Follow up to Milk Question

I don't think it can. Milk is the least of my worries about child hood obesity. Junkfood, candy, potato chips, constant trips to fast food places, eating the fries instead of the raw veggies from their school lunches. And last but not least playing video games and watching TV all the time and not playing outside are to blame for childhood obesity.

I don't see anything wrong with whole milk if your child doesn't have a weight problem. My doctor said the same thing about my daughter who is 2, keep her on whole milk for now since she needs the fat and calories. Honestly I feel like most kids that have weight issues don't even drink milk, they drink a lot of soda and juice, eat a lot of junk and don't get outside to play. I think that childhood obesity is on the minds of every parent for some reason, its on every news show and dateline special. I know that's because its more of a problem today than in the past, but for goodness sake why do we have to worry about weight in our babies and toddlers before they even have a problem?? We have enough to worry about. If you are feeding them healthy things most of the time and taking them outside to play then stop worrying. Go for the whole milk too if she likes it.

If you compare the nutritional label for whole milk vs. 1% milk (since that's what we have at home), there is a big difference in calories and fat.

It's really critical for kids under 2 to have that fat for proper brain development.

Obesity is a really hard topic to wrap our brains around because we only understand a portion of it scientifically. There are certainly genetic factors (we all know people who can eat ANYTHING and never change dress sizes), there are metabolic factors, calorie consumption (eating) vs. calorie expenditure (exercise), hormones, behavior, etc.

My previous company is preparing to submit several new drugs to the FDA for approval all based upon hormones produced by the gut, the brain, and the pancreas that have an impact on body weight.

I believe part of why our daughter is in the 97% in weight is because she would literally drink as much Whole Milk/day as we would let her. We moved her to 1% a month before her 2nd birthday after talking to the pediatrician and getting his blessing.

As for childhood obesity, the main culprits are diet (or lack of a good diet) and lack of activity. When we were kids, if we said we were bored, our parents would tell us to go outside and find something to play with. The world is a little scarier place these days, and a lot of parents aren't as engaged with their kids.

Your daughter, at 18 months and being on the small size shouldn't have any problems with whole milk. If she begins to fill-out more, though, I'd have a discussion with the pediatrician.

If you've missed it, watch Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution - it talks about a lot of this: http://abc.go.com/shows/jamie-olivers-food-revolution

It absolutely can contribute to childhood obesity, however, in a child that young, that is not the issue. In fact, until 2 children need extra fat in their diet (good fat at least) to help their brain develop. It is scientifically proven. Now, that's not to say that if you choose to give your child 2% or even skim, they won't have correct brain development, but it truly does help. The bigger problem with whole milk and its by products (cheese, ice cream, etc.) is the cholesterol and heart clogging issues. Of course an 18 month old does not need to worry about this, but that is why when children get older, as well as teens and adults, they are encouraged to drink lower fat milk (and by products) to help reduce heart disease and other heart issues.

whole milk is about 4-5% fat, if I remember right, so over double the fat (and associated calories) as 2%. It's just an easy place to cut calories.
Honestly, drinking whole milk is much healthier than soda pop or many of the juice products -- most of these are just sugar.

I personally think they say to switch to 2% or skim to cut the fat where it can be controlled. But overall, if a child eats a high fat diet, that is not going to do much. I think the childhood obesity has more to do with staying inside on video games and such, especially now that more families have both parents working instead of mom staying home and the kids are running around outside. When I was little, we were not allowed to stay in. We had to go out and play. We would play ball in the street with no problem. You don't see that anymore. Of course, when I was little, if a neighbor saw one of us do something, we knew we would be told on. Neighbors don't really know each other anymore. I always push my kids to go out and play as much as possible.

I think it would have more to do with all the steriods and antibodies in the cows that produce the milk, use organic whole milk

Soda, junk food, fast food - all of it is worse than whole milk. On the other hand, what other mammal drinks milk beyond childhood?

Obesity is a question that doesn't have a single answer... there are sooooo many pieces to it.

Oddly... many studies have shown that the biggest indicator of whether or not an ADULT will be obese is whether or not they diet during puberty. AKA, dieting in puberty/pre-puberty guarantees life long weight struggles.

Childhood obesity is much harder, as it's impossible for most countries to experiment on children. (The studies that show that dieting during puberty have hundreds of thousands of people in the study, because they're conducted in socialized med countries, and there's NO experiment... merely data collected and analyzed over a (to date) approximately 50 year period).

The 2 things we KNOW about childhood obesity are this:

- Kids need way high amounts of fat in their diet for proper development... so a healthy diet for THEM is one that is high in fat, while the opposite is true for US.

- Kids only get a fraction of the physical activity they used to. (Schools for example, used to be 2-4 hours shorter than they are today AND have more/longer recesses AND kids -in general- are kept house bound, instead of working/ playing outside.)

My own super active kiddo eats between 6,000 & 10,000 calories per day. and we have no weight struggles whatsoever. That seems to be the trend amongst our friends. Those who's kids are black holes for food, and are very active have no problem with weight... while those who are on restrictive diets or have little activity in their lives struggle a LOT. Doesn't mean that it's true for everyone... but it's what's true in our lives. It also goes along with most studies out there (balanced diet that doesn't create a deficit in nutrients + exercise = healthy growth, development, & weight)... but that goes AGAINST pop-culture, where a person is supposed to restrict calories.

I agree that it really depends on your overall diet. Lots of obese people don't even drink milk, and most kids with obesity problems seem to eat a lot more sugar and junk food than they should. Personally I think that it is about the sugar and processing. Which is not great news for trying to feed your kids healthy. It is very easy to switch to lowfat milk, not so easy to find ANY foods that don't have too much sugar and high fructose corn syrup and are super processed. Maybe that is why doctors say to do lowfat milk, because it is an easy switch that will definitely help. I get so tired of reading labels trying to find foods to give my toddler that aren't bad for him even when they are disguised as healthy.