I got a letter from the food program that I am registered with that stated that we are required to give children over the age of 2 yr old skim or 1% milk, we cannot give 2% or whole milk...I think that's a little strange. I don't even drink 1% or skim milk, it's a bit watery for me. Not really sure of the nutritional difference but I guess I'll see how this goes...

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Yep, got the same letter here. We (family) drink only skim so for me that is good.

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CA was supposed to start that as of Jan 1, 2012, but from what I understand, it's not going to happen. Too many parents are complaining about it.

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Yep thats what we gotta do here. Apparently our diets have changed now and kids get more fat in other places so they dont need it in their milk anymore. I agrer with that.

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We have to start doing that here too. My kiddos aren't complaining about the milk change (Ive already started the 1%. It's just kind of a pain when you have all ages and you have 1 year olds that are needing the whole milk so you have to buy each kind. It said it was option for the toddlers but I would have some angry parents if I put the little ones on 1%.

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We started doing that in October. Didn't really affect me much since I was giving them skim to begin with. I love skim, but I can see how that would be an inconvenience for those who don't.

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We started that in October. I have one that has to have whole milk and the others are all old enough to get skim or 1/2%. My group will hardly drink their milk now. I have been serving them a glass of milk and one of water and they drink the water. Most of my milk goes to waste now.

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I go the same notification here to. Never really got a good reason why the change though. Not a big deal for me, my family just switched to skim so I dont have to buy two diffrent milks! dc kids took right to it!
Debbie

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We already switched too, no one noticed.


And its cheaper so I'm all for it

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I am in cal and my food program strted oct 1st check with your or you will not get you money for october

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I can not taste the differnce between 2% and 1%

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I am not on the food program. The state itself was planning on iniating it Jan 1 but there has been a lot of parent opposition to it.

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I think that is still happening along with some other things.

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We started that here...I have drank 2% my whole life, and serve that to most kids. They didnt want to drink the 1%, because ONE girl saw a different color gallon and said ew that is the kind dad drinks.

Needless to say, she is drinking it just fine. I gave them half 2% and half 1% for a while to transition. I still wont drink the 1%. Too watery, and I love a big tall glass of 2%

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I dont eat or drink dairy, so I don't care for myself, but I do think that it was a smart move on the food programs part.

the daily fat difference between 2% and 1% milk is huge.

2% has around 45 % calories from fat

1% has about 21% calories from fat

that is a huge difference and i think could also be one of the reason why so many children are so over weight.

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Really? My food program told me that they wouldn't have details on whether they would even implement it until October 1st and that at that point they would send us all notices telling us whether they would start January 1st or not and how to actually implement it. I still havn't received anything so as far as I know we don't have to start yet.

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We were required to make the change effective October 1st. I started gradually changing over the beginning of August so that we were 100% 1% by October 1st. The kids never noticed and drink just as much as before.

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Yeah, it's supposed to be obesity prevention, but I honestly dont believe kids are fat because of milk! How about 3 hours of TV a day? Video games? Soda on a regular basis? We drink 1% anyway, but it's the principle of the thing, again. Make up rules that don't address the real issue....argg..

Under 2, they still recommend whole milk or 2%for brain development. I am not, however, willing to buy 3 different (or even 2) different kinds of milk. My own kids are used to 1%, but if I started buying 2% for the babies, and 1% for everyone else, guess what my kids would drink?

My dc parents agreed that I will continue to serve 1% here, and they will serve 2% at home. None of my dc kids have weight issues. They are a very active bunch!

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same here mine was effective oct 1

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I just called and it looks like we should have started the 1st also. I guess our food prpgram is not that organized. My rep said that they still didn't have notices to give out so they've been only telling the DC's they've been visiting .

I prefer serving the 1% anyway so it's good news to me also.

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Milk? Yuck!

Thankfully, I am a Vegetarian daycare and I only serve Soy, Almond and Rice milk for all children. Much more yummy

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I only buy whole milk. I use it primarily for cooking and for my coffee. The dck's that drink milk get it. My 15mo drinks it. My older kids only have milk in their cereal...once/wk. They didn't really have much milk until they were 3-5yo, once they finally started to outgrow their dairy issues. Milk has never been a major contributor to the fat in our diet. I grew up a farm girl, I would rather not have any milk (not even for cereal), than 2% or *shudder* skim.

