Whole or reduced fat milk for your toddler?

[gbailey]

Maybe I should have put this in the eating forum? At what age did you start giving your toddler reduced fat milk?

At DD's 2 year well visit she seemed to waffle a bit about whether or not DD should be switched to reduced fat milk. What are you doing and why? Thanks.

[karika]

We don't use any form of dairy in our home. DD2 will get breastmilk until she no longer requires any form of milk (at the age of 3-5), like any other mammal. I use homemade almond milk and hempmilk for smoothies and in baking. Cow's milk is actually quite damaging to the human body, though I wouldn't expect a ped to know that or tell anyone. I already knew I felt this way, but this site gives some good facts. http://www.milksucks.com/index2.asp

[gbailey]

Originally Posted by karika

We don't use any form of dairy in our home. DD2 will get breastmilk until she no longer requires any form of milk (at the age of 3-5), like any other mammal. I use homemade almond milk and hempmilk for smoothies and in baking. Cow's milk is actually quite damaging to the human body, though I wouldn't expect a ped to know that or tell anyone. I already knew I felt this way, but this site gives some good facts. http://www.milksucks.com/index2.asp

Thanks for the info. We have been toying around with giving her something else. Would you mind sharing your almond and hemp milk recipes? I would appreciate it. Thanks for the link too!

[mom61508]

Originally Posted by gbailey

Maybe I should have put this in the eating forum? At what age did you start giving your toddler reduced fat milk?

At DD's 2 year well visit she seemed to waffle a bit about whether or not DD should be switched to reduced fat milk. What are you doing and why? Thanks.

WE don't use reduced fat anything period. Children need a good amount of fats to develop properly so I would continue on whole milk preferably raw If you have access to it.
This is a great article http://www.westonaprice.org/children...t-disease.html

Pediatric clinicians noted a number of years ago that children who were put onto lowfat and low-cholesterol diets failed to grow properly. It seems that during the critical growing years, children need levels of fat substantially in excess of the levels recommended in the US dietary guidelines. After all, mother’s milk contains 55 percent of calories as fat, much of it saturated fat. Children need high levels of fat throughout the period of growth and development. Milk and animal fats give energy and also help children build muscle and bone. In addition, the animal fats provide vitamins A and D necessary for protein and mineral assimilation.

[LadyCatherine185]

My DS drinks Coconut milk. He is dairy intolerant, or else we would use whole raw dairy for him. If we had to use pasteurized it would definitely be whole organic. My milk is pretty much dried up from pregnancy, though he still nurses a couple times a day.

[LadyCatherine185]

Originally Posted by karika

http://www.milksucks.com/index2.asp

this info is based on pasteurized/homoginized dairy. Grass-fed free range cow's raw milk has none of these issues and is quite good for you.

[Youngfrankenstein]

I see no reason to give a healthy child reduced-fat anything.

And thanks, Catie!

[lonegirl]

At around 2 years I switched to 2% milk. Now at 3.5 he doesn't drink a lot of milk but often enjoys chocolate milk (I mix 50:50 with white milk- or use a small amount reduced sugar syrup) Occassionally he will ask for regular milk.

[karika]

This is how I make the almond milk. We don't really drink it straight (well dd2 has had a bit of it here and there), but if we were going to, I would add a pitted date to the blender to sweeten it. I put 1/2 a cup of organic almonds in a glass pyrex measuring cup and add water to more than cover. Leave it sitting to soak for 24 hours, pouring out the water and rinsing and adding new soak water every now and then. When they have soaked long enough, pour off the water and rinse one more time, then put in blender with 3 cups of water (or start with 2 and add water to taste) blend. Strain through a nut bag into a glass jar. I don't have a nut bag so I found a knee high stocking I had never used and I use that. You can use more and then add water after blending if blender is too small I would imagine, we just don't use that much. According to the source I got this from, it stays good in fridge for 3-5 days (good is relative though, it just loses its vitamins and taste I guess) For hemp milk, I just buy it ready made, Tempt brand is the one I have now. We don't like the taste of that straight either, but I use it in my decaf tea, smoothies, and in cooking, combined with the almond milk or water. We are GFCFSF here (trying hard to be 100%)

[mom61508]

Originally Posted by gbailey

Thanks for the info. We have been toying around with giving her something else. Would you mind sharing your almond and hemp milk recipes? I would appreciate it. Thanks for the link too!

Grass-fed Raw milk is very healthy it contains all the enzymes and minerals intact to break it down properly.

It's pasteurized milk that's damaging along with conventionally raised cows fed an unnatural diet of grain and soybeans and kept in enclosed areas given loads of hormones and antibiotics. You can get the facts on real milk here

http://www.raw-milk-facts.com/
http://www.realmilk.com/
http://westonaprice.org/

[pbjmama]

I started 2% before 2 as my kids were still nursing. My ped was fine with that as they were getting the fat they needed from other sources. I would say in most cases 2% at 2 years and over is recommended.

