It's almost certain that putting money in the child's name will serve to reduce their financial aid package. Financial aid, since the system was invented, has always counted assets in the child's name as being highly available to meet college needs, while parental assets are less available. This is going to be true 18 years from now even if the system is tweaked in the meantime.

Putting money in a trust fund for your child will reduce their eligibility for financial aid, full stop, no doubt about it.