What is really stopping us from feeding our children healthy food?

[LilMissRe]

I saw an article today about obesity levels in little children and how it is increasing to dangerous levels. I'm intrigued as this is for a project I'm doing to graduate from university- hopefully this year!

The concern here is that, well, little ones (0-5 yrs) have the least say in what they can eat and drink, and as many don't start school officially till 4-5- schools can't really intervene and so a lot of experts place the blame entirely on us parents- especially mothers.

In my opinion I think time and marketing of unhealthy food is a big player here and is to blame, but I can't just use my opinion and would be very grateful for your opinions and experiences on this.

What is really stopping us from feeding our children healthy food?

Thank you!

You can still eat healthily on a crappy budget. It's about educating yourself to cook properly.

I agree. It's a skill parents don't teach their children any more. My mum raised four of us, alone, with fuck all money working two jobs. We always, always ate healthy food even if a lot of our veg and fruit was tinned rather than fresh, and even if we didn't have much meat.

Fucks go on a weekend once a week, or one of you go in the evening on off peak fares.

Or get home delivery.

It takes time & money to build a store cupboard up.
We can make a decent stir fry in our house because we have a store cupboard full of ingredients, a roast at the weekend which we can use the leftovers for other things such as stir fry, plenty of veg in the fridge cupboards.
A family/person on benefits/low wages/in refuges/council b&bs don't have these options.
Plus we are lucky enough to have not just a freezer but a the ability to take a spare £5 -10 & go mad in the reduced aisle & get £20-£30 worth of meat & other stuff if we hit the shop at the right time. (Plus I have the time & access to do it.)
Not everyone is able, lucky, organised or has the money or time to do what our parents/grandparents/great grandparents could do or had too. Shops were usually plentiful (supermarkets didn't have the grip on food shopping that they do know) & usually you had a separate butcher, baker,greengrocer, fruitmonger, fishmonger, general stores etc nearby with the advantage of knowledge & advice from the experts.
Plus we all used to sit around the table & mainly eat at the same time.
You also got taught proper house keeping skills at school & home, how to cook actually cook proper meals & how to manage household finances.

Food is far more expensive now than it was this time last year & keeps going up & up.

Plus going off at a slight tangent, why the hell should we have to need food banks in this country. We are one of the richest nations on the planet, it's obscene.

Wellerr So you lived on about 800-900 calories a day? And you think this is good advice to poor people?

Low income and familes on benefits absolutely can do that. It's about priorities. I've always had a cupboard full of spices and things to make meals with. You just build it up slowly over time. spices cost 60p a pot and last ages.

The biggest issue with being poor is that you have no room to experiment. If you try something out and your kids refuse to eat it because it is horrible, you have nothing else to offer them.

So you lived on about 800-900 calories a day? And you think this is good advice to poor people?

Cereal - about 350 calories

Jacket potato with beans and cheese - good 600 calories at least

Banana - 100 calories

Tea with milk and sugar - 90 calories

So over 1000. Plus there might be fruit or cake at work some days. Sometimes if I was hungry I’d have more cereal at night or another banana.

But yeah. I wasn’t fat and I survived quite well on it, so I’d say better advice than turkey twizzlers and pot noodles.

People don’t need as much food as they think.

The biggest issue with being poor is that you have no room to experiment. If you try something out and your kids refuse to eat it because it is horrible, you have nothing else to offer them.

I’m far from poor now but if I make something for my kids and they don’t eat it, they go to bed hungry.

There is no point focusing on people too poor to buy a pot of spice. They are the minority. The only way that obesity is a TRUE problem in British society is if a far wider group of people are affected. And of course, we know, they are. So no point focusing on extremes to try and explain the causes is there?

Or is poor bashing just really easy therefore the default option?

wellerr you say go on a weekend.
In my case, my DH works all day on the weekends so I'd have to take three kids and somehow manage to carry all that shopping too..

A bus or taxi fare also eats into shopping budget which for some families is minuscule to begin with.

Personally, I manage okay money wise for food, mostly because it takes priority hence not having a car and other stuff.

Poverty is a massive, massive reason and to try and claim otherwise is just utter madness.

And that comment about online shopping.
They all have a minimum order, some families don't have thevminimum £40 or whatever for the weekly shop and you'll find that supermarkets don't offer the full value range online either.

Simply put: ds has autism and wont eat more than a handful of foods. They arent all bad but our selection is limited.

I am not poor bashing.
Been there, done that & worn the bloody t shirt. It's horrible & I damn well make sure that I will not go there again.

Well as someone who really struggled today, here's what I came up against. DS is 15months and teething LIKE CRAZY and having a growth spurt so this was unusual:

Morning-after healthy breakfast at 6 am he freaked out at 8.30, wailing and pointing around the kitchen but would only eat grapes (which ran out). Got him out of the house to a cafe so I could have some breakfast/coffee while he had a scone (not horrendous but not ideal).
He ate cucumber, hummus and blueberries for lunch (ok), then veggie sausage and watermelon for tea (was also offered pasta and broccoli). It was REALLY HARD to cook tea, he was hanging off me screaming.

