Less dairy food but more milk?

[Maud]

Our 29 month old loves her food, especially dairy products. Most days she has whole milk on cereal, 1-2 portions of cheese and a kids fromage frais or some plain natural yogurt. I thought this was OK, but HV has suggested we switch to semi-skimmed milk, which is fine, but also to start giving her milk as a drink maybe 2-3 cups a day and to reduce her full fat dairy foods.

I don't really want to start giving her milk as a drink (she was breastfed so never had it) and can't see how we can stop giving her cheese or yogurt everyday without massive tantrums. Just wondering how much dairy other people's 2-3 year olds eat? Also, would your kids really drink 3 cups of milk in a day? Ours doesn't drink that much water...

 

[JD.Deedee]

That's nonsense. Full fat is always better as it keeps them nourished for longer so unless there's a weight problem I wouldn't necessarily switch to semi skimmed and especially not if she doesn't drink it. Petit filous are already low in fat and look at the sugar content. In plenty of low fat products there's either added sugar or added sweeteners.. So what you do now is absolutely fine! If you worry about the vitamin intake you can always get vitamin drops to add to the yoghurt or drink.
Water is always more favourable than milk and I'm sure your dentist will agree. The max limit for milk to drink for adults is 500 mls BECAUSE we get enough dairy through other foods such as cheese or milk on our cereal. So I'd just take the hv advise with a pinch of salt. Nod and agree and continue what you're doing because it's absolutely fine!

 

[EllieH]

Like JD said, unless there are issues carry on as your normal!
But I know that it is recommended that children 2and above should be given semi skimmed milk instead of whole, can't remember who recommends this but I know it's carried out by nurseries.

 

[Maud]

Thanks ladies. Her weight is fine but I do worry about becoming complacent with her diet and her ending up one of the obese children statistics, so when told we need to reduce the high fat food it does concern me. I think we'll switch to semi-skimmed milk but stick with what we've been doing food-wise for now. So long as no-one thinks we're giving her too much.

 

[JD.Deedee]

Semi skimmed is recommended from 2 years old when children still tend to drink quite a bit of milk and have plenty of dairy products on top of that. Because the milk is not actually consumed in as a drink in your situation, I don't see any reason to switch to semi skimmed as full fats help feeling nourished for longer.

If there's a carb difference I wouldn't say it's likely to be more favourable because when it comes to carbs I would say slow releasing carbs out of foods like fruit, vegs and beans would be more favourable than in a product such a milk.

When I was a child there was no specific recommendation it was more a preference thing. I actually favoured semi and some kids preferred whole as the taste is completely different imo.
I've actually seen a dietician once and she explained that because we have plenty of dairy in our diet via cheese, yoghurt ect that we don't need or shouldn't drink more than 500 Mls a day anyway that's about 2 cups.