The thing to remember here is that vegetarians maintain their bone density without dairy products, and the disease is commonly found, like in your mother's case, among people who consume milk and dairy products throughout their lives. Since the overall protein intake in your family's diet is not excessive, I would not worry about any calcium-losing effect of the small amount of skim milk in the breakfast cereal. Ideally, however, I like to avoid all animal protein. Your skim milk could be replaced by rice or soy milk substitutes. My kids hate soy milk, and ask me for regular milk.
Rice milk is an excellent alternative.
Milk can also be made from nuts, such as almonds. This is even more important now that we are seeing lots of soy allergies. Rice milk is available in most supermarkets and healthfood stores. About Dr. Attwood .