So my observations are:
Some days the only plant based food he eats is soft fruit. We can afford it, many can't.
Cooking is properly difficult with little kids around-throwing a load of frozen gear on an oven tray is sooo appealing.
I think people are busier and expect to do more with little kids. Snacks you can grab and run with, or food you buy out, is often really poor.
^reading that last line reminds me-I know obesity is growing but things weren't better in the past. My dad (very MC household) was raised on ketchup sandwiches and tinned peaches.

Urgh I don't think the OP is getting many answers to her question. So many other-parents-bashing posts!

Urgh I don't think the OP is getting many answers to her question. So many other-parents-bashing posts!

Where?

I think the problem starts much earlier. Hv's and midwives are obsessed with "putting on weight" for those who bf they are told to top up with formula which has to be fed in much greater amounts to get the same nutrient levels. For those who choose not to bf (or who are failed in wanting to bf) the only option is formula. The endless weigh ins and being told your child isn't gaining enough weight with the implication that it's because you are failing as a mother.

This continues to varying amounts come 6m. How many meals a day are they eating? How many snacks? They don't eat much? Oh you must offer less milk and more food! They have to eat more more more.

Than bam they're five and the school is giving them a cake and custard every day whilst weighing them and telling you theyre overweight

wellerr You have an issue with food. You can't expect everyone to eat around 1,000 calories a day.

icclemunchy You’re kidding surely? Small babies have their weight monitored, particularly in the early days when they actually do it for you, to make sure there isn’t a medical problem with the baby! They’re not trying to get them fat, they’re ensuring they’re healthy and well hydrated 😭

wellerr You have an issue with food. You can't expect everyone to eat around 1,000 calories a day.

Haha. No I don’t.
I’m describing to you how I ate when I was poor. When I had no choice. You were talking about families on such a low income that they can’t eat healthily, so I was giving the example of how I did.

I have no problems with food. I am a slim size 10 and my children are all slim. It’s very typical of wider society though to accuse me of having a ‘problem’ when actually I just eat healthily and don’t feel full after every meal.

The endless weigh ins and being told your child isn't gaining enough weight with the implication that it's because you are failing as a mother.

This is not to encourage overfeeding but to catch children like my dd who was gradually getting less and less able to feed because of weakness caused by malnutrition (ended up in hospital in the end). Caused by undiagnosed disability.

Cory is right.
The majority of HV's understand a few oz gained or lost here or there is normal.
They check to make sure they don't miss the children who are having problems before they get seriously ill.

A couple of pages ago sweetners Vs sugar were mentioned.

We've got the message that sugar is bad.
Sweetners reduce the calories, so there's a perception that they are good or at least benign
I'm happy for some sugary drinks, but being no great health tonic, they are fairly limited, well diluted and most of what my kids drink is water. Also since the sugar tax, it's not so much the tax itself as the fact that the only option is the premium brands at £3.20 per 500ml. Coca Cola/ Pepsi are about the only products that did keep a choice of full sugar/ diet options. Most brands just switched to "dieting" all products.
We don't know the full effects of mass consumption of artificial sweetners because it is a fairly recent phenomenen. They could be affecting insulin response and/ or gut bacteria but these theories are quite new and not well explored yet.

So I'm happy to have moderate amounts of full sugar as part of a reasonably balanced diet rather than more abundant amounts of sweetners. I don't get on with them anyway and DS has had meltdowns following strong ready mixed drinks like fruit shoots. It may be an environmental coincidence, it may be an insulin response affecting his blood sugars. Personally I prefer to avoid them and be more mindful about sugar.

Another factor in portion size is most foods being pre-packaged into set portion sizes. The shift to reducing packaging may do us an unintended favour here. I tend to find that by the time you cook a meal with a pack of meat and and various packs of vegetables, the portions often aren't well matched to what we need or well sized for future use.

Having lean DCs, it's difficult to get the ratio for length and width. At the slim end of the healthy range, they need waists about 3 years younger than the length. I'm glad DS1 doesn't wear trousers as even with button in waists, I can't pull them in enough while having enough length to cover his ankles. Granted different children have different frames, but to be at the point of needing to upsize for width not length, the odds are that they are of excessive build. Obesity can be very easily to overlook when it looks normal within your community.

Have you ever come across a properly fussy eater who will not eat until the following day because they don't like the dinner?

Yes, but that's their choice. If they choose to go hungry, their issue. They soon learn they cannot dictate family eating habits unless you let them.

Child of a friend who started to be a fussy eater, his mum wouldn't have any of it. Had friends over, including me. Food was served and son started to get arsey, didn't want to eat what was on offer regardless that he liked most of the foods most days. His mum said fair enough if you don't want to eat you don't have to, but this is all you'll get. She then carried on chatting away and serving drinks and food, ignoring his fit of pique. Sure enough within a few minutes her ds was tucking into the food.

Will power, laziness, money, inclination ... it's easier to give a fussy toddler finger foods they like than foods you have to help them with and coax them to eat even if the later are healthier