[JBaxter]

We use whole un homogenized but pasturized milk . Its not ultra pasturized and we get it weekly delivered in glass bottles. I would have to drive in to PA about 35 miles to get the raw milk.

Im a believer the more you do to a natural product the less it does for you.

[karika]

Originally Posted by LadyCatherine185

this info is based on pasteurized/homoginized dairy. Grass-fed free range cow's raw milk has none of these issues and is quite good for you.

If a person were to want milk in their diet, I agree that free range, grass fed, raw milk taken from cows that are allowed to keep their calves with them and the farmer only takes after they feed is what cow's milk should be. I also believe that it is not a necessary part of a human diet. Milk is secreted to feed young in a mammal. Nowhere else in nature do you see a mammal drinking the fluid of another mammal that is specifically engineered for each species. You do not see a giraffe hunting down a boar to milk it for its young.

[laohaire]

Here's how I see it.

The fat in conventional milk is bad, not because it's fat (fat is obviously terribly essential, especially for growing children!, but because the fat stores most of the toxins in milk (artificial hormones, pesticides/herbicides, antibiotics, etc.).

I actually think that if your choices are conventional milk or nothing, I'd pick nothing. As long as your child is breastfed for long enough (at least 2 years) they don't need the milk of any other species.

With grass-fed milk (milk labelled "organic" from conventional dairies does not qualify - these cows are still kept in filth and fed food they are not designed to process), the fat in the milk is arguably the most valuable part to feed your children.

When you remove the fat, you leave basically the sugar left over. I don't think high amounts of sugar, especially not tempered by fats, is good for kids - especially given that these days, kids are getting more than enough sugar anyway.

[lyra1977]

I read in Parents magazine this month (subscription was a gift from my SIL, who is not crunchy) that "the powers that be" recommend switching to skim or 2% at 2 years old in order to reduce the saturated fat in the diet.

I would imagine that this is in response to the childhood obesity epidemic and IF my DD were gorging on McD fries and nuggets and ice cream and candy and cookies then she probably could use a reduction in saturated fat!

But my DD only gets fat these days from dairy, avocado, peanut butter, almond butter and whole grains. She gets much of her protein/iron from black beans (she eats them like candy) and she generally dislikes beef, chicken, etc. The staples in her diet are whole grains, fruit, legumes and dairy (we're working on the veg but she's picky), so I can't imagine that she really needs to switch to skim and low-fat dairy at age 2.

It really gets under my skin that many of the "official" recommendations for babies and kids are aimed at the lowest common denominator in society, kwim?

[just_lily]

We use whole milk for everyone and everything.

Unfortunately we can't afford organic, and don't have a source for raw (and probably wouldn't be able to afford that either.) Between DD, my milk-loving DF, and my daycare kids a gallon of milk lasts maybe two days in my house. So at this point we go with regular whole milk.

Reduced fat milk adds even more processing to the equation. They skim off all the fat, and then add it back again. Yick.

I think most kids drink too much milk. The daily recommendation for toddlers is two cups of dairy a day, and that includes cheese and yoghurt. A kid doesn't need to drink 4 or 5 sippy cups of milk, plus have a grilled cheese sandwich and a yoghurt and some string cheese. I would rather stick with whole milk and make sure my kid also drinks a lot of water throughout the day and not just have milk all day long.

[Teenytoona]

We're whole milk for everybody. Gradually shifting over (as budgets and finicky tastes allow) to local whole unhomogenized, gently pasteurized milk.

As far as I'm concerned it's not the saturated fat in the diet that should be the worry, but like other have said, the diet/life of the cow that produced the milk. If anything, most kids today could use more real saturated fat (rather than everything sugared up and transfatted or hydrogenized to the gills).

[Catwmandu]

We use Coconut Milk, and get her fat sourced from better absorbed means such as avocado, etc.

[gbailey]

Originally Posted by just_lily

We use whole milk for everyone and everything.

Unfortunately we can't afford organic, and don't have a source for raw (and probably wouldn't be able to afford that either.) Between DD, my milk-loving DF, and my daycare kids a gallon of milk lasts maybe two days in my house. So at this point we go with regular whole milk.

Reduced fat milk adds even more processing to the equation. They skim off all the fat, and then add it back again. Yick.

I think most kids drink too much milk. The daily recommendation for toddlers is two cups of dairy a day, and that includes cheese and yoghurt. A kid doesn't need to drink 4 or 5 sippy cups of milk, plus have a grilled cheese sandwich and a yoghurt and some string cheese. I would rather stick with whole milk and make sure my kid also drinks a lot of water throughout the day and not just have milk all day long.

Just an FYI if you're interested, you can print out coupons online for the organic milk you may want to use if that would help you cut costs They are usually available at the companies website.

[gbailey]

Originally Posted by Youngfrankenstein

I see no reason to give a healthy child reduced-fat anything.

And thanks, Catie!

This is how I feel which is why we've continued to buy the whole fat version. Sorry if this is TMI but reduced fat products give me horrible gas. I eat the full fat version of most products and exercise portion control except for things like Greek yogurt that come fat free or low fat.

Thanks for the recipe Karika.