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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

To be horrified at giving a 3 yr old crisps, chocolate biscuits, cheesy bites...

313 replies

starofastorath · 18/01/2013 20:20

....at 10 in the morning? After having sugary breakfast cereals?

OP posts:
lougle · 18/01/2013 22:23

There you go then, it only took an hour for the OP to call a spade a spade.

RandallPinkFloyd · 18/01/2013 22:27

My DS bloody loves rice cakes, I don't think they're particularly good or bad tbh. They're just rice cakes. Not too sweet or salty so they'll do for me.

He's not had chocolate or crisps yet as he's still too young to have noticed them or asked for them, thank god, but I did get a roasting on here for letting him have breadsticks.

I shit you not. A bread sick should be a once or twice a week treat apparently.

dikkertjedap · 18/01/2013 22:27

It is important that many adults/teenagers eat less carbohydrates and more fruit. This is not necessarily the case for young children, many paediatricians will tell you that a child needs some carbohydrates as a morning snack and that fruit is insufficient (apart from being bad for teeth).

However, at many schools it is perfectly acceptable for overweight staff to stuff themselves with biscuits but regarded as a crime if a child has a biscuit.

It all comes down to people making judgments in relation to areas where they have no or little knowledge/understanding, eg children's nutritional requirements are very different from those of adults.

Sirzy · 18/01/2013 22:30

The child didn't eat all of that though did they. Some "bad" food won't do any harm and certainly isn't an indicator of bad parenting.

Only if their diet only consisted of such foods would it raise alarm bells that the family may need more support when it comes to food.

beatofthedrum · 18/01/2013 22:35

Have giggled quite a few times reading this thread. No way the OP has a dc aged 3 or over, I fully agree with whoever said that. Standards slip as the years (weeks!) progress! What is greater than a mid-morning chocolate biscuit snack with happy children? :)

monkeymamma · 18/01/2013 22:45

Roast swan, ROFL.
Sausage rolls and tinned ravioli - yum, now want for my next meal.
Rice cakes - taste like cardboard, smell like farts.

Moominsarescary · 18/01/2013 22:50

What! This is all over one chocolate biscuit?

I gave ds3 22 months two the other morning

INeedThatForkOff · 18/01/2013 23:03

Fnar.

15 mins after DD (2.10) has eaten 3 spoonfuls (max) of porridge, she's in the prowl for something else.

'I want sumfin to eat!'
'Do you? What like?'
'Sumfin crunchy.'
'Crunchy - an apple?'
'No, they're yuck. Sumfin crunchy and brown.'
'Oh, crunchy and brown like toast.'
'No that's digustin. Sumfin crunchy and brown that's in a tin'.

Same most days. My DD won't eat fruit or veg. I won't make an issue of it. If she didn't eat snacks she'd live on little but bites of her meals and milk.

FunnysInLaJardin · 18/01/2013 23:06

YABU. My DC have what they like really, I try not to make crisps etc a regular 10 am thing but if thats what they want tis fine with me. They also have regular meals and are slim so ...........

gail734 · 18/01/2013 23:11

INeedThatForkOff lol at "Sumfin crunchy and brown."

FunnysInLaJardin · 18/01/2013 23:12

usual John Bishop? I am discusted

MrsOakenshield · 18/01/2013 23:15

beatofthedrum I have a 3 year old and wouldn't offer her any of those. I don't really care about this, but I don't see why being the parent of a 3 year old should make me give her chocolate biscuits and crisps as a snack? Or have I missed something in a parenting manual?

LibraryMum8 · 18/01/2013 23:16

Now that ds is 11 I am much more relaxed. Sometimes he will have one of those cereal bars for breakfast if I'm late or frazzled. The best, no, but it doesn't happen all the time. I have bigger fish to fry! And if this isn't your child, I might want to stay out of it. You might not know circumstances.

forevergreek · 18/01/2013 23:28

Hmm, feel free to feed them whatever you fancy. Personally no, I don't feed 3 year old choc/ biscuits/ crisps on a regular basis. We don't eat them regularly as adults so it wouldn't occur to me to feed to someone small.

GruffalosGirl · 19/01/2013 00:29

When my pfb was little he was the organic home made healthy snack child. Another child and four years of sleep deprivation later he now starts every day with the bribe of mummy's special chocolate if he's managed to stay in his own bed til six.

As long as that's not all they eat then whatever gets you through the day I say. If I had a fiver for every parenting "I'll never...." I've broken I'd be a rich woman Grin

PurpleStorm · 19/01/2013 00:43

I don't think that having crisps, chocolate biscuits, cheesy bites and sugary cereal every day would be healthy, but... horrified? Really? I think you're over-reacting a little.

(And DS & I both like those flavoured rice cakes they sell for babies, BTW. Not as good as chocolate biscuits, but surprisingly tasty)

Posterofapombear · 19/01/2013 00:49

DD at all of 18 months calls chocolate 'more more'
She makes a good point

MrsApplepants · 19/01/2013 00:51

There are lots of horrifying things in the world today. Chocolate for 3 year olds is not one of them.

Badvoc · 19/01/2013 08:29

Rice cakes are quite nice with shit loads of Nutella on.....

theodorakisses · 19/01/2013 08:58

Gruffalo, what a lovely post, it just sums it all up.

I am not horrified by this, some of the neglect and abuse I have seen, yes, but food? (mind you I am eating left over stuffed crust Pizza Hut for my elevenses while trying to get back to my dissertation so I guess I am a horrifying human. I have a 4x4 as well just in case you are interested. I remember my elder sister being intolerable with her first and dictating the rules of organic non violent no tv no sugar parenting to all around her and saying that shouting should be classed as a criminal assault. (an elective CS people should be named and shamed) Last time I saw her she was yelling at DS4 (aged 3) for spilling his cocoa pops on the carpet because he was so engrossed in his favourite Outnumbered episode he had dropped them.

carabos · 19/01/2013 09:01

I would describe myself as horrified by the story about poor little Ryan who drank methadone from his sippy cup and died. Toddler has crisps for breakfast - not so much.

Hulababy · 19/01/2013 09:13

starofastorath - Do you have a child of your own? If so how old? Oh - and what do you think of raisins and other dried fruit?

Locketjuice · 21/01/2013 13:16

And also... Ds is 1 he will barely touch anything everything meal time he will maybe have 3 bits of sweetcorn before decided he's had enough and wants nothing else... So if I can get him to eat ANYTHING in happy even if it is wotsits!

Convert · 21/01/2013 13:29

Wonder why the OP hasn't returned to tell us that she has four DC and they all only eat organic veg from her garden as snacks.

I have three DC 6, 4 & 1. DS1 had chicken pox so has only gone back to school today. Youngest 2 came out with it on Saturday so I am under house arrest STILL.
I have actually had crisps for breakfast myself today.

JoandMax · 21/01/2013 13:44

Meh, as long as its not everyday it's hardly the crime of the century.

When you've had a failure to thrive, tube fed baby you get a lot more relaxed about food!!!