What milk is best for my baby

Milk

Milk and dairy products are great sources of energy and protein – and have lots of vitamins and minerals, like calcium, which kids need to build healthy bones and teeth.

You can use your Healthy Start vouchers to buy powdered infant formula milk or any kind of heat-treated plain cow’s milk – whole, semi-skimmed, 1% fat or skimmed. Heat-treated milks are miks that say pasteurised, sterilised or long-life (UHT) on the carton or bottle.

Remember: you can’t buy soya milk, goat’s milk products, or ‘milks’ made from rice, oats or almonds with your vouchers. You can’t spend them on soya-based formula either – which you should only give to your baby if your doctor, health visitor or dietitian has advised you to.

Breast milk is the only thing a baby needs until they are about six months old. But if you are not breastfeeding, you can use your Healthy Start vouchers to buy powdered infant formula milk – this will always say ‘suitable from birth’ on the package. 

You can’t buy follow-on formula (labelled as ‘suitable for use from six months’) with your vouchers.  Infant formula milk is suitable for all babies under 12 months old. Keep feeding your baby breast milk or infant formula alongside a variety of solid foods until they are one year old.

At around six months, when your baby starts on solids, you can mix whole (full-fat) cow’s milk with your baby’s food, but never give cows milk as a drink until they are over 12 months old.
Never give babies under 12 months condensed, evaporated or dried milk; sheep’s or goat’s milk; or any ‘milks’ made from rice, oats or almonds.

Remember: if you do decide to bottle feed your baby, make sure that you follow the advice onsafe bottle feeding.

What milk is best for my toddler (12-24 months years)?
You can continue to breastfeed while offering your child a range of solid foods.

You can give your child whole (full-fat) cow’s milk as a drink from one year old.

At this age, children need at least 300ml of milk a day (just over half a pint) to make sure that they get enough calcium.

Never give your child semi-skimmed, 1% fat or skimmed milk, because these don’t contain enough calories or essential vitamins for children of this age.

What milk is best for my child (2–5 years)?

At this age, children can drink whole or semi-skimmed milk, but not skimmed or 1% milk as they don’t provide enough calories. If your child doesn’t like milk, it’s important to try to include other dairy foods in their diet such as yoghurt or cheese, but don’t give them lower-fat versions.

What milk is best if I’m pregnant?

If you’re buying milk for yourself, try semi-skimmed, 1% fat or skimmed milk – they have all the calcium found in whole milk but less fat, helping you avoid putting on too much weight during your pregnancy.

 http://www.healthystart.nhs.uk/food-and-health-tips/milk/

5 ways to recycle plastic milk bottle tops

October 8, 2011
Here it is! The definitive guide to recycling your milk bottle tops in the UK.
Some of these ways support charity so it’s a win-win: you’re turning your rubbish into a resource that benefits others AND you’re keeping plastic out of landfill.
Most local authorities recycle plastic milk bottles, but not all will take the plastic tops. Some local authorities ask you to put them on the bottle when recycling, others ask you to remove the tops and recycle them separately and others say to landfill the tops!

CHARITY OF YOUR CHOICE

GHS will collect and recycle milk bottle tops for the charity of your choice. There is a minimum payment amount of 500 kgs but they will keep track of the amount you send in if you just want to post a small pack at a time.
Why not set up a collection point at your workplace or children’s school?

LOCAL SCRAPSTORE

Compost Woman told me about the Worcester Scrapstore who will take washed milk bottle tops.
The Children’s Scrapstore are a charity that collects safe waste from business which can re-used as a low cost creative resource by their member groups. They stock all sorts of things people need for creative play such as paper and card, foam, plastic pots, tubes and tubs and fabric. Members can fill a trolley to the brim for around £13. So it really is a case of one man’s trash is another man’s treasure!
Why not find your nearest children’s scrapstorebranch and see if they can use your plastic milk bottle tops?

HS4B

Ian runs HS4B (Help & Support for Bankrupt People); a charity for helping bankrupt people. HS4B provide a non judgemental environment both on and offline for people that have been made bankrupt.
As well as plastic milk bottle tops, Ian accepts margarine pot lids, plastic lids from jars like coffee jars etc and the bulky plastic tops you get on fabric softener bottles.

Mental Health Collection

Michelle from Eco Centricity contacted me this week to tell me about her new collection for plastic milk bottle tops to support local mental health charity, Solent Mind.
Donations of 1-5 bags can be collected from in and around the new forest area, larger donations will need to be dropped off in store due to transport limitations.
For every 500kg of milk bottle Eco-Centricity can collect, £25 will go directly to Solent mind. Meanwhile the milk bottle tops will be upcycled into children’s slides!

Melt Down pet bowls

Louise Beams produces Meltdown Eco Pet Bowls. When she found out her local authority didn’t collect plastic milk bottle tops she decided to make this valuable resource into something instead of throwing it away and her Eco friendly pet bowls were born!
The milk bottle tops are granulated into small pieces by a granulator machine. These smaller pieces are then melted down and pushed through mesh to turn them into small pellets which can be used for injection moulding into brand new products.

http://myzerowaste.com/2011/10/5-ways-to-recycle-plastic-milk-bottle-tops/