fact:  More than half the mums surveyed chose full fat milk varieties, incorrectly believing they provided more calcium for growing bones.  Reducing fat does not result in reduced calcium.  In fact, skim milk has slightly more calcium per serve than full cream milk – 310mg vs 285 mg. 

Myth:  Only littlies need milk.
Fact:   Milk and other dairy foods are among our richest source of available calcium so they remain important throughout our lives.  Parents may be surprised to know that teenagers need two to three times more calcium than younger children. This is because they’re building bone mass three times more rapidly during the teenage growth spurt years. 

Australian guidelines recommend three to five serves per day of reduced fat milk or dairy for 12 – 18 year olds, with two to three serves needed for younger children.

Unfortunately, most of our children aren’t getting enough milk. We found 92% of teenagers and 66% of 4-11 year olds do not drink milk on a daily basis.

If your children happily down their milk each day you’re one of the lucky ones, but some kids just don’t like the taste of milk. 

For those who battle to get children to drink milk, try adding a Tick approved flavouring to reduced fat milk or buying a Tick approved flavoured milk.  Milk is important to health so making it more appealing to milk rejecters is a big help.

The Tick on milk products or flavourings helps guide you to varieties that have met the Heart Foundation’s tough standards for saturated fat and kilojoules. We’ve also insisted they have at least 100mg of calcium per 100ml.  Plain milk is still the best choice but flavoured reduced fat milk is a better nutritional choice than sports drinks, soft drinks and ‘energy drinks’.

For more information about the Heart Foundation Tick please click here.