Filled Cream or Full Cream Milk: One of the things I have come to understand after becoming a mum is the need to understand nutrition and their potential benefits on our children’s physical and mental development. I have met people who often say, after all our parent fed us with this and that. Yes! We grew intelligent. A lot of times my question is often you could have grow more intelligent!? Have more healthy bones!? A healthy body system but the your body fight so hard and you are just very lucky to have the little you do have because your system fought very hard.

Today we will be discussing the type of milk and why you should avoid giving them to babies.

I’m in different nursing mothers group and I read and see a lot of things that often surprises me. But I also understand that we are not all highly financially stable but we must strive to be intellectually stable. Being intellectually stable and mindful will help you feed your babies the right nutrition even when you do not have much money.

Babies mainly have their own milk, one of the reasons babies have their own particular nutrition packed milk is Because their fat and protein need is very different from ours as adult.

What’s Filled cream Milk?

Filled milk is any milk, cream, or skim milk that has been reconstituted with fats, usually vegetable oils, from sources other than dairy cows. Pure evaporated filled milk is generally considered unsuitable for drinking because of its particular flavor, but is equivalent to unadulterated evaporated milk for baking and cooking purposes. Other filled milk products with substituted fat are used to make ice cream, sour cream, whipping cream, and half-and-half substitutes among other dairy products.

As a food scientist, I stand against filled cream milk for children. Aside from the fact that they have been reconstituted, which often leads to loss of nutrient and interestingly they are not always enriched with the lost nutrient; you never can stand for the kind of fat they are being reconstituted with. Children needs healthy fats at every stages of their lives, and we must strive to let them have it if we really care about them. A lot of Western country have banned the sales of filled cream milk because they are not considered standard.

Milk that falls under filled cream milk are Three Crown, Cebon, Cow Bell, Dano milk etc.

What’s Full Cream Milk?

Milk from which the cream has not been removed is called ‘whole milk’ or ‘full cream milk’. “It contains more than 3.5% of fat; it is highly nutritious and provides the essential nutrients required for growth and development. It is rich in Vitamin D, A, B1, calcium, phosphorous and riboflavin,” says Niyati P Likhite, dietician, Fortis Hospital, Mumbai.

Full cream milk contains all the essential nutrient you need from a mill source, While full cream is healthy source for adults, it is not really advisable for babies. It is more advisable for a nursing mother to consume full cream milk and other good source of protein so they can lactate excessively or moderately depending on their body level. But in a situation where hope of lactation is lost, and there is no financial stability of getting baby milk, it is much more advisable to get full cream milk and not filled cream milk.

“It is recommended that babies should be breast fed or have an infant formula as the main drink until 12months of age. After this time, until the age of two years, the Australian Dietary Guidelines recommend full cream milk (3-4% fat content) to provide optimal energy (kilojoule intake) for growth and development.

Low fat milk (less than 1.5% fat) and skim milk (less than 0.15% fat), like full cream milk, provide calcium, protein and other essential nutrients, however with lower fat and kilojoules. The Australian Dietary Guidelines recommend that adults should enjoy mostly reduced fat versions of milk, yoghurt and cheese for this reason, to take into account overall dietary patterns and due to the fact over two thirds of the population are overweight or obese”.

Full cream milk may also be the best choice for adults over 70 years, especially if they are underweight, frail or recovering from surgery or a fall. High energy, high protein diets for the elderly often recommend custards, rice pudding and hot chocolate drinks made with full cream milk” . Dairy.com

Examples of milk that falls under this particular one are Peak, Hollandia , Loyal etc

There are advantages of taking full cream milk – which is why I recommend the adult take it and eat more protein source then breastfeed their babies. But a situation where all the alternative measures can not be met( Lack of fund for baby formular milk, inability to lactate) then it is more advisable to give babies full cream milk and not filled cream milk.