Someone here mentioned diluting whole milk with water (50/50). Does this really work? And how is the taste. Man, that would save us so much money on our grocery bill.

the taste isn't bad at all. actually my kids & dh don't even notice the difference!! i don't drink milk, so i personally wouldn't know.

I was the one who mentioned it and this is what I've been doing for the last few months. I use whole milk to do this. It tastes great! My only complaint is that I 've been using milk gallons to do this and it makes so much milk that it goes bad before I can use it all. I'm going to switch to half gallons.

I mentioned this on another site and they swore I would only be able to do this if the "water" half of the equation was water mixed with powdered milk. It didn't make much sense to me. I can't wait to try this!!!

I wonder about the nutritional content of the watered milk. You're not just cutting the fat, but also the vitamin D, protein, etc. that is in the milk. Sugarbowlbaby, that may be why the other people told you it would only work if you used powdered milk in the water. That would be nutritionally equal, but have less fat and possibly be cheaper. I know our pediatrician is very intent on kids getting enough dairy products so I doubt this cost-cutting idea is a healthy one.

Ok, I have never done this, but why not try cutting it with 1/4 water to 3/4 milk? Test and see if they can tell the difference.

I wonder about the nutritional content of the watered milk. You're not just cutting the fat, but also the vitamin D, protein, etc. that is in the milk. Sugarbowlbaby, that may be why the other people told you it would only work if you used powdered milk in the water. That would be nutritionally equal, but have less fat and possibly be cheaper. I know our pediatrician is very intent on kids getting enough dairy products so I doubt this cost-cutting idea is a healthy one.

Well, I never thought of that. Hmmmmm, I'll have to do a little research to see what is in my kids' vitamins before I take this plunge. Thank you very much for bringing that to my attention.

This is what I found on my kids' vitamin label (the 2 different percentages are for different aged children)
Vitamin A 3000 IU 60% 60%
Vitamin C 60 mg 75% 100%
Vitamin D 400 IU 50% 100%
Vitamin E 30 IU 150% 100%
Thiamin (B1) 1.5 mg 107% 100%
Riboflavin (B2) 1.7 mg 106% 100%
Niacin 15 mg 83% 75%
Vitamin B6 2 mg 143% 100%
Folic Acid 400 mcg 100% 100%
Vitamin B12 6 mcg 100% 100%
Biotin 40 mcg 13% 13%
Pantothenic Acid 10 mg 100% 100%
Calcium (elemental) 100 mg 6% 10%
Iron 18 mg 90% 100%
Phosphorus 100 mg 6% 10%
Iodine 150 mcg 107% 100%
Magnesium 20 mg 5% 5%
Zinc 12 mg 75% 80%
Copper 2 mg 100% 100%
Sodium 10 mg * <1%

And this is what is in Cows milk (whole)
Nutritional value per 100 g
Energy 60 kcal 250 kJ
Carbohydrates 4.5 g
Fat 3.25 g
- saturated 1.9 g
- monounsaturated 0.8 g
- polyunsaturated 0.2 g
Protein 3.2 g
Water 88 g
Vitamin A 28 μg 3%
Thiamin (Vit. B1) 0.04 mg 3%
Riboflavin (Vit. B2) 0.18 mg 12%
Vitamin B12 0.44 μg 18%
Vitamin D 40 IU 20%
Calcium 113 mg 11%
Magnesium 10 mg 3%
Potassium 143 mg 3%

I think I'm pretty safe diluting milk as long as my kids get their daily vitamins. Unless I'm missing something.

I first saw this here about a week ago and have been trying it out since then. What I have been doing is diluting the gallon milk when it is about half empty. So my children get about half the gallon straight up and then the other half a diluted mixture. I do not do a perfect 50%, between 1/4 and 1/3. I do add a TBS or so of sugar an mix well. Tonight was the first night that my oldest noticed that it tasted different. I don't think I shook it well enough. The taste difference was not enough to keep any of them from drinking it.

I thought about the vitamins, etc. but, my children eat a lot of other dairy foods and take vitamins during their day. Weaker milk is not going to have any great effect on their diet. Considering I hated milk and never drank it as a child, I am just happy that they do drink a cup or two a day.

I am happy so far. It buys me another day or two per gallon, which is huge since we were buying nearly 3 gallons per week and our frig is not very large so we could only reasonably store 2 gallons at any time.

I have always heard to give young children (up to 4) whole milk because they need the milk fat for brain development - for that reason - I wouldn't water the milk down if it was for young children - I say go for it for older kids.

We only by 1% milk here and my 9 yr old loves it.
We get milk in bags here and so to water whole milk down I would have to put it into a pitcher and then DS & DH would get suspicious.

Kim

The official recommendation from pediatricians is whole milk up to the 2 birthday. Two, three & four year olds are fine on skim milk.

I don't water down my milk, but I do limit portions. The recommendation is for 3-4 servings of dairy a day. We eat cheese and yogurt (nearly) daily, so I serve each child milk at breakfast and dinner - about a 6oz cup (which is an appropriate serving size for their ages. At lunch they get juice to drink. If they are still thirsty, they drink water.