2% or skim milk @ 12mo per pediatrician advice ?!

[Sweetum]

DS is 13mo old and when I told ped that I'm giving him lowfat yoghurt since he's getting his recommended amount of dairy from full-fat milk (just by drinking it), she said "but we are doing everything regular for him, aren't we?", which assumed she meant full-fat is fine. DS is 70 percentile for weight and 90 percentile for height. Just letting you know what our ped thinks.

[sariana]

My DD is the opposite, weighs only 25 pounds at 25 months (~33" tall). But I switched her to skim milk at a year and a half because buying two different kinds of milk was a pain. Ped said it was okay as long as DD got good fats elsewhere. DD eats a lot of full-fat cheese, and we don't otherwise limit fats. Both my kids are at the low end of the weight scale, so we don't need to give them low-fat, low-calorie foods in general. But for the milk it just makes sense for us.

Milk is not the only source of fat.

[Melaine]

I stuck w/ whole b/c of the good fat for brain development.

Beth

Mine weren't in a high weight bracket, but I'm a believer in whole milk regardless because of the good fat. My natural doctor told me that whole milk would also help me regulate my hormones.

[KrisM]

We also did full fat until age 2 and then dropped to 2% after that.

[JBaxter]

I always buy whole milk for everyone. I operate under the theory the more you do to food they less it does for you. We use whole unhomoginized milk ( either raw or pasturized).

[DrSally]

I've always heard whole milk until 2 yo, but I do think some peds are suggesting 2% or skim earlier in some cases. Neither of my kids drink cow's milk. DS nursed until 3yo and drank soymilk. DD is still nursing and they both eat a lot of cheese. I try to give her full fat yogurt when I can find it.

[LexyLou]

I thought I heard that the new recommendation is 2% milk not whole.

I don't know, neither of my girls were huge milk drinkers and both are great eaters so we only stayed on 2% until 18 months and moved to non-fat by 2 years so we could all share. Like I said, they drink very little milk but get calcium and good fats from other sources.

[stinkyfeet]

DO NOT FOLLOW YOUR PED's ADVICE! STICK TO WHOLE MILK!

My DH (yes, my husband) was a chubby chubby baby, and his ped told his parents to switch to skim milk because he was so fat. He was a healthy baby, but sometime after the switch to skim milk, my DH developed severe eczema, allergies, and asthma. He still has it to this day, and is very uncomfortable all of the time (can't even sleep well at night because he is so itchy--we even bought a 4K light box to try to alleviate some discomfort).

I know every child/person will have a different reaction to drinking skim milk at a young age, but is it really worth the risk? My hubby was perfectly healthy before the skim milk switch, and no one in his family has ANY of his ailments. Also, his younger bro and sis were also chubby chubby babies, and their ped told the parents to switch them to skim milk too--the parents refused and they are both healthy!

STICK TO WHOLE MILK!!!!

[jtannerchs]

My DD was way off the charts her entire infancy. At 12 mos she was 26.5 pounds and short (pretty big for a girl).

I asked my ped. if we should give her skim milk and she said it would be fine to do so, but that she didn't think we needed to because most children "thin" out in their second year. She also liked whole milk because of the fat needed for their brains.

We stuck with whole milk. She's turning 2 this Thursday...and still weighs 26.5 pounds. They really do slow down in their weight growth that second year. Some babies just like to pack it all on that first year!

My 2 cents is to stick with the whole milk.

[zag95]

We just had DD's 2 yr appt- we had been on whole milk- ped recommended dropping down to 2%- dd is 30.8lbs and almost 35 inches. I would agree with PP that keeping DC on whole until 2 for brain development is key.