to have wanted to scream, :"F**K YOU!!!!!" at a woman at playgroup today?!

[Diziet]

OK, just having a rant here, getting it off my chest type of thing...
We were all giving our DC snacks at around 11 - some of the older ones start nursery at 12.10 so it makes sense. My DS decided he didn't want his sandwiches. I said to him, "you can't have chocolate spread EVERY day, sweetheart!". Then I heard one of the other mums say, "oh, I don't give mine anything like that".
Wanted to say: "F**K YOU!! Not everyone is lucky like you and has children who are good eaters.
Some of us are grateful for our children to eat ANYTHING."
But I didn't. I gathered my son and my's belongings and we went home. He is munching his chocolate spread sandwiches (on WHITE BREAD - HA!!!!) with deafening slowness as I type.
I will return once I've dropped him at Nursery.

A sandwich is not the issue here imo. It's about somebody thinking they're better than the OP. That's why she is NBU to feel as hurt and angry as she did.

Perhaps there is something about polarised positions here. For example, if my lot are ill and want to eat chocolate buttons, I give them chocolate buttons (scoffing a fair few myself in the process) and then when they're a bit better I waft other things under their noses until they are tempted back into the Food Real World. If the toddler wants to ignore most of his food and get down from the table because he is bored, we sort of let him wander about a little bit but ignore him and don't give him anything until the next meal. If the kids have been a bit off their food for some sort of vague biological reason, and I think they haven't had enough calories, I will quite happily feed them something sweet and calorific to perk them up (I do a nice line in home made rice pudding with jam, for example, and I will buy McDonalds if necessary). I think we fuss too much about getting it right all the time and we should just pat ourselves on the back for doing the best we can. By the way, technically speaking I have two fussy eaters out of four.

What do Greggs things actually taste like? It is the sort of stuff you get at office parties?

I'm with you Boffinmum. I also think when you take into account DS1 (9) does 8 hours a week organised exercise plus about 2 hours a week walking the dog on the beach and DS2 (4) does about the same albeit about 6 hours organised exercise I don't think a bit of highly calorific food is a problem. Perhaps for kids who get ferried about in cars and sit in front of a computer all day parents have to be very careful about what they eat.

At one point the cheese pie was the only thing Dd2 would eat.

DP loves Greggs cheese pies (Glaswegian) so gave her one. I tasted it. It is like....you know that vile processed cheese you can spread on toast..Dairylea...that with a bit of onion enclosed in flaky greasy pastry.

I can't bear them or anything from Greggs for that matter, but the kids love em.

We only get them for a 'treat' every few months though.

And DD2 DOES eat olives... did I mention that? So, you know, am not a complete failure on the parenting front.

German and French kids eat a fair amount of processed food, but complement it with a national love of salad, fizzy water, etc.

It's all about the balance, IMO.

My kids do a fair bit of running around, not least because I let them play out with their friends. So none of them are overweight. I also think sitting around the table for meals and conveniently forgetting to buy kitkats, crisps, coke and so on is very useful as well. Although we always have choc chip cookies in the biscuit tin, hot chocolate on demand for fractious children and a sweetie jar that can be accessed on request after dinner with a bit of eyelash fluttering.

My 14month old eats anything BUT it has to be in front of the telly, I have to feed her, will not event attempt to feed herself anything, I've tried for months to get her have some finger foods with no luck. Oh she wont chew any of her food either, just swallows it. She doesnt drink any milk either. So my solution? Give in, feed her good healthy meals in front of the telly, making sure its soft enough for her to just swallow by mashing it all adding milk into it.
I just wouldnt tell anyone about it unless they asked as its none of their business, likewise I couldnt care less what or how anyone else fed their child. Just ignore her OP

My 14month old eats anything BUT it has to be in front of the telly, I have to feed her, will not event attempt to feed herself anything, I've tried for months to get her have some finger foods with no luck. Oh she wont chew any of her food either, just swallows it. She doesnt drink any milk either. So my solution? Give in, feed her good healthy meals in front of the telly, making sure its soft enough for her to just swallow by mashing it all adding milk into it.
I just wouldnt tell anyone about it unless they asked as its none of their business, likewise I couldnt care less what or how anyone else fed their child. Just ignore her OP

haven't read word for word but in regards to the 'if they're hungry they'll eat'
For my dd2 i have tried and tried and tried, not gave her 'her' food for days and had no treats and she only drinks water anyway, it DOESN"T work (FOR ME) and we were all getting to a point where meal times were unhappy for everyone.
I'd rather her eat something on her limited list now rather than have three children growing up with awful issues around food being a very stressful time. If i'd carried on i think that's what would have happened.
that's not to say i've 'give up' on her at 5, she still gets offered but i've learned that she can't be forced.

