To be shocked by this government dietary advice for babies and children?

Fruit stored correctly doesn't go off quickly. A bunch of green bananas kept separate from your fruit and veg will be ripe by the end of the week. A single banana costs around 12p and is much better for you than a 'shelf stable juice'.
Apples are also cheap and last weeks if you buy a variety grown in your country eg opt for a Royal Gala rather than a Pink Lady.

Fair enough. I think maybe a good option could be to suggest more options in the eating guides. So yes, include things that people know and give guidance on how to maximise the nutrition from them (pairing orange juice with iron fortified cereal etc) and also having other less processed options so for those where time/ money allows they know what they could also try

I know I've massively benefitted from reading the 'eat well' guides and they have given me ideas to improve the foods and variety I offer my children. So I suppose I was thinking from that perspective that if you are wanting to make changes it's good to have some ideas to start off from, rather than only being shown the foods you already give if that makes sense.

As a side-note one of my favourite 1970s childhood memories is of sitting in a pub garden with my uncle, aged around 4, drinking warm Britvic orange out of a bottle (with a straw, mind) while eating a bag of crisps and some of his salted peanuts. I’m now wondering if ‘no juice for young kids’ was a thing then too which could be why I remember the taste of it so well. Also we only ever had crisps etc. at parties normally - but there were quite a few of these if you factor in birthdays, street parties, Tupperware parties lol. However, I’ve never needed a filling and have maintained a fairly constant healthy weight so far. Everything in moderation? In my experience, anything we flatly deny our kids food-wise is what they’ll be spending their pocket money on as soon as they get the chance!

HRTFT so someone else may have mentioned... I was a health food zealot when my kids were young (would be slightly more moderate if I had my time again) but a few rice crispies sprinkled on their highchair tray is great for their fine motor skills.

They may not be hugely nutritional, but fairly harmless once in a while.

This thread tells you everything you need to know about why this country (NI in particular) is the grip of a childhood obesity plus tooth decay epidemic...

It is genuinely mindboggling that people are this resistant to science and evidence and even plain common sense. But that the NHS continues to push this is actually negligent.

OP, I agree with you entirely.

Thank you, that's a great sense check.

Maybe the advice could cover both - so people can try different things (or at least know what the different options are) when/ if they are in a place to do so and also know how to make the best out of what they can afford/ have available/ are more comfortable with.

Taking chia seeds out of it, oats are relatively inexpensive and available and could be introduced with a sprinkle of cinnamon or brown sugar to get children used to the texture etc if the parents wanted to move away from cereals.

Thank you for a thoughtful response

I think what you wean babies on is less important than what you feed kids day to day and that you eat with them. I weaned mine on baby rice, puréed fruit and then whatever I was having, mashed up minus the salt.
The only thing I really stayed away from were artificial sweeteners. Bit of cake or ice cream- fine.
Neither of my now young adults have fillings, both are lean and strong.
For a long while I bought white bread as that’s all they’d eat, until my youngest told me off for buying “processed crap” and is now into superfoods and healthy eating!
The main thing though is I always cooked tasty food and we always sat and ate together-in the culture I was raised in food is meant to be tasty and to be shared as a family.
Now my kids have passed the gorging on junk food stage of the teens they naturally seem to gravitate towards food that is wholesome and delicious.
So to my mind making food into a chore or a medicine is counter productive. Cooking real food and eating together is the basis of a healthy relationship with food.
Ham is not the devil and neither is sugar in moderation.

Who said anything about coco pops?

"Busy mum? Get up an hour early to bake your own beans".
"Busy mum? Go to bed an hour late so you can prepare the night before"
"Get up another hour early to do yoga as the sun comes up".
Etc
It is all just extra pressure on women, because most of the tlme it is women.

Maybe most of the women you know don't work or have part time, low pressure jobs. I sure as hell didn't have the head space to be all Snow White perfection when my kids were young.

