CATEGORY: FOODS & NUTRIENTS
Raw milk has become a wellness trend, sold at farm stands and promoted online as more natural than the pasteurized carton at the grocery store. The American Academy of Pediatrics has now updated its position for the first time since 2014, and the update sharpens it: no unpasteurized milk, cheese, or other raw dairy for children or during pregnancy, period.1 Nearly half of the illnesses caused by raw dairy strike people under 20, and a large share of those hit children under 5.
Why the youngest drinkers carry the risk
Unpasteurized milk can carry Listeria, E. coli, Salmonella, Campylobacter, and Brucella. A healthy adult might ride out an infection with a rough week. Young children often can’t. Neither can pregnant women or anyone with a weakened immune system. In pregnancy, the risk of listeriosis runs an estimated 12 to 14 times higher than in the general population, and that infection can end in miscarriage or a life-threatening illness in a newborn. Pasteurization, the brief heating step invented in the 1860s, kills these organisms without changing the milk’s nutrition. The pediatricians’ review found no scientific support for the health claims made for skipping it.
Bird flu changed the math
The update also carries something the 2014 version couldn’t have: H5N1. During the 2024 outbreak on US dairy farms, infectious bird-flu virus turned up in nearly a quarter of raw milk samples from affected areas, and it can stay detectable in refrigerated raw milk for up to five weeks. No human case has yet been traced to drinking raw milk. The academy calls it a credible, emerging threat anyway, and it’s part of why the group went beyond advice to families and renewed its call for states to ban raw dairy sales outright. Sales remain legal in at least 27 states.
Key Takeaways
- The AAP’s updated policy finds no safe level of raw milk or raw dairy for children or in pregnancy; nearly half of raw-dairy illnesses occur in people under 20.
- Pasteurized milk delivers the same nutrients without the infection risk, and the 2024 discovery of infectious H5N1 in raw milk added a new reason for the stricter stance.
References
- Ratner AJ, Sardi A, Corkins MR, et al. Consumption of Unpasteurized (Raw) Milk and Milk Products by Pregnant People and Children: Policy Statement. Pediatrics. 2026;e2026079036. link