> Yes, you tell them cows' milk is never needed in a child's life.  Humans
> don't NEED to drink the milk of another species.  There are many dietary
> sources for calcium and protein other than cows' milk.

I personally agree with this.  While calcium and protein may be
available in cow's milk in a "package deal" that isn't quite like many
other food sources we eat (though how bioavailable no one seems to be
able to tell me!  LOL), I am perfectly convinced that it is not
"necessary".  I personally am not going to offer cow's milk to my
daughter.  She'll nurse until she no longer wants to, and she may have
any combination of rice, soy, oat, almond (whatever she likes and
tolerates) on her cereal if she wants in the morning (on days she eats
that) and I do make "cream sauces" with those kinds of "milks", but I
don't think that she needs to go drink 3-5 glasses of it all per day
anyhow.  Just enough for cereal, or a cream-type dish once in a while is
all that she'd probably get and only because those are the types of
meals WE (my husband and I) are used to.

I don't expect she'll fully avoid cow's milk products (unless allergic
to them, which I doubt), but I don't feel she needs milk as a beverage
on a regular basis in any way.

I don't think that in the natural world, in the ideal place where every
youngster self-weans from its mom's breast, there is any animal who will
NATURALLY go and drink from another mammal's breast (I'm not talking
about cats whose mom is dead, or who are sold and go suckling on the dog
in the household...I'M talking about cats whose mom is alive and who
still live with the mom until they wean!).  Even flies will only drink
milk if humans provide it for them, or perhaps lick at a drop off the
teat of the cow...and we are some of the only animals with the capacity
to go and get the milk from another species (I can't see the cat milking
the cow, or even suckling the cow, very easily!).  If Gorillas could do
it, they probably wouldn't, as it wouldn't fit into what their instincts
would dictate to them.

JMHO,
Fio.

             ***********************************************
The LACTNET mailing list is powered by L-Soft's renowned
LISTSERV(R) list management software together with L-Soft's LSMTP(TM)
mailer for lightning fast mail delivery. For more information, go to:
http://www.lsoft.com/LISTSERV-powered.html