(Our office receives numerous faxes, letters and phone calls regarding chiropractic pediatric care. This column allows us to answer the most commonly asked questions.)

QUESTION: Many of my patients' children ingest a lot of dairy products, particularly milk. Is milk really harmful, and what substitute recommendations can I make to them?

ANSWER: With celebrities, sports stars, actors and actresses donning milk moustaches, it would seem that milk is the perfect food. Yet, this is hardly the case.

Physicians from Dr. Benjamin Spock to Dr. Frank Oski, M.D., director of pediatrics at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, have made public their concern about potential health risks from children consuming cow's milk.

Each person in the U.S. consumes, on the average, 375 pounds of dairy products each year. One of every seven dollars spent for food in this country goes for the purchase of milk and milk products. In fact, these items make up the second largest food expense, ranking behind only the combined expenses for meat, fish, poultry and eggs.

The Federal Trade Commission in April of 1974 issued a "proposed complaint" against the California Milk Producers Advisory Board and their advertising agency. It cited the slogan, "Everybody needs milk" was false, misleading, and deceptive advertising.

The commission judged that testimonials from the likes of Florence Henderson and Mark Spitz posed an inaccurate picture of the value of milk. Quickly the new slogan "Milk Has Something For Everybody" arose. I doubt they meant antibiotics, hormones, steroids and chemicals.

The fact is, most animals are breast-fed exclusively until they have tripled their birth weight. In human infants this occurs around the age of one. Breast-feeding is a kind of natural immunization for the infant, providing the mother's antibodies to protect and support the child's immature immune system.

Cow's milk was designed to bring a calf to a 2,000 pound cow in one year's time. It was not meant for human infants. No animals, except for humans, consume milk after being weaned.

Sometime between one-and-a-half and four years of age, we gradually lose lactose activity in our small intestines. Many infants drink between one and two quarts of milk on a daily basis. Although this acts to satisfy their hunger, they are often left with little room for vital iron-containing foods.

Cow's milk can produce iron deficiency by providing little dietary iron itself, and at the same time producing iron loss by inducing gastrointestinal bleeding. Iron deficiency anemia makes children act inattentive, apathetic, and irritable. They will cry a great deal encouraging mother to do what she knows best: provide a soothing bottle of milk -- which only compounds the problem.

The American Heart Association has strongly urged people to reduce their consumption of milk and dairy products due to milk's relationship to atherosclerosis.

Diarrhea, cramps, acne and skin rashes have also been linked to drinking whole cow's milk. And if these don't provide enough evidence that milk is anything but a wonder food, add leukemia, multiple sclerosis, ear infections, rheumatoid arthritis, juvenile diabetes, and bronchitis to the list.

Many mothers give their children milk to build strong, healthy bones and teeth. The irony is that milk may actually lead to tooth decay.

Dr. Frances Castano, a dental researcher at the University of Pennsylvania, believes that milk may actually destroy the teeth of children who are given a bottle to go to sleep with. This common practice can lead to very rapid decay.

Many parents fear that removing dairy products will hurt their child due to the calcium they will lose. This argument is not valid. Cow's milk contains 1,200 milligrams of calcium per quart compared to human milk which has only 300 milligrams. However, infants receiving human milk actually absorb more calcium into their bodies, due to the fact that cow's milk is so rich in calcium.

The more studies that are done, the less clear it becomes just how much calcium humans really need. Other countries -- African nations, for example -- consume far less calcium and tend to have a lower incidence of osteoporosis. It is apparent that humans can adjust to variations in the amount of calcium in their diet. The body simply absorbs more (in an attempt to meet needs) when reduced quantities are ingested.