Well yes, that was the first vaguely solid thing I gave DS. (I've still got some in the cupboard.) Then I moved on to puréed fruit and veg (homemade) added puréed chicken at some point and then Weetabix for breakfast. Can't remember when I started giving him bigger bits to gnaw on (I did a mix of spoon feeding and baby led weaning.) He's nearly 18 months old, still only has water to drink and refuses to drink milk.

Well....it sounds like you are rather oblivious to your own level of privilege. That you know what those things are, can afford them, can find them in a shop local to you, and know what to do with them when you get them home, and have acquired taste expectations in your family that mean you will eat and enjoy them....all of those things mean you are, in the context of the country as a whole, incredibly privileged.

Surely in NI it would be a Full Irish or an Ulster Fry.

Do the type of small, expensive convenience shops that many have to rely on if they do not have transport, money or storage for ‘a big supermarket shop’ sell chia seeds in bulk? Does everyone, in all types of housing, have refrigerator space for bowls of overnight oats / chia seeds? Or just for milk? Or mabe not even for that but rely on fetching a small quantity or using UHT milk from the foodbank?

Two reasons, both of which relate to already established habits and the need to meet people where they are.

One is accessibility. The Rice Krispies are more likely to be easily on hand than the chia seeds, as the local corner or village shop probably has the former but not the latter. This is really important in NI, where public transport outside of the most built up areas is shite and a significant minority of the population lives a long way from a big supermarket.

The second is that the population are more likely to know already that they like rice krispies than plain porridge oats- I know there are pimped up sachet versions available but they're similarly processed, so I assume that's not what you mean. If you buy chia seeds and your child doesn't like them, there's less likely to be someone else in the house who will eat them instead. Whereas the parent is more likely to be familiar with rice krispies already and know what they think of them. This makes the risk of wasted food greater.

Which may not be a big deal in some households, but if your budget and logistics are such that everything brought into the house needs to be eaten, then it is.

Because they need to give advice that is relatively easy and not too expensive. Some of the mumsnet nutrition stuff is unrealistic and over the top.

Why can't you mix baby rice with milk? Surely at the age when they are eating baby rice, they are basically living off milk anyway, or is it the baby rice that is the problem?

Because I will save that experience for if I ever get caught by Russians and sent to the Gulag.

But to be serious, you don't cook rice Kripsies either . . . . . And preparing something in advance isn't easier, the time spent preparing doesnt magic away into another dimension you still spent that time doing it and so it is no easier than doing either the entire thing in the morning or a bowl of cereal.

I dont mind mind porridge, I was (partly) joking above.

This. I love chia seeds in Greek yogurt with fruit but I need to partially blend them due to the texture. And I would never in a million years suggest to people struggling with money that this is what they should be spending their budget on. I can hardly afford it myself.

Do you have a link to scientific evidence for this absolute bollocks? 😂

To those saying they don't have time for porridge etc - Weetabix and Shredded Wheat have no added sugar (as long as you don't get sweetened versions). Porridge can be made quickly in the microwave. Add fruit for sweetness/flavour.

To the poster who claimed "Rice Krispies are just rice" - mate, read the ingredients! 😂

Sure. Serve it on toast or can you roll it up in a wrap.

A full English with extra black pudding.

You can believe whoever you want from your google searches that lead you confuse your sucrose and fructose.

I don't know whether you really are this oblivious, but chia seeds are expensive and not sold in every shop. Also, I personally love chia seeds and eat them a lot, but they are an acquired taste (or rather, texture).

The prospect of eating cold oats for breakfast is absolutely rank.

Should I believe you or an endocrinologist?

No. It. Doesn't.

Fructose is absorbed differently as a complex system of nutrients. Added fructose is different again and still not what you find in pure orange juice.

But why is it so hard to make porridge or chia pudding or overnight oats? That's what I'm not understanding. Overnight oats/ chia pudding require no cooking, can be prepared in advance so surely actually easier than a bowl of rice Krispies in the morning?