What drives parents to buy toddler milk?
- 15.07.2013
- English Articles
- Antonia Tilgner
- Anke Ehlers
- Bettina Röder
- Annett Martin
- Anke Weißenborn
Peer-reviewed | Manuscript received: July 09, 2012 | Revision accepted: March 13, 2013
Introduction
Nutritional scientists and paediatricians recommend that toddlers – children aged 12 to 36 months – should eat at the family table. As part of a balanced and varied diet, they should consume about 300 (to 330) ml cow’s milk, including milk products per day; the milk should preferably be semi-skimmed (fat content 1.5 %) [1, 2].
In contrast to young babies, whose special nutritional needs can only be met by breast milk (or industrially produced infant formula), toddlers do not require special foods. If the recommendations from the Forschungsinstitut für Kinderernährung Dortmund (FKE) [Institute for Research in Child Nutrition] for a balanced and varied diet (optimised mixed nutrition – optimix®) are considered, toddlers can reach the D-A-CH reference values by consuming conventional foods, such as bread, fruit, vegetables and milk or milk products [1, 3].
Summary
For some years, in Germany toddler milk has been commercially available for children from one or two years of age. As it is recommended that toddlers should consume 1/3 litres of cow’s milk and the supply of nutrients in conventional foods is generally adequate, it was the aim of this study to determine the motives for or against purchasing toddler milk in households with children aged 12 to 36 months, together with other differences in the nutrition of children who drink toddler milk or cow’s milk.
The main motives for the purchase were linked to health and taste. For both groups, the data indicated that children eating with their families had normal nutritional behaviour. If children drink large volumes of toddler milk, they will take up significant additional quantities of macro- and micronutrients, so that parents should be informed that toddler milk is from a nutritional point of view not necessary for their children.
Keywords: Nutritional habits, purchasing habits, toddler milk, child nutrition, consumer habits, milk
