Full fat milk and toddler

[Cupofmilkandabiscuit]

My toddler is 2 years and 9 months old.

Tonight husband brought in gold top milk for him and said they were out of full fat milk in the shop. I reckoned he'll love it but it's too rich to just drink from a cup. Probably nice to put in his porridge for a change and use up. I said if there's ever no blue top, just get semi-skimmed. Toddler has happily had a cup of my skimmed or oat milk in a pinch before so I know he wouldn't mind the semi at all.

Got me thinking though. At what age should you switch to semi skimmed for kids? For reference my son eats very well, loves to drink milk (I'd say 1 or 2 toddler cup sized portions in a day on average) but also gets dairy in cheese and yoghurts which he loves. I have no idea what he weighs. He's always been small but he is bloody solid built and clearly very healthy and active.

Should I be switching to semi-skimmed or carry on with full fat ... until what age?

Gold top exists! What 😅 I never knew 😂

i have no idea as haven’t been able to get my 3 and 6 year old off toddler formula 🤦‍♀️😂

I don’t get the “thing” about milk. Even whole milk can be classified as a low fat product (as its fat content is below 5%). I have skimmed milk as I don’t like the “milky” taste; my teens do and so still have whole milk. But I don’t thing there’s any need to change at all (unless you require a very low fat diet for some reason).

At age 2+ thing you can just do whatever works for you. Mine will have blue top or green top milk or dairy free "milk" luckily it's the one area he isn't fussy in!!!

Off to Google 'gold top milk'...

Unless they are underweight and not eating properly I don't think it matters too much. We switched around 5 though

😂

I've made hot chocolate with it before in the Velvetiser with lindt chocolate. Oh Lordy.

Also we've always drank full fat milk. I grew up drinking it so DH and I always had that even before we had the kids. Can't see us changing any time soon. DH is overweight admittedly but the rest of us are healthy weights! I much prefer full fat. Drink semi at work as they only provide that and skimmed but really notice the difference.

My ds is 13, I've never switched to semi skimmed. He is as skinny as a rake, even though he never stops eating. I see no reason to switch.

I have semi skimmed, because I am not as skinny as a rake 😂😭

eta: the health visitor told me to change when he turned two, I think, but I ignored her. He needs more calories, not less.

I drink skimmed and oat milk too for the same reason. I thought I heard somewhere that at a certain age you're meant to switch to semi skimmed. Maybe I've invented that myself 🤔

My dc 21 and 19 and dp still drink full fat milk, I only use a drop in tea and coffee so I don't mind which milk!

Gold top is good but I don’t like it in tea.

However I’d feed any full fat milk to young children, but never red top milk.

Cracking up that this is news for folk. At least try it once now you know

Husband was like "it's fine". I said "yeh but you'd be as well giving him a cup of cream"

I don't think the difference is hugely significant and believe that the obsession with lower fat milk comes from the days of believing all fat is bad and the influx of low-fat products which followed. Recent research in the area is quite interesting. I figured I wouldn't be switching my child to lower fat yoghurt, cheese, ice cream or butter so it didn't make sense unless I wanted to lower their calorie intake so I didn't.
Having said that the advice is not to give skimmed milk until at least 5 years so depends on whether semi-skimmed comes into that category - I'm not sure!

He's really active so probably just stick with the full fat for now then thanks

NHS website:

Thanks that's helpful. I'll stick with the full fat as he is a very active child and just buy semi skimmed if they're ever out of it.

We don't buy any low fat dairy in our household. We mostly drink local milk that is a bit higher fat than whole milk as it isn't standardised. I don't see why a toddler couldn't drink gold top milk? Did they try it and not like it?

Thank you

I wonder why would someone switch to semi skimmed after one year old though? For a child that's charting over their percentiles and drinking a lot of milk all day maybe?

After a quick Google
Semi skimmed 1.8%
Whole 3.7 %
Gold 5%
Double cream 48%

I doubt semi vs whole would much difference at all, otherwise nutritionally very similar in terms of vitamins etc.

I wonder why would someone switch to semi skimmed after one year old though?

I always thought it was because most people buy semi skimmed as the “household milk” and it meant you didn’t have to buy a separate bottle for your toddler? (As a pp said, loads of people switched in the 1990s when everyone banged on about low fat everything, so it’s the most commonly sold one now, I think.)

I'm sure he'd like it, just seems like a cup of cream to me so thought it was odd for drinking. Nice in porridge though. He's welcome to try it I suppose since we've got it in. Pricey though.

I didn't realise the difference was so small. And gold top is so creamy I thought it would be a much higher percentage

We all drink the blue full fat milk. Hadn't even considered it a thing to switch them off from. No way. Blue top is the only way!

Interestingly in some other European counties they advise only skimmed milk for kids. We never have bought skimmed milk so have never followed this, and if I could get away with gold top on porridge everyday I would.