Not skimmed, not semi-skimmed but FULL CREAM milk!

Back in the days of 'high anorexia', and ever since really, a major sticking point was milk. One of the early signs that Ben's eating habits were changing for the worse was when he switched from normal coffee and tea to black coffee and tea - around three years ago. Before then, we'd always had either skimmed or semi-skimmed milk in our fridge. (Ben is on the left in the photo.)


When Ben was put on a weight gain eating plan, he refused point blank to have any milk except skimmed milk. The closest we ever got him to having semi-skimmed milk was during the early stages of seeing our dietitian (spring 2010) when he agreed to try the 'orange' top milk which is a half-way house between skimmed and semi-skimmed.

Even getting him to do that was like pushing you-know-what uphill.

Semi-skimmed became a 'danger food' to Ben and he refused point blank to ever have it. And the minuscule bit of skimmed milk he'd add to his drinks scarcely made any difference to the colour of the tea or coffee.

As for full cream milk... Well... I might as well have been suggesting he drink poison. Not in a zillion years did I have a hope in hell of getting him to drink full cream milk.

Until today.

Today I sent him on a morning's training course to learn barista skills so he can get a part-time job. Cappuccinos, lattes - and a host of other coffee types I can't pronounce plus 'proper' hot chocolate i.e. made with real chocolate and milk - he drank his way through the lot.

And all of it contained full cream milk.

Yes, he found it challenging, and yes he did adjust his lunch calories to take all this into account, but he did it all the same.

I wish I could go back in time and talk to the frazzled mother that was me 2 - 3 years ago, give her a huge hug, tell her everything's going to be OK and let her know that not only would Ben go onto drink skimmed milk and semi-skimmed, but he'd drink a bucketful of full cream milk as well!

Unheard of!