What milk do you give your children?

[MrsPreston11]

Just seen on another thread.

Mine had full fat until a few months ago and I swapped to semi skimmed so I wasn't buying 2 milks. And I've been informed by oldest (6) its semi at school.

Should I still be giving them full fat? They're both 50%-ish height and weight, can be taller and slimmer when in growth spurts.

it is certainly not intended for humans

Are carrots intended for humans? I suspect they are just carrots.

There aren't that many countries without an obesity problem. Lack of exercise and access to lots of high calorie food must be more to blame than milk

Bought semi until 2 years ago,DD skipping breakfast but she would down a glass of milk so whole milk made sense.I only have it in tea.

@windy, if you're still around. How long is the typical lifespan of one of your dairy cows? I've read that cows should have a lifespan of 15-20 years, but due to the stresses on their bodies of constantly reproducing etc, they only last 5-6 years. I've been vegan for several years so wouldn't be drinking milk anyway, but have always wondered if the drastically shortened life is true (or propaganda ) and a dairy farmer seems like the perfect person to ask, if you don't mind!

Food Standards Agency says children should be on semi skimmed from 2 years of age and government legislation says schools can only offer SS milk from age 5 onwards.
The guidelines are a load of rubbish IMO. My child could buy semi skimmed flavoured milk full of sugar at school, but not plain full fat milk!

I find the 'milk causes obesity' argument odd considering it is thought that humans have been consuming milk for thousands of years.

My two have been on semi since they were about 1 :) they were big toddlers but now 50 percentiles for weight. Still on semi.

BOB - skimmed

Wow daydrinker :) what do you have in tea? :) I couldn't be without a bit of milk in a cuppa!

Intended by whom bean, or what? Are you a creationist of some kind? Or do you think evolution thinks? It doesn't. There's no intent there. Mother Nature isn't real. Baby calves and those humans possessing the lactase persistence gene are simply two groups who have evolved to be able to drink and benefit from cow's milk.

It is true that cow's milk has evolved to be a total source of nutrition for baby cows, and it hasn't for humans. Just one of the many reasons why humans are advised not to subsist entirely on cow's milk. But then, nobody is actually suggesting that humans should consume solely cow's milk at any point, unlike baby cows, so this is irrelevant. A foodstuff doesn't have to be capable of forming the entirety of our diet in order for it to be suitable for humans or some humans to consume. Just as well really.

Also, on what planet do none of the populations who drink milk face obesity issues bottleofred? It's not this one. Check out rising obesity rates amongst Native Americans and their lactase persistence rates, then come back and try to say that with a straight face.

Mother Nature isn't real. Baby calves and those humans possessing the lactase persistence gene are simply two groups who have evolved to be able to drink and benefit from cow's milk.

But how do humans benefit from cows milk? Calves grow into healthy cows but what’s the specific health benefit for humans?

(Genuine question, not goady)

I’m not sure why you are getting angry with me? Mammals make milk to feed their young. No other mammal, except humans, drinks the milk of another mammal. That’s just fact. What we have evolved to do is another matter. And picking up on my language to describe it isn’t particularly helpful. Not sure why there is debate here. I’m assuming everyone knows cows milk is intended / created / designed / alternative word for baby cows but for whatever ethical reason has chosen to ingest it themselves. Which is a matter for them.

Humans benefit from cows milk in the same way as they benefit from other food/drink sources. Calories for energy, calcium, protein, potassium...

Queen it’s a good source of various nutrients. You can get them all elsewhere but cows milk is a source of them.

Rural Indian communities who eat curd pretty much Every day? Maasai tribesmen with their huge herds of cattle, Berbers and their camel milk, Mongolians out on the Stepped necking mare's milk kumis, the Sami guzzling reindeer milk as they migrate with their herds?
Yup, all fat, they've been obese for centuries.
It's a well known fact

Queen, humans who have the lactase persistence gene, which isn't all of us, benefit by being able to consume a foodstuff containing calories, calcium, vitamin D and vitamin E. This is why the gene has been so successful: it's probably not much more than 10,000 years old but over a quarter of the planet have it. Think what an advantage it could be, in a resource marginal environment, to be able to drink cow's milk, to have that open as another option to you.

And people aren't getting angry with you bean, they're getting exasperated with the silliness. It's not semantic nitpicking to tell you that there isn't any great intent at play here. It's pointing out that your view of this is fundamentally flawed. Cow's milk is a food that some humans have evolved to eat, just like baby cows have. That's it. What we have evolved to have the ability to do isn't another matter, it's the entire point when you're talking about things being 'intended'.

By all means don't eat a food that some humans (you may not even be one of them) have evolved to eat if you don't want to. I don't drink milk either, for different reasons to you I expect. I don't like it, and useful as the lactase persistence gene is, I don't feel obligated to exercise it simply because it's in me. Just like I'm not very keen on peas so I don't eat those. There's still no thing or force that intends cow's milk for baby cows instead of humans though.

Biggest milk per capita consumption of milk - Finland, Sweden, Denmark, Netherlands.
Most obese countries in the world - Samoa,
Nauru, Tonga and Kuwait.
There's a definite link....

And in the world obesity rankings, Finland come in at 98, the others aren't even top 100

My 11, 9 & 7 year olds have blue as that's what they like best. All slim Jim's. I have red with my cereal as I don't really like semi or full.

Semi and skimmed in our house, semi for drinking, cereals and cooking, skimmed in tea and only cream in coffee.

DD drinks milk by the gallon and always has, she’s 22 and skinny.
DS was on breast and semi skimmed from a year, he had rolls of fat with enormous cellulite ridden thighs, he’s now 12 and as skinny as his sister and drinks semi everyday.

Milk does not cause obesity, what I’ve just had for my dinner causes obesity, fish and chips with thick crusty bread and butter followed by fudge cake with cream, that’s what causes obesity.

People eat too much, me included.

@bottleofredplease If you were trying to avoid being inflammatory, you failed. I'm a vegan so get where you are coming from - though I don't think cows milk consumption is linked to obesity in the same way it has been linked to bone density & breakage issues. And you catch more bees with honey not vinegar.

@zjush - wow this thread got massive, I am finishing work so sorry to be short - but mostly propaganda I would say, or certainly not true of the UK. Most of our dairy cows are well into their teens, we don’t put them into calf until they are atleast three years old. They are with their calves for the first 24/48 hours as calfs require the colostrum to survive which they can only get from mum. Once they are separated the cows are generally very happy to get back to their milking routine, dairy cows are very different to beef cows. Beef cows are very protective over their calfs, but many dairy cows can easily discard their calfs and not have that same bond. We often have to monitor the cow to make sure she won’t kick the calf off during the first day. Also we have never had the bull calfs shot at birth, I believe this did used to happen years ago quite often but nowadays these calfs are often raised in for beef. I don’t personally know any farmers who shoot their calfs. Unfortunately in some countries such as the USA the welfare standards aren’t as high as the uk so we are very lucky here

We all have gold top. Full fat at a push. Anything else tastes like water to me. Skim milk is especially pointless.

Whole milk for me and 3dc age 2-9.

As pp said it's still a low fat product and the calorie difference is minimal vs seem skimmed, considering we mainly use it for cereal.

I bf them all until at least 2 but no way I'm expressing enough for breakfast 😄

Thank you windy for the informative reply. Certainly good to know the difference between methods in the UK and elsewhere.