Full fat or semi-skimmed milk for 2 year old - does it matter???

[bouncingblueberries]

A close friend recently announced that she has switched her 2 year old from full fat milk to semi-skimmed because she wants to limit his fat intake. Her child is a healthy weight and is not allowed cake, chocolate or biscuits.

Does it really matter? My 2 year old loves drinking full fat milk but does get homemade cakes and flapjacks and the odd biscuit. Should I be switching him to semi-skimmed milk? Is there that big a difference in the fat content?

Anyone have any thoughts?

I think that they need the fat at this age.

I will be giving mine full fat milk for the foreseeable.

It sounds like she has ishooes if she is trying to limit the fat intake of a toddler does she have some form of eating disorder?

Personally, I would give full fat to all children unless there were any weight issues. My dsd is 4 and usually has full far (unless we've run out ). Not sure whether there is any medical info to back me up though

Def. full fat.

I thought once they hit two you can cut down on the full-fat stuff?

Limit a toddler's fat intake? Why???? They need the calcium, fat and all the goodness from full fat milk. Have always given my 3 dds full fat milk, and still do - dd1 is 7. I would continue giving your dc full fat milk.

I have found this extract on the Food Standards Agency website. Might be helpful?

The Q & A regarding full fat milk is the penultimate (sp?) question.

Thanks everyone. I had planned to carry on giving full fat because I too thought they needed the fat for vitamin absorption. But I just had a mad paranoid moment that I was doing the wrong thing thing!

I agree, I don't think you should need to limit the fat intake in a healthy toddler - especially one that runs around as much as mine does! Also, full fat milk is just so yummy

Thank you everyone for stopping me from turning into mad paranoid psycho mummy.

Mishymoo - thanks for that Q&A. Very helpful