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!

With regards to price, I'm a single parent of 2 on low income and the only part of it I can agree with is with regards to protein. The very cheapest stuff is cased in batter and chemicals. If you want good meat or fish then it will cost you. Fruit and vegetables are expensive company to biscuits but (where I live) not extortionate so that comes down to the choice of the parent.

A link please to this article you were reading "about obesity levels in little children and how it is increasing to dangerous levels"
Who was saying this and what are they basing this alarming claim on.

I work, DP works, I'm also at uni and the kids have clubs after school most nights. Midweek I probably do rely on oven food more than I would like or simple things like beans on toast or jacket potato (frozen and microwave one) weekends and school holidays are much better as we have more time (I work in a school so I am off too). My children are perfect weight probably underweight to be fair and very healthy and active. We are not a lazy family nor are we poverty stricken we are just busy

I don’t have children, so perhaps I’m speaking out of turn, but they all seem to need to have snacks! We didn’t do that as children iirc, breakfast, sandwich for lunch, dinner and pudding on Sundays.

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

The little feckers not eating it mainly. My DS eats about eight things, luckily most of them are healthy but they could easily not be. And he's horrible if he doesn't eat. DH regularly threatens to feed him the same as us and has never managed to outwait him.

I do think in some cases, where you see obese adults raising obese children, its a cycle that they are stuck in and are unwilling to break. I would go further and guess that sometimes it makes the adult feel better about all the crap they are eating themselves when they also feed it to their children.
Purely speculation but has often crossed my mind.

I think it's the sheer volume of food kids are being fed in one sitting, often from the weaning stage onwards and then snacks in between.

You see it a lot on MN when people list the meals their under 1year olds are having. If babies are having so much food packed into them, then their appetites and stomachs will obviously increase at toddler and child stage.

But then again adult portions have also increased a lot over the years.

If ever there was a lazy generation in the past, our generation beats up all past Guiness Book of records. All parents and children are too lazy to cook a proper meal and we are now moving from Apes to Pigs I tell you

@CalpolOnToast my DS was exactly the same when he was little. He's 15 now and tucks into most things including curry! I found it was all about encouraging him without any pressure. Offering every single mealtime but ignoring it if he made a fuss. Massive praise when he tried something new.

I found the first 5 years perfectly easy, apart from normal toddler pickiness- but that was no different from what I saw round the dinner table as a child.

Then they got to school and found out that school lunches were burgers and chicken nuggets and fish fingers and chips, and that the healthier, less fatty, less salty, generally non-battered food I had tried to sell as normal was anything but normal to their mates and clearly wasn't considered normal by their school either. It got harder after that. Ds often refused to eat. We persevered. He wouldn't actually starve himself, but he sometimes ate very little and clearly felt very hard done by.

I felt very envious of siblings and cousins bringing up their children in another country where school lunches looked more like healthy home-cooked food.

When I was a child, school lunches were very dull and often substandard (suspect the less principled retailers made a point of off-loading their less sellable goods on our school), but it was boiled spuds instead of chips, not everything was covered in batter, and there were hardly any puddings, though occasionally a fruit. There wasn't this idea that a child is hard done by if it doesn't get to eat party food every day.

Snacking. Before preprepped crap/snacks I.e pre late 1980s/90s there was less obesity. There was milk at school but no snacks.
Also far less playing out.

Also daily treats. If it’s daily it’s not a treat.
I am flabbergasted when I see ‘treat drawers ‘ on those tv programmes about diets etc. Many have a pan drawer full of crap!

All of the above but also portion sizes. Parents losing sight of how much a small child should have compared to an adult. If you feed a small child 2 chicken nuggets, a spoon of beans and a smattering of fries every day for dinner they will not get fat, despite it being unhealthy.
If you eat out most places now, you will get kids meals aimed at small children with 3 fish fingers plus a plateful of chips and beans, or 4 large chicken goujons or a plate of spaghetti worthy of an adult. Again, unhealthy food, sugar etc is part of the problem, but the sheer amount made available to some children is the rest of it. One of my children hates almost all vegetables and we quite often revert to what might be considered 'unhealthy', but our child is not overweight, because the portion sizes are correct for her size. We can work on the quality of dinners in time!

Hmmbop isn't the issue that you are working with clients that won't pay to hire staff who have food preparation skills? Cooking is undervalued by employers not employees.

I used to end up cooking less healthy meals at weekends only , as my DH worked away, and HE wouldn't eat them otherwise.

