Milk on holiday - Portugal

[coffeeforone]

We are due to go on holiday to Portugal soon and I'm wondering about milk for my toddler. He has just turned two and drinks two cups of normal semi-skimmed cows milk every day and loves it!
Can I just buy the normal milk from the supermarket there, pour straight into a cup and will it taste the same to him?

Sorry if this is a silly question I have such a strong aversion to milk myself, I cannot stomach milk at even at home and the thought of buying 'foreign' milk makes me feel physically sick, so there is no way I'll be able to taste/check it before giving to DS!

DS on the other hand cannot live without it, I'm wondering if I should take a tub of stage 4 formula just in case - we have done this recently and mixed with boiled/bottled water when we travelled to an area of India where safe milk was less readily available and he drank it fine.

You can get fresh, non-sterilised milk in supermarkets in Portugal, you might be out of luck in a minimart.
It will taste the same and it is safe.

I took some premix stuff for my toddler when we went to Italy but bought some milk from the supermarket while we were there.

The nights he drank the formula he was fine - the nights he drank the milk from the shop he was awake till 11pm and a hyperactive little sod. I don’t know if it’s related at all but I am blaming it!! I would never buy it abroad again lol.

He doesn’t have it anymore now - he gave it up a month ago. About three weeks after the holiday from hell where his default mode was grumpy little arsehole!! I digress - it’s up to you but I would always take it with me now

This is not a criticism as I could well be wrong here, but I thought young children should be given whole milk, not semi-skimmed. Is that not right?

My experience of drinking milk abroad is that it can taste different (perhaps because of different processes?) but it will still be fine.

Often in Europe the milk sold in supermarkets is mainly longlife/UHT rather than fresh. Am assuming because of higher temperatures/ease of storage though I actually have no idea if that is the case. Fresh milk is usually available but not necessarily that obvious/might be quite ‘hidden away’ in comparison to what we see over here! It tastes the same, never had any probs when abroad.

I thought it was full fat milk til 5 yo but upon reading it I have found that they now recommend the lower fat version as long as the child is eating well.

The vitamins etc aren't in the fat in the milk.

I bought a sort of UHT toddler/baby milk for DS when he was a toddler - it was sold in 1 litre cartons, but not in the fridge aisle. It seemed to be packaged aiming towards children. I remember it being quite sweet and he loved it. He never drank water despite my best efforts so we went through a lot of milk

Oh and when he was 1, I bought about a million cartons of ready made formula at the airport Boots to bring with me

My OH obsession with drinking milk is the bane of my life! The first thing we have to do once in the hotel is go and find a supermarket for milk. He’s sulky all holiday if he doesn’t like the local stuff

Take a few ready made bottles of toddler formula for nightime, and fill bottle in mornings at breakfast (if hotel)?

Just back from Ibiza (I know it’s not Portugal) and we brought full fat milk for our toddler and he took to it just like our milk! We kept it in our fridge and it was fine

You can buy ordinary milk in most supermarkets there- I am fussy about milk and it is normal parturised stuff I buy there.
Be warned that for some brands the package colour of the milk are a different colour to here Blue packaging is usually semi skimmed whereas green is full fat- pink is usually skimmed though as it is in the uk.

Look for "leito meio gordo" for the semi skimmed variety.

Have a lovely time- it's a lovely country!

Thanks everyone! I think I'll take some of the ready made cartons of formula to be safe.

For those that mentioned full fat being better, we have only recently switched after his second birthday, which I understand is ok, as he's growing fine (been on 50th centile for at least past year). He has lots of other full fat dairy products most days including probably more than his fair share of yogurt, cheese and eggs.

My toddler didn't notice the difference when we gave him the UHT in Portugal last year.

There aren’t any hard and fast rules about drinking full fat/ semi skimmed milk. Personally as a family we all drink full fat milk as it tastes better is more filling and give a better balance of fats to carbs ratio when eating cera etc.

Most of the government nutrition info is out of date. Most recent research points to a high protein, higher (good) fat and low carb diet.
Just read up on dr unwin, if anyone is interested.

*cerial

I live in the algarve, if you’re staying in a holiday resort (as opposed to out in the countryside) you’ll find normal milk in the chilled section exactly the same as in the uk. The colour of the container can change according to supplier, but leite is milk, gordo full fat and meio gordo semi skimmed