As most of you regular readers know, I started this blog for my children and the grandchildren I hoped would come. I needed to get my brain and research onto paper (I keep hard copies of my writing at home) so that they would be able to meet their families’ food and medical needs using the supplies they have stored. And one problem that I think is largely unaddressed in the prepping blogosphere is children’s nutritional needs. A lot of bloggers out there align more with the survivalist spectrum, and others seem more concerned about security and other issues. And that’s fine. They have identified a problem and satisfy a need.
I think I’ve spent too much time contemplating a world where children have to drink powdered milk, and I really worry about that. Ricketts was a serious problem in this country just a little over a hundred years ago when children didn’t drink enough fortified milk and didn’t spend enough time in the sun. And I can imagine that when life gets difficult, parents will have to choose their battles, and they might decide against forcing their children to drink powdered milk. We’ve all played that game with kids at some point: “You have to eat/drink (fill in the blank) before you can (fill in the blank).” The child finally acquiesces and then proceeds to puke it out all over the table or floor.
When it comes to powdered milk, I’m pretty sure most parents will give up. I’m pretty sure I would. And while we can tell the kids that the reason there’s no powdered milk in our glasses is that we’re saving it for them so they can be healthy, do you really think they’re going to believe that? Is anyone going to be able to say that with a straight face?
I fear that even with all the ways of improving the taste of powdered milk, it just may not work on little children. They’ve got very sensitive taste buds. I think we need to be prepared to do a little more to mask the off taste of powdered milk. A couple of months ago I blogged about making your own chocolate Nesquik. Of course, you have to add sugar as well. And kids might not want to have chocolate milk every day, so it would be good to have some other flavors.
Nesquik comes in banana and strawberry flavors, with the latter being the more popular of the two. But it doesn’t have a long shelf-life and heck, it’s full of all kinds of artificial ingredients. We can make our own, and we can make it taste better and healthier.
I realized this over the past couple of years of watching Korean dramas. Kids usually don’t have chocolate milk for a treat (or breakfast) there. It’s always banana or strawberry milk, and always with fresh fruit. While we may not have fresh bananas in the challenging times ahead, we can substitute with freeze-dried or dehydrated. If we lack fresh strawberries, freeze-dried strawberries, strawberry syrup, or strawberry jam substitute very nicely.
In addition to making a tasty, healthy drink, both the banana and the strawberry milk are also pretty delicious poured over cereal.
when our Athletic daughter was preteen and teen, she was a size 0. I pondered how to get more calories and nutrition into her system without chemicals or sweets. My nephew had the same issue, but his parents fed him milkshakes and ice cream and cookies. He’s still over 6 feet tall and very slender. My daughter is 5‘2“ and I didn’t want her to spend the rest of her life trying to lose weight. So, I happened upon dried milk baked into food and mixed into drinks. Peanut butter is also a really good option for calories and works well with dried milk. Not sure that dried milk baked in food has the same nutrition, but I do have a lot stored up just in case. Love your ideas, Jennifer, on flavored milk. Thank you
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