Why should we not give our kids skimmed milk??

blue_monkey_2

I'd like to ask a question as to why not to give kids skimmed milk please. My kids are rising 5 and 6.

I went to Sainsburys yesterday and they had another milk with 'less than 1% fat' on the label and it was £1 for 2 litres, Semi-Skimmed milk is £1.56 for 2 litres 0 which is what we usually have,

I looked at the Calcium content and the new orange label milk has more calcium than Semi Skimmed so I bought it.

So I wondered why we did not give our kids Skimmed, I thought it was because of the calcium content for growing bones but now I am not sure.

Thanks.

crispeater

i thought from the age of 5 you can give them skimmed milk but before the age of that it was because of the fat content.

i'm sure if i'm wrong someone will correct me

aliasojo

Kids need the fat for growth up to a certain age, but I cant remember what that age is. (I think it's younger than your kids ages though.)

Lalaladybird

The fat content of whole milk contains vitamins A and D. Semi skimmed still has some of these vitamins but skimmed has very little (because the fat portion has been removed, these particular vits can only exist in the fat part).

Debt_Free_Chick

There's a lot of goodness in the fat of the milk - vitamins, minerals etc - which is lost when the fat is creamed off. It's not just the calcium content. And kids need "good fat" for healthly development.

If the diet is balanced overall, full fat milk will not make kids obese.

I only have Gold Top and I'm far from a kid - not overweight either (6ft tall and size 10 at the age of 48).

I have to admit, I'm not a fan of a natural product like milk that's been "tampered with". Same with butter ..... never have anything apart from pure unadulterated butter

tiff

My kids have had skimmed since the age of 2. I was told it was ok but obviously not.

Alikay

I thought it wasn'r so much that you shouldn't give kids skimmed milk, but that growing children generally need the additional calories that are contained in semi or whole milk? Mine didn't like the smell or taste of skimmed milk on the few occasions they tried it, and I used semi at home anyway. If I'd insisted on skimmed (which I hate anyhow!) I'm sure they'd have given up drinking milk or having it on cereal full stop.

Babies and toddlers moving on from formula or follow-on milks need the extra calories from whole milk, since many of them are still quite dependant on milk as a liquid food rather than just a drink. At 5 or 6, I'm sure your kids take in a huge variety of foods, so the nutritional differences between milks shouldn't make a vast difference to their overall diet, and I'd go with whatever type they prefer:D

seven-day-weekend

AFAIK it's because the fat content is not enough for growing children.

Swan_2

Lalaladybird wrote: »

The fat content of whole milk contains vitamins A and D. Semi skimmed still has some of these vitamins but skimmed has very little (because the fat portion has been removed, these particular vits can only exist in the fat part).

you need the vitamin D in the fat to help maximise absorption of the calcium in the milk, you won't get the full benefit from skimmed or semi-skimmed

I don't know of you still get it, but there used to be a skimmed milk with added vitamin D aimed specifically at women, the premise being that we'd miss out on some of the calcium that we need to keep our bone density up & help avoid osteoporosis in later life, if we used ordinary skimmed

Katie789

Recommended guidelines are to only give breast/formula milks (as a drink, cows milk ok in cooking) to under 1s, whole milk only to under 2s and no skimmed to under 5s. This is unless your children have been medically diagnosed as obese. Its because of the fat soluble vitamins A and D that you don't give skimmed to under 5s as well as them needing the calories for growth.

So OP no problem giving your kids the 1% stuff which is a halfway house between semi at 2% and skimmed at 0.1%

All this said, I'm a rubbish mummy who has been known to run out of whole milk and give the semi we have to my little boy before he turned 2

galvanizersbaby

Katie789 wrote: »

All this said, I'm a rubbish mummy who has been known to run out of whole milk and give the semi we have to my little boy before he turned 2

Shocking behaviour! :rolleyes: :rotfl: