Hellobee Boards

No LO yet but not a fan of low fat stuff generally. More a fan of real whole foods in moderation. You might like this blogger, who talks a lot about why her family doesn't eat low fat or count calories: http://www.100daysofrealfood.com

We have notswitched to low fat anything, my son is almost 3.5. The main reason is that he has some oral motor issues that limit his diet, so what he does eat, needs to be full of good fats and calories.

I wouldn't feed my kid low fat things personally. I'm with @Mae.

We still give her whole milk at age 2.5 Sometimes she gets the 0% fat yogurt just because thats what we have on hand (what we eat). Her milk intake in general has gone down a lot in the last couple months so I feel good about the amount of calories and fat she's getting from it. If she were chugging cups of milk I might worry and consider switching.

I don't plan on switching. DD is very active and on the skinny side, so keeping weight on has been an issue. Plus, we drink whole milk in our coffee, so we have it on hand anyway. And DD only drinks about 8 ounces/day of milk, so it's just not that big of a deal. I would rather her have the healthy fats. Depending on how her weight does, we might consider switching around 3 yo.

No research done here but just thought I'd chime in and say that your mommy instincts are probably best. I cannot imagine there is any down-sides to keeping your kiddo on full-fat milk.

I think we will probably switch to 2% if he likes it, but if he doesn't we will stick to full fat.

My son still gets whole milk and 9% Greek yogurt at 26 months. We don't do low fat anything in our house...good fats are good for you!

Unless there is reason to do so, we won't switch. My husband and I drink skim so there will always be a second gallon of milk in the house anyways since she won't be drinking skim for a long time.

everyone in our fam drinks whole milk!

We won't. If anything we'll adjust the amount of milk he drinks, since it is on the higher end for his age.

DD is 3 and we haven't switched to low-fat anything, for the same reasons that most bees already listed. She's in the 50th percentile for height and weight, so it's definitely not hurting her.

For the same reasons you have listed I had planned to stay on whole milk. But at her 2 year appt her ped told us they recommend switching to 1% or skim for heart disease prevention.

As soon as he told us that it was a no brainer. There is a lot of of heart disease and sudden death from heart problems in both our families.

There is a ton of processing in whole milk, even organic. The best is really to go with either raw if you're brave enough or a low temp pasteurized non homogenized milk from a local dairy. Budget made us switch to organic but now that she's drinking less maybe we'll switch back to local.

We still are drinking only whole milk and my DD is almost 6.

Interesting question and interesting answers

Question - Did you talk to your doctor about your concerns?

Our LO was in the 50% for weight but everything else was 75% so I was a little worried he was underweight.

So I asked about switching from low fat from full fat. The doctor said that LO is a fine weight for his age and height ratio.

He wanted LO to go to low fat so that it would push him into eat more aka getting his calories from food and not just from milk and promoting a more balance diet.

Just letting you know what the doctor told me when I asked about something similar.

@Jenn23: I'm not concerned about weight gain at all. Just saturated fat and artery clogging causing heart disease.

I did and like all research there is research supporting both sides.

Still drinking whole milk at 2.

@locavore_mama: Sorry, just thought you'd find it interesting. I have been seeing much about this topic on the news lately and read a few things in print a few months back. I don't know all the specifics, but had heard lower weight, lesser chance of heart disease, so I just thought I'd let you know in case you wanted to read anything. Sounds like you already have.

@Jenn23: no worries! Like I mentioned in my original post we had fully intended to keep her on whole milk until her 2 year visit. We trust our pediatrician and he's most aware of her full family history so made the switch.
We have a very well balanced diet so we'll just up healthy fats in other areas.