to ask if you can beat this for picnic bingo?!

[twosmallbuttons]

During picnic today with my DC, I saw a mum of a child around the same age as my DC2 (15 months or so) give her a pack of chocolate biscuits, fruit shoot, and those bacon rasher type crisps things.

All very amusing in an AIBU way, but really, is this what the next generation is being fed?

[SPsTotallyMullerFuckingLicious]

This wouldn't bother me. My son gets mistaken for a nearly 2 year old all the time when he is in fact nearly 4.

I'm not strict on food and he has free range really in the house. He always asks if he wants something. He eats his meals and isn't over weight. He also doesn't bag for sweets/crisps or chocolate all day.

In fact its pasta and coleslaw he nags for. I'm sick of seeing the stuff!

[Wheresmycaffeinedrip]

Thank god now for aldi where fruit can cost as little as 39p

Must be a huge help for those who can access one

[Bunnygotwhacked]

that is sad caffeinedrip you are right they were probably doing the best with the support and information provided to them and you know what I wasn't all that different when dd was born I never really knew how to cook I ate crap and just fed her crap our favorite thing was one of those rotisserie chickens and some rolls. It wasn't until ds1 came along and i met a woman i will forever be grateful to who recommended a recipe book full of stuff to cook for toddlers and i haven't looked back. That was because i had an interest in it though for people not interested in cooking it is doubly worse.
I was thinking about the op's picnic and whilst it is dreadful food those items can be bought in multipacks at the pound shop and perhaps that picnic cost her working out that two were from 6 packs and you can get little 4 pack fruit shoots in thereabout 57p you are lucky if you can buy an apple for that these days.
The same story everywhere crap is affordable healthy stuff costs loads

[Damnautocorrect]

Mmmmmm frazzles, I love frazzles

[Cat98]

Idiot55 - I doubt there are many children just fed on salad and fruit.. But I see your point. I believe in educating children about healthy choices and what food does for your body, plus allowing most types of foods in moderation.

[Cat98]

I could have been the mum Spanish lady mentions - I'd have been likely to buy ds a magnum but not a fruit shoot! I don't see why that's so weird.

As for the op - it's not great, but it's not the worst thing in the world if its a one off - which you have no way of knowing! If the child is fed this stuff every day I agree it's terrible but you have no idea if this is the case...?

[idiot55]

I'm interested in watching what will happen with this generation of children, brought up on fruit, salad, watered down fruit juice etc. I suppose I mean the children who are brought up thinking they are better than others because they areonlyfedwith healthy food.

Will they rebel as teenagers,or earlier?

Or will the "healthy food" message stick ?


I think probably like most people that the healthy message is important but in general everything in moderation.

[Choccywoccydodah]

Glad you said that hophop. We took our ds (2 last week) on a picnic this week and he had his sandwiches on the way along with strawberries and grapes.
We got to the park and he had some of our crisps and a cookie. Obviously everyone would have thought I was a bad mother
(This is a child that I have always cooked for, never fed out of jars, never taken to McDonalds, won't touch ice cream and i wouldn't ever give him a fruit shoot/fizzy drinks as I always take out more than enough of his own juice)
However he is having a pain au chocolate for breakfast with his milk, it's Saturday

[Wheresmycaffeinedrip]

Those pasta and pot noodle girls I saw. I did feel sorry for the babies but I also felt sorry for the mums. They were very young and genuinely looked clueless as to what to buy and what to do with it all. The choices they were making weren't great. I'd go as far to say dangerous tbh but what was sadder was the fact that they looked so confused and probably had very little in the way of support and advice. Lets face it, just how much had they learnt at home, or school or from HCP that are supposed to help them, if they were seriously considering pot noodles for babies.

[hophophippidtyhop]

She might have been hungry on the way to the picnic and already eaten the sandwiches and houmous. Plus my teeny 3 year old is the same size and height as my friends 18 month old.

