Fresh debate looms over kids and milk

ISTANBUL - Doğan News Agency (DHA)

The Chamber of Agricultural Engineers (ZMO) has strongly reacted to recent media reports quoting experts who said children should not consume milk after breastfeeding.

“Milk consumption in Turkey is already behind that of developed countries; what we need to do is to promote milk consumption, not call on people to stop giving milk to their children,” Turhan Tuncer, head of ZMO, said in a written statement issued yesterday.

The dispute had begun with the words of Ahmet Aydın, head of the Department of Child Metabolism and Nutrition from Istanbul University. Aydın claimed milk was an allergen and should not be consumed directly. He suggested it should be consumed only as yogurt or kefir, a fermented milk drink.

“In my opinion children should not be fed with milk after the breastfeeding period. Give your child homemade yogurt or kefir but not milk. Because milk is an allergen drink and it may cause asthma and some other allergy diseases,” Aydin said.

Tuncer claimed the comments were “part of a campaign against the milk producers who already suffer.”
“A professor called on people not to give milk to their children. He should have talked by considering both the producers and consumers,” Tuncer said, and the future generation should consume “healthy milk,” which has no hygienic issues.