Last week we bought and drank more than forty pints of milk.

Forty!!

Ever since I was a child, I’ve drank a lot of milk. I absolutely love going to the fridge and pouring a big glass of ice cold (has to be ice cold!!) milk. Graham is the same, and it appears Harrison and Alex have inherited our love of the white stuff. In all three of my pregnancies, I’ve craved milk – I’d be drinking two or three litres a day, especially towards the end. We had to buy UHT cartons to keep in the cupboard so that we always had plenty to hand. Not long before Alex was born, Graham found me sitting on the kitchen floor in the middle of the night sobbing my eyes out. Why? Because I hadn’t put another carton of milk in the fridge, so had no cold milk to drink. To a very pregnant and hormonal woman that was the end of the world.

I haven’t always been able to drink cows milk. As a baby and young toddler I actually had a cows milk allergy – I had to have a soya based formula and had to avoid dairy products. Thankfully, I grew out of this by the time I was 2. Quite ironically, my dad used to be a milkman when me and my brothers were younger – you can imagine all the jokes about my mum running off with the milkman!

Forty pints of milk is about average for us. I knew we drink a ridiculous amount but this was the first time we actually kept a record of how much we used. I’m sure people wonder how on earth we get through so much between four of us!

The kids have a bowl of porridge most mornings made with milk. Sometimes they have a bowl before bed as well. Sometimes Graham and me might have a bowl for breakfast as well – that’s a huge amount of milk used up already.  Throughout the day both Graham and me drink quite a lot of coffee and tea with milk – it might only be a splash each time but with both of us drinking up to eight cups a day, it soon adds up, not to mention if we have visitors!

Neither of us drink much pop. The only time we buy fizzy pop such as coke or lemonade is to use as a mixer for alcohol, and the kids certainly don’t have any. They drink squash sometimes – a couple of small cups a day (more in the summer obviously), but their drink of choice is cold milk. They both still like a beaker of milk for naptimes and bedtimes, even Harrison. Thankfully, their love of milk doesn’t affect their appetite.

Both Graham and I will sit and drink a glass of milk – Graham can easily drink a pint off the stuff in one go. We also use milk in cooking – last week I made cauliflower cheese for tea , and the cheese sauce used quite a lot of milk. We also make some milk based desserts – rice pudding and angel delight being the current favourites.

I know some conditions, such as anaemia, can be associated with drinking lots of milk. I’ve mentioned my concerns to the health visitor and doctor, but because the boys are both healthy and strong, it’s fine – much better than drinking sugar – laden squash!!

I know when Benjamin is on cows milk the amount of milk we will buy will go through the roof – I’m sure it will be cheaper to keep a coupe of dairy cows in the back garden!