Grocery Question?

[GretasLittleFriends]

Every week I buy at least 2 gallons of whole milk and 3 gallons of 1% milk. I LOVE whole milk, but typically drink the 1%.

When both of my children were little the doc did say that the kids need the extra fat for brain development.

I still give my 5 1/2 yr old whole milk the majority of the time. He's a tooth pick, and figure it won't hurt him.

I currently only have one child between ages 1 and 2, but I also have 2 2yr olds that the parents asked if would please keep them on whole. Doesn't matter to me. Of course, milk NEVER goes bad in our house.

[MarinaVanessa]

But children should be on Whole Milk from age 1 until about age 2! Does the food program allow you to only serve 2% and not whole milk to this age group?? Wow, I thought this would be a requirement! Hmmmm interesting, I had both my kids on whole milk from age 1 to age 2! Well I guess I will have to figure it out! Thanks for all the replys, it makes sense. We shouldn't have to buy so many different kinds of things, but most pediatricians want children on Whole milk after breast milk or formula, I am just surprised that no one serves this!! Thanks Megan

Actually according to my child's pediatritian only baby cows should drink cow's milk and etc. You can get all of the nutrients and calcium that you would from milk from other foods and get less fat and they are less filling. Yes it is good for you to a certain extent but after the first cup of milk it's actually less healthy than let's say soy milk or even calcium fortified orange juice. The only really good thing milk has is calcium and vitamin D anyway which you get more of in soy milk and soy has no fat whatsoever. There are plenty of other foods that have them also like fish, other seafoods, orange juice, yogurt, beans, nuts, etc.

I'm a big fan of soy milk and according to the USDA website a child up to age 2 needs 500 mg/day of calcium and 400 IU/day of vitamin D. Milk (no matter what kind) has at most 100 IU of vitamin D per cup and 300 mg of calcium per cup which means 4 cups of whole milk. Milk is high in Saturated Fat, and a large portion of the calories in this food come from sugars. Here is the comparison of whole milk vs soy according to their nutritional labels.

If you were to give a child four cups of milk to satisfy the calcium and vitamin D required you'd also be giving that child:
32g of fat (20g of saturated fat) 92% of an adults daily value
96mg of cholesterol 32% of an adults daily value
392mg of sodium (ok to have 500mg)
53g of carbs
No fiber
52g of sugar
32g of protein
1,104mg of calcium
390IU of Vitamin D

If you were serving four cups of Soy milk you'd be giving the child:
16g of fat (2g of saturated fat) 24% of an adults daily value
no cholesterol
480mg of sodium (ok to have 500mg)
32g of carbs
4g fiber
24g of sugar
28g of protein
1,196mg of calcium
476IU of Vitamin D

Not that I give this much soy milk (I offer my family and my DC kids balanced meals) but if I did it would be healthier to give soy milk instead of cow's milk.

[Julieb]

Whole milk

I have always supplied the whole milk. It really wasn't that big of a deal to buy it and the parents always appreciated it. I think the little things I do like that can go a long way for my business. imho

[Daycare Mommy]

I started reading up on this and remembered part of the reason why we didn't worry about her drinking lower fat milk.
#1 She ate like a horse
#2 I nursed her for 23 months

And apparently the recommendations (at least from the AAP) changed in summer 2008:

Baby Milk Recommendations Changed: 2% Milk OK for Weaned Babies at Risk of Becoming Overweight

AAP Changes Milk Recommendations for Children Under 2

So maybe we didn't stunt our babies brain development after all. Don't ya love how this stuff changes left and right on us. There's no one right way to feed and raise these little guys.. and if they claim to have found it they'll just come out with another study finding that it's not true after all in a few years or so.

[Former Teacher]

If I am not mistaken..TX law states that the milk must be 2%

[TGT09]

Don't ya love how this stuff changes left and right on us. There's no one right way to feed and raise these little guys.. and if they claim to have found it they'll just come out with another study finding that it's not true after all in a few years or so.

That's what I was going to say earlier. Everyone has a "my pediatrician said" story. Obviously, all pediatricians don't agree and so therefore their patients all don't agree. :-)