Milk Intake During Rapan, New Strategy Fills Children's Micronutrient Intake

Illustration of the moment of breakfast for children (Unsplash)

JAKARTA - A survey conducted by The South East Asian Nutrition Surveys (SEANUTS) II revealed that a sufficient breakfast intake consists of a variety of menus and milk consumption during breakfast has a close relationship with improving the quality of children's diets.

The main researcher of SEANUTS II who is also Professor of the Department of Children's Health Sciences, Faculty of Medicine UI, Prof. Dr. dr. Rini Sekartini Sp.A (K) said parents need to get around their children to eat milk every breakfast in order to meet the intake of micronutrients, especially calcium and Vitamin D.

"In general, children who eat milk at breakfast have higher essential micronutrient intake, especially for calcium and vitamin D," said Rini in her presentation at the SEANUTS II Scientific Media Workshop in Jakarta, Friday.

This study highlighted the importance of milk consumption at breakfast which can meet the daily intake of vitamin D 4.4 times and calcium 2.6 times higher for Indonesian children.

Dairy products are not only in the form of liquid milk or powder but also include other animal dairy products such as yogurt and cheese with one portion per day.

Prof. Rini said these findings could be a recommendation and encouragement for the government both at the central and regional levels of professional health workers in industrial schools and especially families that drinking milk at least once a day at breakfast can help fulfill children's nutrition which is important for growth.

He said the SEANUTS survey revealed data from 28 percent of children who had consumed breakfast, only 16 percent of Indonesian children drank milk or dairy products as part of the main nutrition at breakfast.

He said breakfast actually plays an important role as a contributor to children's energy, especially to support their daily activities and the learning process. In general, the Indonesian people do not provide milk to their children after the age of two because they are considered sufficient from daily food.

Therefore, from this data, milk consumption is also obtained, it is still higher at the age of children who are younger or under two years old. The problem of the availability of milk in rural areas and low income is also a factor for children over two years of rarely consuming milk.

Rini further explained that through the income of micronutrient levels, what parents should pay attention to is the fulfillment of calcium and vitamin D and the easiest to get the source is milk.

"For vitamins C, colon, and DHA, usually there may be something eating with side dishes that contains it can also be recommended, but the most concerned is that the calcium and vitamin D content are easy to obtain by adding that breakfast with milk," said Prof. Rini.