I've also seen examples in families where one parent undermines the other, so it's a losing battle.

I think that lots of people have lost touch with what a normal child should look like. I have heard so many parents up in arms because they have been told their child is in the top percentile for weight, and every time I have thought, yes I could have told you they were fat just by looking at them.
Allied to that, a lack of exercise and constant snacking

I agree with "Helpel". I am always taken aback on MN when some parents talk about how much they feed their tiny child. I have read of parents giving 5 year olds bigger packed lunches than I have, and I am fat.

My opinion is there isn't one factor that stops ' healthier eating' but many reasons.
The cheapness of highly processed foods would be my first reason. If you are on a very limited budget you are going to want to get as much as you can for your money to feed your family. I guess you are not wanting to try ' new to you' meals if in case nobody likes it and food is chucked away so people tend to stick to what they know.
Another reason is that processed cheap food is available everywhere. The dixy chicken type places are dirt cheap and in some towns there are many take away in easy reach of families.i guess it can be an east habit to get into grabbing a takeaway on the way home.
In many families I visit the habit of eating as a family at tea time doesn't happen. People are eating at all different times and grabbing what they want. This us due to lifestyle that has become normal, shift work, people snacking at different times of the day and not wanting to eat at tea time, after school activities and so on.
I do think lack of skill is another one. It's nearly 40 years since I left school but our home economics lessons was rubbish. I think we just made Rock cakes and muffins. My mum and dad worked and from what I recall it was the 70s and ( I maybe wrong) but the start of things like Findys pancakes and other processed, quick cook foods. Mum and dad still made things like corn beef hash, stews etc but the new foods seemed more exciting to us.
I love cooking now but I'm not going to lie. It's been a slow train coming for me. When the kids were small I used to hate tea time as everyone was tired and cranky. It was easier to give them something quick. However I learned to start preparing food better and developed more confidence in the kitchen but not everyone has the time to do that.

I did Home Economics in the 70s and was lucky then. We were taught how to cut up an onion, make a bechamel sauce, brown mince, how to follow a recipe, basic cooking skills that I still use.

Lazyness.
If you can't cook, learn.
It's just easy to throw some vegetables and fresh meat in the oven as it is to throw in chicken nuggets and chips. It's the prep that takes a little extra time. But no more than 5 minutes. I dont believe the cost thing. When I was a single mum on benefits, I had a shopping budget of 25 pounds a week. I still managed to feed us both home cooked meals.

@Helpel

Couldn't agree more! Took DS out for a pub lunch on Sunday and I couldn't believe the quantity on his plate. More mash than I'd give an adult, about half a tin of beans and six nuggets (kids menus are still appalling for healthy options, but that's another issue). His plate was the same size as mine and DH's. It really concerns me that it's considered a normal amount for a toddler.

As for your question though OP, I think it's a combination or lack of time and lack of knowledge. Cooking healthy meals just wasn't taught when I was in school 12 years ago, it was about making cakes using packet mixes and making bloody meringues. Doubt it's even taught now to be honest.

For us, it's time. The three of us are up at 6, DS at nursery by 7:15, and I'm at work for 8. If I'm lucky, we all get home for 6:30, at which point DS just wants feeding and bed. I try to be organised and have bologanise full of veg, frozen salmon, jacket potatoes, etc. Ready to cook and defrosted from the freezer so it just takes a few minutes, but sometimes it just has to be the quick freezer food like waffles if neither of us had been organised to remember to sort dinner out before we leave for work.

I did Home Economics in the 70s and was lucky then. We were taught how to cut up an onion, make a bechamel sauce, brown mince, how to follow a recipe, basic cooking skills that I still use.

Internet tutorials teach this one million times over if people can be bothered to watch them.

I did Home Economics in the 70s and was lucky then. We were taught how to cut up an onion, make a bechamel sauce, brown mince, how to follow a recipe, basic cooking skills that I still use
I did Home economics in the 70s and I'm good at making cakes!! Our class must have been shit as we didnt do anything like that. I thought myself when I left home at 17 and got fed up with Chinese takeaways!!!

I think it is a combination of a lot of factors like
availability, size of servings, the idea that people (not only those in manual jobs) need 'snacks' , long working / school days with little calories burnt, lack of practical householding skills, the concept of food as 'treat' and the feeling that (for a lot of people) "feeling hungry" has to be avoided at all costs, boredom (eating crisps gives your hands sth to do).

There are a number of very interesting free FutureLern courses on the topics of nutrition and weight.