Dairy milk is essential for children’s health

One of the most memorable cases I encountered in my pediatric internship involved a school-age girl with a shattered femur. A broken femur — the long bone in the thigh — is a potentially life-threatening injury usually caused by a high-energy impact, like a major car crash. In this case,the girl had badly broken her femur simply by hopping off a park bench onto grass.

This stout bone became brittle because the girl had severe rickets due to a diet way too low in calcium and vitamin D. She was one of five children, and we soon learned that they all had rickets and very poor health.