Milk

Mine are 16 months now. They are still drinking whole milk. When do I switch them to skim (which is what we drink)?

 

I switched my older dd at age 2... she was a little on the chunky side and I felt she could handle going to skim... My twins have always been on the smaller side of average, so I've kept them on whole milk.... plus I'm pg now, and I will be needing the whole milk for reflux in a few months...ugh... But we've given them skim here or there without an issue. I think the general rule of thumb is 2 years for sure if you are going to skim. And make sure that they are eating enough calories if they are big milk drinkers. This being said, my mother had my brother and sister on skim milk at age 4 months! :fool: At this age they both refused to nurse or drink from a bottle...they were really bad teethers...so she fed them skim milk from a spoon, and the pediatrician told her that was fine! :umm: needless to say they were very thin until they started to eat real solids after age 1 or so.... Thankfully they both grew up to be intelligent average-sized people... so it didn't damage their development or anything! :laughing:

 

With my oldest it was at 2

Cari

 

We switched with our 2 older DDs at age 2 from whole milk to 2% per pedi. Now at older ages, 4 and 8, they are on 2% and sometimes skim.

 

At my boys 2 year check up, I was told they could have anything BUT skim. We kept them on whole milk for another year, now they drink 2%.

 

At our 2 year appt. the pedi said I could switch to 2%, 1% or skim. I have them on 2% now but will probably switch to 1% soon so that I can just buy one kind of milk. We drink skim now, but will drink 1% too.

 

we were supposed to switch at 2 but didn't.
I thought since they aren't huge babies like their older sister was it was okay. But at an appt when the boys were about 30 months or so the Pedi asked me and I told him they were still on whole and he said to get them off right away, that since they are on 100% table food, whole milk has far too much unnecessary fat in it.

 

These fats are really good for children, for their growth and brain development, unless they tend to be overweight I wouldn't switch them to the lower fat stuff. Fats are actually good for everyone, just in moderation. Every healthy person should have 1.6 g of fat per lb per day.

 

I would ask the doc. Mine put my oldest on 2% at 12 months and my twins on 2% at 9 months. I switched them to skim several months after that. They are healthy, growing like weeds, and extremely bright, so I guess the fat intake of their regular diet was sufficient.

 

It would depend of weight. Jessy is on the small size for her age and unless she has a growth spurt before turning 2 we will stay with whole untill she is of a more normal size.

 

I would ask your pedi, but mine said 2. Between the ages of 1 and 2, they need the fat from the whole milk for thier brains!

 

Pedi said we could leave them on whole at 2 if they didn't get other fats in their diets, so I switched them to 2% and we still drink skim.....