Whole milk and toddlers

[belindarose]

Do you give your two year olds wholenor semi skimmed milk? I had thought it was supposed to be whole milk for a few more years, but DSIL was told by her DD's dietician not to bother and also that they shouldn't have milk as a drink anyway. What do others do?

[ragged]

I think you'll find most authoritative websites (babycentre, nhs, aap, etc.) suggest full fat (3.8%) until 2yo, and a switch to semi-skimmed in most cases afterwards. Mine stay on full fat forever, it works for us.

Even the Daily Wail says full fat until 4% with a hyped up warning about continuing with it for any longer.

[canyou]

It is recommended that it be full fat until 4 yrs because of the mineral and vit content that is removed with the ream/fat [esp the vit D] but now most milks are fortified so it is not such a huge issue. Mine all have full fat as I do not like additives and things I cannot say/spell being added to the DC food,

[canyou]

Actually Ragged may be right about age for the UK, it is 4 yrs here

[Seona1973]

full fat is recommended up to age 2 at which point you can switch to semi-skimmed as long as they have a good varied diet. Skimmed milk isnt recommended until age 5 as it is too low in fat/calories/fat soluble vitamins. We switched to semi-skimmed when ds turned 2 and at that point dd was 5 (didnt see the point in having 2 types of milk so we waited till ds was old enough before we changed over)