[urtwistingmymelonman]

hey guess what?
I occasionally ate sweets,crisps and fizzy drinks when I was a child and im still here!
im thirty five and my teeth haven't fallen out!
my stomache hasn't exploded.
my limbs haven't dropped off.
im not a junkie.
im not a serial killer.
im not a benefit cheat.
and yes, I eat humous.
and vegetables.
and fruit!
and sometimes I still eat sweets and crisps.

[Wheresmycaffeinedrip]

I think it is worth pointing out though that something like a picnic is a great way to take the focus of eating as its fun and its different and if someone has a very fussy eater it may well be something they try. And whereas many people suggest (depending on age of child) making a healthy meal and offering no alternative and just taking it away after a set time whether its eaten or not. In extreme cases its suggested that the child be given something it's definitely going to eat so he or she is not upset and stressed and just has the option with no pressure to try other things when ready. Not saying that's what was happening with this baby. But next time you see a picnic full of what you deem "crap" it's worth thinking that there may be a story behind it.

[Pobblewhohasnotoes]

My 18 month old ate chicken nuggets and chips from BK in a service station yesterday whilst we stopped off on a horrible journey on the motorway. Clutch your pearls at that. He also ate a banana and drank water.

One snapshot is not representative of someone's life.

[RoxyFox211]

Lol, I suppose it's pretty bad to have that all in one go! But spread out over birthday parties I reckon dd eats a lot worse, mainly because of having unlimited access to the food table and it being a complete nightmare to try and regulate whilst everyone else just tucks in.
It's one day. (and not really anyone else's business I guess).

[Fakebook]

There's 10mg of caffeine per 100ml of coca cola, which is about how much ds had. As long as you don't put a teat at the end of a bottle and feed the whole 350ml to the child, they'll be fine.

[Fakebook]

Coke for a 19 month old, really? I don't give a shit if hat makes me sound judgey

Yes, why? We don't buy coke in our house unless I'm having a craving. My children are given 3 healthy meals a day with plain water or juice. My dd practically lives on fruit and salads and they both are a healthy weight and have clean teeth and (touch wood) hardly ever get ill, apart from the odd cold once in a while.
I can give them the occasional coke or sweet knowing full well that I'm not jeopardising their health for life and knowing they have a healthy relationship with food, where nothing is banned, but they know to have it in moderation.

I don't understand how people judge a whole lifestyle from one snapshot, in one day of a person's life. ...

[StElmo]

Yeah the food is pretty gross but you have no way of knowing that was the child's mum. We may well see an AIBU 'to kill my friend/sister/sil/childminder etc. for giving my child bacon flavoured crisps in the park'

[Beechview]

I'm with you op. I don't have a holier-than-thou view to food but that is a lot of rubbish to feed a toddler.

I actually think we should demonise certain foods. Some food is so shit that no one should be eating it really.
I know that talk about how processed food is really bad for us etc often bores people but I actually think its disgraceful that so much crap is passed off as food.

[LingDiLong]

Ok, well if this is picnic bingo then wheresmycaffeine has just got a full house! I'd join you in judging that!! Like you say, even as a one off that could be damaging to a young baby.

And no of course tomatoes don't cancel anything out but they at least have some nutritional value. A child eating just frazzles is going to be very unhealthy, a child eating food with nutritional value plus frazzles is going to be slightly less unhealthy!

[Wheresmycaffeinedrip]

I once saw (not on a picnic ) two mums with babies who must have been no more than 8/9 months old, one had hold of a pot noodle, the other had hold of a packet of that pasta n sauce stuff and they were debating which one their babies would like.

Feeding junk to kids was never my thing when they were babies but I do realise others make different choices. And never usually care. This was one occasion where I did feel sorry for the kids though mainly because the salt content alone could be far to high for them to safely eat.

[Arisbottle]

I love frazzles.

[LingDiLong]

Bet she didn't eat or drink them all though...

[twosmallbuttons]

So if the child had eaten some tomatoes that would cancel out the crap then?

[twosmallbuttons]

Oops!