semi-skimmed milk - how old

[bagpussmice]

can you start giving it to them?
dd4 drinks loads of milk and I wondered whether I should give her semi-skimmed. Sometimes I put it on her cereal.
She drinks a beaker on waking, another in the afternoon and one before bed.

I think they can have it from about 2 years. You can give skimmed to a child over 5.

Ive always given my dc full milk until they are 5 or so. I just buy semi for myself

You can now buy milk that has got omega 3's in it. might try that myself.
Its great for little one's to help brain function & development.

The logic behind it that kids can have semi-skimmed after 2 years if they have a varied, healthy diet.

Unless they are very heavy for their age I didn't think its really noted that you should drop to semi skimmed is it?
A lot of it is to do with calcium absorption which is enhanced by the fat content.
My ds is 11 and he still gets full fat in everything.
Well umm this is my story and I'm sticking to it LOL

musiclover - v. interested in the omega milk - where do you buy that from???

She isn't "heavy", but certainly a bit bigger IYSWIM than other girls her age. I've decided to cut out the biscuit snacks etc... and give more fruit, which can be quite difficult! Anyway, today for lunch she had pitta bread and hummous and strawberries and she cycled to the park and had a good run around this afternoon. I don't know how long I can keep up the exercise with autumn/winter coming along, but I am going to try. Hence discussing the milk thing.

Bagpussmice......i read it in a tesco mag about the omega 3's milk. not actually seen it there myself. But do fancy it, as its supposed to be good for hyper children, I try & give my ds 8yo Omega 3's syrup, but usually forget.
Id go on the tesco.com & see if its there. I do my shopping online so will have a look next wk-end.
I take omega 3's too & find them really good.
have you tried "fruit bowl" school bars, they are fruit bars made with real fruit. Around 99p for 5. But my dd 2.5 thinks they are sweeties(bless) she loves them, & better for them too.

saw it today in Sainsburys - it's a St Ivel brand milk

also weirdly, saw Night Time milk - milked from cows at a time when their milk has a high level of melatonin in (which apparently helps sleep!)

What ever next eh?
Also seen in tesco mag about their milk lasting 7 days even when open

Apparently organic milk has higher quantities of omega 3 than other milk because of the way the cows are fed.
I always give my dd's organic milk anyway.
I've seen the night time milk before and tried it on dd2 who was a nightmare sleeper - it didn't seem to have much effect, but I must admit I only tried it for a few nights

They recommend ful fat milk until 5 years, and then semi (No skimmed until at leats 8 years)

however where they are no concers about child eating etc, and they are of normal weight, and eat lots of calcium containing prodcucts you can give semi from 2 years

Can't remember what age we started DS1 on Semiskimmed - probably about 2 1/2 (as that's when he finally started drinking cows milk - no he wasn't on the breast or formula -just woulnd't drink it once we'd stopped Breast feeding!).

DS2 is 22 months now, and I'm toying with the idea of switching him to semi now, he only has one bottle of milk a day, but eats loads of cheese and yoghurts.

From the Food Standards Agency website...

Children
Children should drink whole milk until they are at least two years old because they may not get as many calories as they need from semi-skimmed milk.

After the age of two, children can gradually move to semi-skimmed milk as a main drink, as long as they are eating well and getting plenty of calories and nutrients from a varied diet.

Don't give skimmed milk to children until they're at least five years old because it's too low in calories and contains only very small amounts of vitamins A and D, which children need.

Children between the ages of one and three need to have about 350mg of calcium a day. About 300ml full-fat milk (three fifths of a pint) would provide this.