Drinking milk is not all that healthful to begin with, but if I was a parent of a young child, nothing could convince me to feed her milk that was unpasteurized, i.e. raw milk.  Adults can decide whether to drink raw milk or not; children are at the mercy of their parents.

Bill Marler sent along this article:

A Mom and a Dairyman Plead: Don’t Feed Children Raw Milk, Food Safety News, 18 February 2014

It’s the story of two-year-old, Kylee, who was sickened by drinking raw milk and nearly lost her life.  The family that owned the farm that sold the raw milk also saw 4 of their 5 children sickened, one of whom developed the same severe complication as Kylee, HUS or hemolytic uremic syndrome which leads to kidney failure.

Cookson Beecher, who did a great job researching this, wrote:

“As for those who think that “knowing your farmer” is safeguard enough,  even raw-milk dairies with high sanitation standards and licensed and inspected by states that allow raw milk sales – California and Washington state are two of these – have been subject to recalls due to the presence of pathogens such as E. coli and Campylobacter in their milk.”

“The dairy farm environment is a reservoir for illness-causing germs,” CDC says. “No matter what precautions farmers take, and even if their raw milk tests come back negative, they cannot guarantee that their milk, or the products made from their milk, are free of harmful germs.” “

Kylee’s mother, Jill Brown, who ended up giving her kidney to her daughter:

“There might be some benefits of raw milk, but there are huge risks.”

People see raw milk as some kind of elixir.  There are no magic foods.