Reduced fat milk for children over two?

[Indadhanu]

Jazz is two now, and yesterday I had some advice that we should be giving her skim or reduced fat milk instead of full cream???

Is this true? I remember reading about it but have a,lways been o the opinion that even though it is an animal fat, the human body needs fat so isn't it better to get it from a glass of milk than a packet of chips KWIM. So we've taken that approach, and made sure her 'fat' is coming from full-cream dairy products like milk, cheese etc rather than giving her skim. I know fat comes from other places, like in meat. But if its coming from whole foods, rather than an 'added' like in chips, isn't it alright in moderation?

Just wondering if anyone knew if this was the reason or if it's another reason?

[black_rose]

My mchn told us to avoid skim milk etc to keep using full cream milk, butter and cheese. She gave the same reasons, they need some fats and they also need the calcium. Dd1 is always struggling to keep weight on and I would rather she are dairy than junk.

[Junglemum]

I came across this recently too.

I think it comes from the idea that you should definitely not give skim milk to under two's but over two it is ok, but not necessary iykwim. I found it an odd suggest too.

My thinking is that my very energetic, bouncing 3 year old needs full cream milk. She doesn't have loads of other fat, and doesn't drink LOTS of milk so i think it is good for her to have full fat. I don't think (personal opinion coming up) that it is healthy for toddlers to be on diets that include skim this and diet that. I think a balanced diet with all the food groups is much more important.

[Arimeh]

My kids have full fat milk, but low fat cheese. Just because thats what I buy for us to have, and I refuse to buy two different lots of cheese, when I already buy two different lots of yoghurt.. LOL

[Phteven]

We use skim milk in our house.
My reasoning is that it is less processed than homogenised milk. Left to its own devices the cream rises to the top of the milk and skimming off the cream is a pretty simple operation. Bashing the milk until the cream stays in to form 'full cream' milk is a bit more complex.
Cream has very little calcium so they don't need the cream for calcium and our diet isn't short on oils and animal fats so they don't need any from cream.
I don't use any of the other skinny milks because most of them have 'milk solids' in the ingredients and other creepy stuff.

There used to be a non-homogenised organic milk in a green carton but they started homogensing it so I stopped buying it.

[Junglemum]

My reasoning is that it is less processed than homogenised milk. Left to its own devices the cream rises to the top of the milk and skimming off the cream is a pretty simple operation. Bashing the milk until the cream stays in to form 'full cream' milk is a bit more complex.

I had no idea. I presumed skim milk was processed..... you learn something new every day.

[Indadhanu]

I thought skim milk is still homogenised after it is skimed though, to stop that little bit of cream they could have left behind from separating??

Thanks for giving me something to think about. I might have to put some more thought into this I think, and see what we decide.

[Jennifer13]

There used to be a non-homogenised organic milk in a green carton but they started homogensing it so I stopped buying it.

We get this one - it's still non-homogenised where we buy it. The 2L plastic bottle version is homogenised, but not the 1L carton.

Personally, we don't buy non or low fat anything, so I'm not going to start with milk. I agree that a balanced diet is more important than cutting out the fat in milk. I'm more concerned with what goes on with our milk before it gets to the fridge (thanks Choice).

Oh, and skim milk has a lot less absorbable calcium, so we avoid it for that reason too. Not that we're big milk drinkers.

[MrsFabuloso]

It is a dietry reccommendation for children over 2yrs to have LOW FAT milk not skim. I know in childcare centres (in NSW anyway) it is a requirement. I give my kids low fat milk chees and yogurt, only because it's what we eat, so it's just easier than buying two different kinds of milk, yogurt and cheese. Until a few weeks ago I did, and gave both of the kids the full fat stuff. Now they get what we have. It is entirely up to you though. You know your own child and what her diet is like. I would say if it is full of other kinds of fat then give her low fat stuff, but if she doesn't have much other fat and you want to give her the full fat stuff, go ahead! Another thing to consider is though, low fat dairy often has more calcium in it than the full fat stuff.

[~ Zarava Flutterby ~]

Wow i hadn't heard this myself, DD will be 2 in October so i might discuss this with our MCHN at her 2yr appt.
I have never paid attention but what is the difference b/w reduced/low fat milk and SKIM?
We drink full cream as that is what DD has, we have always had it (prob shouldn't) and we have full fat cheese and yoghurt, if it was suggested that low fat milk was better for her i would make the switch as i don't see the point in buying 2 lots of smoething we use every day.

Hmm will watch with interest. thanks

[Snacks]

I think it is something to be assessed on an individual basis. I have heard that from 2 you should give them low fat dairy, however I have kept Nat on full fat because she doesn't gain weight well (she restricts her diet a lot) and it gives me comfort to have her continue on full fat. This isn't an educated decision I've made though - it just seems right to me. I've made an appt with the dietitian to discuss stuff like this in a couple of weeks so I can probably post a more educated opinion after that, LOL!
I think that once they get to about 2 their fat requirements are less than when they're infants. At this age you'd expect them to have similar requirements to you - the food pyramid shows you only need a small amount of fat, especially saturated fats. You can get healthier fats/oils into them from things like fish. If they're eating a balanced diet then they're probably getting enough fat/energy requirements from other foods so full fat dairy is unnecessary.
I'm pretty sure the recommendation is there to protect kids from diets that are too high in fat - an issue which is becoming more of a problem these days I believe.