It could be worse, she could be your sister.
And no, we don't talk much

Not read whole thread yet, so apologies if I'm repeating, but in future you could just calmly tell her that your child is unlikely to die from eating chocolate spread and perhaps she could concentrate on her own children and leave the parenting of yours to you!

She could well have been a bitch aware that she winds you up when she mentions food!

Don't give her the satisfaction. Although, if you explain that you struggle to get him to eat bread and this is his motivation at least she knows you care and have a reason.

Anyone else noticed Nutella's advertising themselves in the normal breakfast setting recently.
Here's your orange juice,
Here's your cereal
Oh and here's Chocolate spread on your toast...
Have a good day at School dears!

Am I mad to think that chocolate should not be part of breakfast?

Hello everyone, I'm back!!! Crumbs, you have all been busy while I've been away - food really is a big issue, isn't it.
For the record:
Both my boys are a suitable weight for their height, age, etc.
My youngest (Nutella Boy!!) is 3yrs 5 ms but has a speech & language delay: he speaks in baby babble and signs a little. So we get rather a lot of 'Screaming Wee Beastie from Hell' moments at the best of times on account of him not being able to make himself understood (although I've been learning Sign Along and this is helping).
They have Marmite on their toast at breakfast time, and a bowl of cereal (usually bran flakes or cheerios) and a cup of milk.
They never have fizzy drinks.
They rarely have things like lollies, bags of sweets, that sort of thing.
I do the best I can with what I can, and I try to offer them new things every now and then - because sometimes, they'll surprise me.

In addition (had to write these all down!!
@ TreeDelivery : and LOL!!! Love your idea as to origin of chocolate spread!!
@ Kungfupannda : I thought you were very restrained in your response - or lack of - to the lady you mentioned in your post. You were the better woman for it.
@ Lolalocket : My God - what a nightmare. I'm glad to hear that yout LO is headed in the right direction though.
@ CommanderCool : I hope you manage to get your essay done in time!

Phew!

The funny thing is...the sandwiches he refused...had jam in!!

I wouldn't have even tried to defend myself and explain my reasons for giving him choc spread sandwiches.

I would have pretended not to hear and stayed there to show her she hadn't got to me.

Was she definitely talking to you though or perhaps she was referring to the situation to somebody else?

nappyaddict : I think it was loosely aimed at me. I don't even think it occurred to her that she might have upset me.
Chances are she's going to be at the playgroup I help to run tomorrow.
I'm still a bit miffed at her but I reckon I can hold my tongue.
Most probably.

CommanderCool- is your family name Mouseling by any chance?

I was just thinking that someone may have said oh Diziet's DS won't eat his lunch, what a shame and that was her reply?

If she had definitely been talking to me I would have responded with something like aww bless you to care so much but he's ok really. It's better he eats something than starves.

It gives her further understanding as to why she should perhaps not make similar comments to other people in future, but makes you out to be confident in your choices rather than getting all defensive about them.

One thing we do in the case of DC4 is to put bits of favoured food on the more nutritious calorific stuff, to increase his intake. So strawberry pieces on the top of a spoon of lasagne,for example. This increases the number of spoonfuls he will eat from something like 1 or 2 to 6 or 8.

I would have just said: "Why not? It`s delicious"

In fact, I had a similar conversation the other day.

The thing is, if you believe that it really is OK for your child to eat nutella, you would not want to scream abuse at somehow who criticises it. You would just shrug or smile, or say: "But its yummy, dont you know?". I think she hit a sore spot, and you feel guilty about the Nutella.

Don`t.

On the continent they eat chcolate sprinkles (Holland) on bread, or choclate slices (Belgium) or Nutella (everywhere) and nobody thinks its the work of the devil. You English have this hangup about Chocolate being a BAD food. If eaten in moderation it wont harm you, really, trust me.

mrsruffalo Do your children eat any bread type things? eg tortilla wraps, muffins, bagels, pitta breads, crackers etc

Actually I am not just drawing on my own experience - I'm an educationalist and have had dealings with very many kids in relation to food. You would be surprised.