My family drinks 1% milk. My husband accidentally bought whole milk. My children complained that it was "thick" and they didn't like it at all. I diluted it with water and they were able to drink it. Then I got to thinking. I can do this all the time. (With a family of 8, milk doesn't last long.) I save the previous milk jug and pour half of the new jug (of whole milk) into it and top both jugs off with water. Wallah! 2 for the price of 1.
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I do understand about having to save money these days, especially with a family to feed. Please keep in mind that when you dilute the whole milk by using half water, you're also reducing by half the amount of calcium, vitamin D, and other nutrients your kids and you are getting with your milk. Remember, low or reduced-fat milk is not diluted milk - it simply has a portion of the fat removed, which is replaced by nonfat milk solids, and actually is higher in calcium and protein than whole milk. I'm sure you want to do the best for your family, but growing kids (and their moms!) need calcium and protein :-)
One glass of whole milk also contains 148 calories and 12 grams of sugar, so it certainly isn't the healthiest food out there. Watering it down by half would cut this down by half.
Leafy greens, nuts and seeds also contain calcium.
Whole milk has 276 mg of calcium a cup. But it won't do any good at all if kids are deficient in vitamin D. Most calcium people drink from milk leaves the body via urine. Most kids can't get enough vitamin D because of being indoors a lot, wearing a lot of clothes outside and sunscreen that blocks UV rays. They add vitamin D to milk but it isn't enough.
The best thing to do is probably to give kids vitamin D supplements, liquid or gel. That way even if they get 100 mg of calcium a day or less they'll absorb so much more.
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