A confession of a bad mother for feeding kids

vivaladiva

thriftlady wrote:

I meant to add that your kid's diet doesn't sound too bad to me;)

I agree with thriftlady. A couple if minor tweaks - HM pizza or fish fingers and its probably not as bad as you think.

As for the squashes, I always use Mr T's High juice as it seems to be the only one without artificial sweetners (that goes for the non-diet ones too!!).

My youngest often throws up if you give her cola. WE now advise people that they do this at their own risk.

swizzle_2

I don`t think your kids are eating that bad a diet- it`s not choc for breakie-crips for lunch and chips for tea every night. Plus it`s been school hol`s.

They have been having squash which is not as bad as alot of fizzy pop.

Also whaT is wrong with scrambled eggs and beans? My eldest does not like eggs- but is famous for saying I like eggs in buns mummy!
Also they are having differant things every day, I know of a child who eats smiley faces and chicken nuggets every day with tomato sauce, never eats veg or fruit, and only drinks fizzy pop.

I do not buy crips or biscuits anymore- children get used to it. I also make sure that we eat the same meal as them 3 nights a week- this has ment that we have had to change what we eat too.

We might have sausage and mash, or Hm fish and chips- if they have tea at granny`s we will have curry and rice-which they don`t eat.

We also now have pudding- nothing fancy tinned fruit or sugar free jelly or rice pudding, Hm ice lollys made from yog or fruit juice. They have to try whats on their plate- aslong as they do this they get pudding, no fuss is made is they don`t

Keep up the good job- being a mumis hard work and don`t worry about what other people say there kids eat-most of the time they lie!

kittiwoz

Aspartame is not of itself bad for you. There have been a few health scares involving aspartame but the studies carried out to investigate have found no evidence to support any link.

Personally I try to avoid aspartame because I don't like the taste. It is super sweet and I think we are bombared by marketing and products which encourage us to choose the instant gratification of very sweet, high fat, bland, additive laden food over the more complex flavours of non-fast food which tends to be healthier and satisfy hunger over a longer period. I think this push is actually changing our perceptions of taste so that we become indoctrinated into enjoying foods that we would naturally consider overly sweet.

I was reminded by the discussion about having seperate meal times for children and adults of something my garndma told me about her father. When she was a girl (in the thirties) it was the common thing for children to eat seperately from adults and while the men would normally come home from work to a full cooked dinner the children would normally have something on toast or bread and cheese. My great-grandfather always insited on eating with his wife and children so he knew he was eating the same meal they did and so he would always see them before they went to bed. From what my grandma tells me I think he took a lot of interest in his children and was viewed as rather an oddity for it at the time.

Murray

Have you tried the Raspberry Activia Fruit Layer yoghurt? I think that the novelty of mixing it yourself would appeal to children & they taste great (not cheap but reasonably good for them).

Smoothies are a good way to get fruit (& veg if you're feeling adventurous!) into them.

Home cooked chips (roasted not deep fried) taste much better than oven chips and might encourage them to try more things that are homemade rather than out of a packet.

Will they eat corn on the cob - there's loads of it about at the moment and its quite cheap. Its good fun to eat because you can get in a right mess!

I have absolutely no experience of feeding children but these are a few tips that I have learnt while trying to encourage my OH to eat healthier foods!!

Topher

I don't think that diet sounds too bad at all, and all of the things you're a bit iffy about could be gradually replaced with an equivalent. e.g. cheddar now comes in slices that would look like the processed stuff.
I was once a Nanny, and although the children ate their evening meal separately, we cooked enough evening meal to go around adults & children, saved some children's portions in the fridge which they had the next day at luchtime (reheated in a steamer B.T.W.). They had bits & pieces tea around 4-5 o'clock. (e.g 1 marmite sandwich divided between the three of them, 1 jam sandwich likewise, 1 carrot made into sticks & divided, celery, same or any other fruit or veg. Some raisins, one Ritz cracker spread with cream cheese etc.) There is an endless array of such little bits & pieces that made the meal interesting, not too outfacing yet nutritionally quite sound. They loved the variety and eating their way around a plate. It was relatively quick to prepare, and they'd had their full cooked meal at lunchtime.

Don't some squashes have Aspartame as well as sugar?

Topher

Lillibet_2

Doesn't sound yo bad to me & even if it was, feeding your kids a unhealthy diet does NOT necessarily make you a bad parent. Sure it isn't ideal, but crikey, they are eating from all the food groups & nothing bad in excessive quantities so I think you are on a winner! Some OS'ers will probably faint when I say that we have a ready made pizza at least once a fortnight. I figure the rest of our diet is pretty good & all things in moderation, plus it effectively gives me a night off from cooking;) which balances out the health aspect in my book:D

Nothing wrong with tinned fruit if it is in juice not syrup, nothing wrong with fish fingers/breaded fish if it is good fish & not stuffed with additativs, nowt wrong with eggs & (healthy eating) beans at all & is a meal I really look forward to in fact!

If you can replace the plastic ham & cheese with proper stuff or alternatives (tinned tuna? Add some fresh sliced salad to the plastic stuff? Potato wedges & HM dips?) , replace the squash with water or watered down fruit juice (with soda water for a treat?) & introduce some more fruity snacks (mango slices? Cape gooseberries? Blueberries?) then I think you will be flipping brilliant! If you can introduce soem HM versions of the ready made stuff you will be saving money too! If you can't, I still think you're doing an amazing job as it is:T

Sarahsaver

Not too bad, but they only eat what they are given, and if you start offering only 'real' meat and cheese they will have to eat that!
I think they maybe have cheese to often.
If it would help I can post what my kids eat in a week, when I get back from the gym;)

Sarahsaver

btw you could all eat at 6 they would still be ok for bed at 7.30. My kids eat better since Ive fed everyone at the same time.

beachbeth

thriftlady wrote:

Hi FZwanab,
I'm afraid the reason my kids eat (nearly) all the food I give them is because I started them off that way. But it is never too late to turn them around.

I started my kids off this way too but my eldest daughter now only eats rubbish. I used to give her vegetables and fruit and one by one she started to refuse eating each item that was good for her. At one point all I could get her to eat was boiled egg, mashed potato or toast. I have been tearing my hair out at times. Yet my youngest daughter will eat just about anything and will try new things too. They have both been brought up the same and yet eat so differently. So it isn't always the mother's fault. Some children are just fussy.

thriftlady_2

Yes, some kids are fussy :rolleyes: bless 'em.

BTW on the subject of mealtimes, my youngest goes to bed at 7 and we eat at 6. I'd prefer the gap between tea and bed to be longer but it seems to work at the moment.