Low fat milk

When did everyone make the switch from whole milk to low fat or skim milk? My girls are almost 2 and I would much rather have everyone drinking 1% than having to buy two different kinda of milk!

 

When my girls were 2 1/2 I switched them to 2%. At 4 they still drink 2%.

 

We just had Annabella's two year appointment and I asked the pedi. He said she can drink whatever the rest of us drink. So, I would wait it out until 2 and then switch over per advice of pediatrician.

Annabella did drink the other milk if we didn't have whole in the house or what not though.

 

Sorry to change the subject but do you all give your kids organic or regular milk. Or how much of organic fruits or vegetables do you feed them. Like is it strictly organic or whatever is available.

Thanks

 

I don't use organic foods or milk (can't afford it).
We went to 2% milk at 3...our kids stayed on whole milk under our pedi's advice.

 

Thanks that makes me feel better. It is hard to afford organic and when you have to throw half of their left milk it makes it more difficult.
Thanks

 

My almost 4 year old is still drinking homo milk! DH and I don't drink milk so we just keep the one kind in the house for all the kids. I figure Dannik can still use the extra fat and calories since he's so little...the girls on the other hand are HUGE for their age so I am thinking of asking at their 18 month appointment if I can switch them all to 2%.

I buy organic fruits and veggies as much as I can budget-wise which is easier in the summer since they are often the same price as the non-organic stuff. I do not buy organic milk as it's way too expensive.

 

Our pedi said to keep our boys on whole milk for now, so that is what we are still doing. I'm not sure when that will switch, but when I cook or bake, I use skim milk.

As far as organic, I don't buy organic milk - it's double the price, being the main reason. I do but some fruit and veggies that are organic, especially if they are on sale, and I try to buy local during the summer (we live in a semi-rural area with lots of fruit and veggie stands in the summer). Many of our local small farmers are organic.

 

I really dislike the pediatrician here and I don't have another option for the next 3 years. My girls are gigantic ( 38 inches and 34 lbs) so I'm not concerned about their growth. They also eat plenty of cheese and yogurt. I'm fine with keeping them on whole milk for as long as necessary, I just wish I could go see our old pediatrician to ask him I know he said during the second year that whole milk is helpful in brain development so I guess there is no harm in keeping them on whole milk!

 

We switched to 2% at 2 years - I don't think we asked our doc, we just did it. ardon: DH won't drink 1% or skim ("May as well drink water" ) and I rarely drink milk, so we'll probably just stay with 2%.

 

No idea about when to switch to low fat milk, but as for the organic fruits & veggies, I specifically avoid organic. I would rather have pesticides in our fruits & veggies than e.coli, so I stick with non-organic.

With milk, we buy generic, since that has the highest turnover in the store, so that milk is the freshest. A lot of the generic milks sold in our area are growth hormone free (is that what you mean by organic?).

 

We are still on whole fat milk because my LOs are low on the growth curves (although like PPs if we run out of full fat milk or yoghurt they have whatever is in the fridge).

We do try to buy organic milk, it is expensive but we try to buy organic animal produce (milk, yoghurt, eggs, meat etc.) as far as possible for health reasons (especially to avoid hormones and GM foods) and to support a way of farming that "respects" the animals. For these things, we do not have access to smaller farms or a proper farmer's market where I would probably be happy buying non-organic. For fruit and veggies I try to buy local.

 

Not sure if you have a Kroger near your but their brand milk isn't "certified organic" but it has been assured that it does not contain any growth hormones or antibiotics. WAY cheeper than organic and still get the peace of mind that it doesn't contain the growth hormones or antibiotics.

 

We kept our guys on whole milk until they were 2, then switched them over to 2%. For their first 2 years they were super skinny and small, but really caught up by the time they were 2, so we made the switch just about on their birthday. Our ped was very blase about the issue, and basically said just give them what you drink. ardon: I drink skim and we eat fairly low-fat foods, so I figure they need the fat in 2%.

We do buy organic milk. I can't afford most other organic foods (and in my area organic foods are rare and terrible quality) so this is the one thing I "splurge" on.

 

I buy organic milk just to the avoid hormones and GM foods. I try to buy organic fruits and vegetables for my girls but they are really expensive so I would give them non-organic stuff. I guess I will continue giving them organic milk (as long as my budget allows) but I will not fret about the fruits and vegetables. Thank you ladies for making me feel better.


My ped told me at 15 mo appointment that if I wanted I can switch them to 2% but I think I will give them whole milk till their 2nd B'day than make the change.

 

I still buy two types of milk and my girls are 5. I buy 2% for them and skim for us. I think we changed to 2% around 2 or 3, but I just don't see any reason to switch from that for a while (my girls are on the skinny side).

 

I buy milk without hormones or antibiotics. My boys get 16 ounces whole milk and 8 ounces 2%. They both grew 7 inches last year so they are still "catching up" per the doctor. I plan to switch them to all 2% at 3 years. I refuse to drink 1% or skim milk so we drink 2%.

I buy a lot of organic. I budget for it. Especially meat. There are some foods that are better to buy organic then others. So if you are on a budget you can do a little research and just buy those that are higher in pesticide content.

Just a note pesticides do not kill e.coli. E. Coli is a bacteria. Pesticides are for pests (bugs) not bacteria.

