The U.S. dairy industry has urged the White House to challenge a proposal from the World Health Organization (WHO) that discourages the consumption of dairy products by young children. The advice contradicts the recommendations of respected national and global health organizations that endorse milk for its nutritional value.

In a letter to the Obama Administration, the International Dairy Foods Association (IDFA), the U.S. Dairy Export Council, and the the National Milk Producers Federation (NMPF) charged the organization with attempting to overturn decades of sound nutrition and medical advice.

The document at issue is a WHO guidance document that will be presented to the World Health Assembly (WHA) later this month, despite repeated requests from dairy organizations to fix significant problems with the proposal. The three dairy organizations urged the U.S. government to seek further scientific review of, and changes to, the document before allowing it to be used in the future.

“Discouraging parents from providing milk, one of the most nutritious foods in the human diet, to their children flies in the face of common sense,” the letter said. “Increased milk and dairy product consumption in recent years has helped improve nutritional outcomes for hundreds of millions of children around the world. This very positive trend should be further encouraged, not thwarted by ill-advised guidance from WHO.”

WHO released the draft guidance document that contradicts existing U.S. and international nutritional policy earlier this year. The document would dictate sweeping new restrictions, directly discouraging consumption of milk, as well as other new limits on various foods including dairy products, by children up to age three. The intent of the document is to encourage healthy eating patterns for toddlers. Two different revisions made to the original proposal failed to adequately address that underlying problem as well as other serious short-comings with the document.

“Milk is the original nutritional superfood, yet the WHO is committed to a position that would discourage the consumption of milk and milk products,” said Jim Mulhern, president and CEO of NMPF. “We appreciate the Administration’s recognition that it cannot support an international guideline that undermines the critical role dairy foods play in early childhood health and development.”