AAP Okays Lower-Fat Milk for Toddlers

Published: 7/14/2008

In a new statement on cardiovascular health from the Committee on Nutrition of the American Academy of Pediatrics, the experts agreed that reduced-fat milk is a healthier option for children over two years of age and for those between one and two years old who are either overweight or have a family history of cardiovascular disease, obesity, or high cholesterol. This is a change from their previous recommendation that children this age needed the fat in full-fat milk for proper brain development. The change in policy comes because American children now get so much fat in their other foods that there is no longer a need to rely on whole milk. And that’s a sad commentary on how we feed our children.

What’s the take-home? The earliest signs of atherosclerosis—fatty streaks in the lining of the blood vessels—have been found in children as young as three. I think this is reason enough to start giving children low-fat or nonfat milk when they are 12-15 months old. I’ve been advising my parents to do so for many years.

I’ve been questioning the conventional wisdom that children over a year in age should drink whole, rather than reduced-fat, milk for at least a decade. It just made no sense to me to encourage such a heavy consumption of saturated fat when we have solid evidence that atherosclerotic plaques begin to form very early in life. While this view was very unpopular with other pediatricians then, I’m happy to see it is slowly becoming the norm.
 

Pediatrics, July 2008