 

I buy the store-brand organic milk, which isn't that much more expensive than the store-brand non-organic around here. I switched my girls to 2% milk shortly before their second birthday. As for organic produce, foods that are on the "dirty dozen" list I try to buy organic. Those are: celery, peaches, strawberries, apples, blueberries, nectarines, bell peppers, spinach, cherries, kale/collard greens, potatoes and imported grapes. Those foods are pesticide-heavy. For a lot of foods, the "clean 15" especially, it doesn't make sense to buy organic because they are lowest in pesticides. Those are: onions, avocado, sweet corn, pineapple, mangos, sweet peas, asparagus, kiwi, cabbage, eggplant, cantaloupe, watermelon, grapefruit, sweet potato, and honeydew melon. Just about any fruit with a real thick skin, such as bananas, are okay to buy non-organic.

 

No, but organic foods are more likely contain e.coli for some reason that I don't quite understand. So if you buy non-organic, you are getting pesticides. If you buy organic, you are more likely to deal with e. coli. In that tradeoff, I personally prefer the risks of pesticides than e. coli. Which is why I deliberately do not buy organic fruits & veggies.

 

That's interesting! I didn't know that. I haven't been buying as much organic lately because of the prices, but the other factor to consider is the environment. I do think that all those pesticides are really bad for the environment. But it's hard to justify organic these days with the cost - especially milk!

 

We got the okay for 2% at 2 and for skim at 3.

 

We do almost all organic meat, milk, and produce. Also about half of the other dairy we eat (I still buy Kraft cheese and Land o Lakes butter for example).

 

Our boys turned 2 last month and we still give them whole milk, but only because they are a tad on the small side. The pedi said we could switch to 2% now but I still want to try and get them a little bigger first. Plus they were 2.5 months premature so I guess I'm kind of adjusting their age down a bit. But before long we will switch them to 2%.

We also only buy organic. I started just buying organic milk for the boys but I realized it stays good much longer than regular milk, and we were usually throwing out half of our 1% milk because we didn't drink it fast enough. So I realized that it would be a little cheaper or at least the same cost wise for us to switch to organic milk and stop wasting the regular milk. Also, our boys just don't drink a whole lot of milk, so its not very expensive for us. They only drink about 1-1.5 gallons of whole milk a week between the both of them. And we can usually find half gallons or organic milk for $3 at Krogers. So only $6-$9 a week for our boys.

Lastly, I only buy organic fruits and veggies if they are on sale, otherwise they are too darned expensive considering that our boys devour fruit. So I normally just buy the regular stuff, but I make a produce cleanser consisting of water, vinegar, baking soda, and lemon. I keep a container of that under the sink and use it to wash strawberries, blueberries, apples, etc, and it works REALLY good at cleaning fruit and veggies! I highly recommend that homemade produce wash when you can't afford organic. I usually soak the berries for a couple of minutes, and then rinse really good. I feel like that really helps get off any pesticides.

 

The only way to avoid an e.coli infection is to thoroughly cook all your food, whether it's organic or not. The big e.coli infections in this country have involved either undercooked non-organic beef (think Jack-n-the-Box outbreak) or raw non-organic vegetables (think Taco Bell lettuce). The recent outbreak in Germany involved organic sprouts, but it is believed that the e.coli was in fenugreek sprout seeds. It wouldn't have mattered if the sprouts had been grown organically or non-organically in that case because the germ was in the seed. I actually recommend avoiding sprouts altogether. They don't really add flavor to anything and are notorious for bacterial infection.

 

I love sprouts but I stopped eating them for this very reason. And I won't let my kids have any. I just decided--for us--that the risks outweighed the health benefits. I wish they could find a "cleaner" way to grow sprouts.

 

One has nothing to do with the other. Pesticides don't kill e coli. They kill pests. All produce requires washing.

My reasons for buying organic are many: trying to avoid growth hormones, added antibiotics, chemicals, high fructose corn syrup, additives, artificial flavorings, etc. to some extent; organic options (at least at at Whole Foods) are more likely to be local, fair trade, have reduced packaging options/be environmentally aware; the quality of most items is much better in organic varieties.

 

Of course not. And I never said otherwise. But organic growing practices are different from non-organic, and those are important for people to consider when deciding whether or not to buy organic.


I *do* wish we had a Whole Foods or Trader Joe's within a reasonable driving distance from us. I miss their foods a lot since moving to the sticks.

 

I don't live in the sticks (small city), but I wish we had a Whole Foods, too. The closest one is well over an hour away.

The store we shop at has an okay organic section, actually the best of any in our city, but it's very high prices and limited selection compared to the non-organics. Organic whole milk is almost $7 a gallon, whereas regular whole milk is around $3.50. Some of the produce is not too bad, but some is really high. I wish I had enough money to buy all organic, but I just can't swing it with DH's single income (and me in grad school, too).

 

We did 2% organic milk from one year until last week. This week I switched us to whole raw milk from a local dairy which I am going to continue. It actually costs the same as the organic milk I was buying from the grocery store. This week I also joined two CSA's, one for organic, grassfed beef and organic chicken, and the other for organic produce. I am working on the side for my dad to pay for both.

As long as your raw milk comes from a clean dairy that you can trust, which our does, your risks are very minimal. I feel comfortable giving my kids this milk whereas I have rarely given them lunch meats but they are go bad very quickly and make you very sick.

Here are two articles about organic produce. One includes the dirty/clean fruits mentioned about. The other is about doing organics on a budget.

Importance of Organic

Organic on a budget