IMO---Milk is not the huge thing in the obesity issue....but it is the easiest one to control by implementing restrictions through the food program, WIC, dr visit advice, etc... How many parents are going to listen a PSA about "don't buy your kids crap for food", but they WILL pay attention when daycare only provides *** kind of milk or WIC will only cover *** kind of milk.

My daycare kids get 8oz of milk per day (two 4oz servings at meals). We have juice once/wk (4oz/week). Otherwise it is water only.

Really, other than for cooking, i would be happy to ditch milk altogether. There really isn't a huge need to drink our calcium. We have plenty of other sources, and the kids get VitD supplements in the fall & winter.

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No a vegie myself, but I LOVE vanilla soy milk..Silk brand!

I was suffering from a LOT of power surges until I started drinking a big glass of soymilk and taking a womens 50+ vitamin everyday. I don't know which did the trick, but I am thankful! Alas, I am only 47...

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Unfortunately for us that are on the food program we aren't allowed to use anything other than cow's milk otherwise the entire meal doesn't count and we don't get reimbursed. Otherwise I would also prefer to serve soy or almond milk. The benefits are the same except less fat and no cholesterol.

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I know that Minnesota has done something like that for the WIC program over a year ago. I think it has something to do with the fat content in the milk.

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I have to disagree with you here. The difference between 1 cup of 1% and 2% is 2 grams of fat.

99% fat free yogurt has only 1.5grams of fat BUT it has 26g of sugar.
Pepsi has 0g of fat, but about 30g of sugar per cup. Which is healthier?

The National Institute of Medicine recommends that children between the ages of 1 and 3 intake 30 to 40 percent of their daily calories from fat. When determining the recommended fat intake for each age group, the National Institute of Medicine takes into account the energy expenditure and an allowance for growth. Toddlers between the ages of 1 and 3 have a high activity level and a fast rate of growth and development but their appetite and food intake can be erratic. Some days the child may seem to eat everything in sight while other days they eat nothing. Consuming a higher fat intake helps kids in this age group meet their daily energy needs.

IMHO, the cause of obesity in children is cause by lack of exercise and the constant stream of fast food and junk.

Heaven forbid a child run and play at school. (I've heard, but have no data to back me up, that schools are planning on cutting down on recess time to allow more class time.) The kids are being "taught to the test", have to force this much info into them in a limited amount of time. By the time they get home from school they have another couple of hours of homework to do, then it's dinner, tv or video games, bath, and bed.

I live on a quiet street of 17 houses, 29 kids live here. I can't tell you what most of the kids look like. In 6 yrs, I've only seen a few of them outside playing.

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I have to agree with you. What I quoted from you is IMO why so many kids are overweight nowadays. I have a 2yo DCK that can barely talk but sings the McDonald's tune here at daycare "Para-pa pah-pah" and each time he plays with our alphabet puzzle he gets the yellow M and sings the tune. So sad.

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Chicken nugget Happy Meal

4 pcs chicken 190 calories and 12g fat
kids size fries 100 calories and 5g fat

Without a soda your talking 290 calories and 17g of fat. That 2g of fat in a cup of milk is negligible.

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schools are planning on cutting down on recess time to allow more class time.)

I think they are planning to cut the school day down in time and the number of days in school down. I think the recess thing is to have the kids there as few minutes per year as they are required by law to do instruction time.

My school district started doing first Wednesday of the month early out... then it went to every other Wednesday... then to every wednesday. I think they will eventually cut every Wednesday out completely to go to a four day week. Once they get everyone used to that then they will have Wednesday switch to Friday.

They are selling the early outs for teacher planning and meetings but the truth is that it hasn't improved our kids academic performance in any measurable way. It's not making any difference.

We used to have one week for spring break. Over the last decade they have increased that to eight school days. We used to have one early out on the Wednesday before Thanksgiving and Friday after Thanksgiving... now it's a full three days off.

Conferences used to be an early out on Thursday and no school on Friday. Now it's a full three days for October conferences.

Every single month of school from September to May with the exception of the month of April there is at least one full day off of school. April still has the four early Wednesdays out.

They have cut the days out of school so dramatically since the 90's it's unbelievable. We had six snow days last year and the teachers union threw a fit about makeup days. We made up two and the other four were forgiven. This is on top of the many many days they have off early and completely out.

What happened to going to school Monday thru Friday from the end of August till the begining of June and having a week off at Xmas and a week off at Spring break... and thanksgiving a four day weekend?

When you have so many special days you have kids and teachers LIVING for the special days off. It's so disruptive to the families and the kids. We need stable school schedules with a decent length day (7 hours at least) with a good lunch break and outdoor break in the middle of it. The little kids need three breaks a day to go out and get some fresh air.

