According to Madhu Sharma, senior dietician at PGI, as high as 30 per cent of children coming to the paediatric OPDs and suffering from dietary disorders are addicted to milk. As a result, mothers are given rounds of counselling to dispel the traditional myth that milk is the answer to all problems.

“We see around 25 new cases of milk addiction among children every week. The problem is acute in children up to the age of 3 years who sometimes completely rely on milk and refuse anything else. This makes them anaemic and iron deficiency also continues till adolescence as they continue to have more milk and milk products than the desired amount. We tell the mothers to introduce foods including cereals along with breastfeeding so that the child develops a taste for different kinds of food early in life,” said Sharma, who has authored a book ‘Basic Paediatric Nutrition’, which will be released on Saturday.

Dieticians, meanwhile, say that even during pregnancy, expecting mothers should have a “colourful diet” as the taste buds get transferred from the expecting mother to the foetus through the placenta. If a woman relies more on milk products during pregnancy and ignores other food, chances are that the newborn will develop a liking for milk.

“While the Indian Council of Medical Research recommends 500 ml of milk for children between one and nine years, we see cases where four-year-olds consume almost one litre of milk in a day. This kills appetite for other types of foods,” adds the dietician.

Doctors believe the problem is acute in the region as a majority of the cases come from Punjab and Haryana. She added that excessive reliance on milk products is a major reason why the incidence of anaemia (over 60 percent) in states like Punjab is high, which otherwise have high rates of prosperity and children do not suffer from malnutrition. “Childhood obesity is another problem and consumption of milk and a high-caloric diet is again to be blamed for this trend,” adds Sharma.

A survey conducted by the PGI had earlier indicated that obesity among school-going children in the city is on the rise.