I think they are going to doink with it so much and make so much special in it that people are going to start wanting to do some version of online or home schooling because working around their constant times off will be harder than just doing it themselves at home.

I think that will start happening when they cut the school week to four days.

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This is what I was told too. I'm also in Ca and my food program agency notified us that as of Oct. 1st, we must serve the 1% to 2 and up and whole milk to the 1 & 2 yo.

I am wasting a lot of milk too...the older kids hate it and have told me the milk tastes bad.

It is a little crazy, because they said it's okay to serve "flavored" milk...which adds more calories and sugar to the 1%, but whole milk is banned. Makes no sense to me!

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I am on 4c's food program which one are you on?

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This is the infomation that i collected from the food program itself. I had some parents upset over the changes of the milk and I asked the Food Program to elborate on it. This is pretty much the exact information that they gave me. Perhaps I am not understanding something here, but this is waht I am reading on the letter they gave me....

As for your question about the soda and yogurt, neither is a healtheir option in my eyes. they are both processed and the only fat we should consume is natural fats. Like fats some avacodos....

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I am not disagreeing with the info you have as much as I am with the food programs and such that are forcing this issue. I've spoken with 2 different drs on this issue, both said they didn't feel that milk was the issue.

In a perfect world, yes. But how many avocados are you going to get a 2 yo to eat in order for it to be 40% of their caloric intake?

I refuse to believe that the few grams of fat that a child gets per day from 2% to 1% is the cause of childhoold obesity. If you count 3 glasses of 2% versus 1%, you're talking 60 calories and 6 grams of fat. That's approximately 2 chicken nuggets from McD's.

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Our local school got out at 12 every day this week for parent/teacher conferences. They have 11/11 off AND the whole week of Thanksgiving.

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My theory on the milk change is that it was the only thing to change to address childhood obesity that wouldn't affect the pocket book of big ag and the dairy industry.

Pulling the fat off of milk gives more profit to the dairy industry. They still get to sell their base product but have the cream from the milk to make other products where they make a sizeable profit.

Allowing sugar milk keeps the corn industry in business because the flavored milk is sweetened by high fructose corn syrup.

Win win for big ag.

If the feds would have gone after ANYTHING else they would have had Big Ag and the chemical companies that service big ag (MONSANTO ) shutting it down.

It LOOKS like it's for the bayyyyyyyyyyybeeeees... but it's not. It's for the pocketbooks of the ones who have gotten us into this mess in the first place.

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Childhood obesity is not cause by one thing it is many things. The argument that something is not what cause obesity can be made for any one of the things that add to it.

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Oh and one more thing:

The bottom line will be that this change will not affect childhood obesity at all. It won't stop the rise in each age group of obesity. It won't stop the statistics from marching upwards. The age of the biggest group increasing in obesity WILL go down into under twos.

The government may be able to come up with statistics to further this but as each kid is weighed at the docs office the truth will come out. The onset of diabetes will get younger and younger.

This isn't even a tiny nudge into childhood obesity. It will make companies richer but it won't make the kids healthier.

Providers won't comply to it because they are having a hard enough time selling whole milk. They will either resort to candy milk or they will just give the whole as they have been.

We need to start approving OTHER liquids. The truth is that most day care kids are drinking whole milk and drinking apple juice as their primary source of liquids when the provider is doing credible liquids. When they aren't doing that they are having some kind of candy liquids. We need to start looking at soy, rice, almond milks and water, teas, etc. that we can give the kids as credible.

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I give rice milk to my 12 - 24 months dcks and Soy or Almond milk to my 2's and up. The children don't even bat an eyelash at the difference of the milk at daycare and the "milk" they get at home.

I love it when new parents will go on and on about the calcium and "nutritious" value of cow milks and how their child won't drink that at daycare. I have an empty milk carton on hand and I will have them compare the differences in calcium and the nutritious value they think cow milk has over almond/soy or rice milk

I'll even go as far as handing their child a cup of almond or rice milk to try and once that kid sucks down it like it's their last drink........I have no further complaints from them

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I love all of those. I've gone off of cows milk completely. I don't think we are allowed to serve them on the food program. I haven't looked it up but I'm pretty sure we have to do cows milk unless we have a doc order.

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I just received a letter yesteday on another change. It's now Whole milk for children 1-2years. Children over 2years will drink the 1%..I wish they would get it together..UGHH

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