to ask what 'processed/pre-made' food other people actually feed their young DC?

[Thurlow]

Just curious really. 20mo DC currently still eats well and we've been able to keep snacks still as oatcakes, veg sticks, that sort of thing. But I'm a pretty crap cook, so the meals aren't lovingly homemade stews or that. Yesterday she had supermarket filled pasta and sauce, few extra veg packaged food other parents actually do feed their young DC. Especially as often you come across threads where squash/chips/chicken dippers are considered the foods of the devil

Off the top of my head, we feed the toddler:
Fish fingers
Baked beans
Pre-filled pasta
Pasta sauces from jars (does that count?)
Very occasional microwave baby ready meal
Fishcakes
Quiche
Processed meats like haslet, cheaper sandwich ham etc

What pre-made or processed food do you feed your DC?

fish wingers waffles and baked beans or veg are served here about once every fortnight,when me and dh are eating something either very hot or very fussy which i know they wouldnt even try,they are pretty good with meals but some things even they wont eat.

they eat crisps most days in their packed lunch,those lttle crappy yogurts in tubes,squash.

dont do ready made pasta sauces,homemade tastes miles better and is piss easy to make so dont see the point really.

Fish fingers
tinned tuna/mackeral / sardines
plain pasta with melted philadelphia & whatever greenery i have in the fridge
beans & spaghetti hoops
marmite
quorn chicken slices
Omlette
chicken curry made in the slow cooker without chillies & salt
jacket potatoes
roast dinners
cucumber & carrot sticks
hummous
dairy lea
ritz crackers
Rice
couscous
tortilla wrap pizzas - they love adding their own toppings
tomato sauce - home made Delia recipe
quorn sausages
lamb sausages
pim bears crisps
yoghurt
any type of cheese
mini malted milk cookies
mini cake bars
juice

When I had just the one DS he lived on a diet of home made everything, organic / free range wherever available (with the exception of bread and cheese! ). Now I have 3 DC and work, they delight in instant rice, tinned custard, jarred pasta sauce, fish fingers, beans and sausages, even tinned Heinz mini meals for nursery tea. Meh. I can't remember the last time I cooked for pleasure, I have about 30 minutes a day free time now.

I try to give DD the healthiest diet possible when I am not working to make up for the 2 days a week grandma feed her chocolate and crisps for breakfast :(

My 23 mo twins have home cooked food most days but we do have:

• fish fingers, chips and tomato ketchup
• occasionally "little dish" filled pasta with homemade sauce
• beans or tinned spaghetti
• houmous
• tinned custard with mashed banana

Also they have corncakes or organix crisps/crackers sometimes, and the usual cereal/bread etc

DS (14ms) has:

toddler ready meals (at childminders)
spaghetti hoops
tinned ravioli
pizza (loves pizza)
biscuits
pastries- inc Greggs
chips

And he was weaned on baby tins. He prefered the texture and was getting most of his nourishment from breastmilk so I was "Meh" about the supposed health risks

Ha also just remembered, I had nicotine tainted breastmilk, formula and tins for the first year of my life (no fresh solids at all!) and still alive with all my teeth and faculties

Ready flavoured cous cous
Spinach tortellini
Packet ham in sarnies
Fish fingers or boil in the bag fish/parsley s
Tinned tuna/salmon/sardines

I suppose bread/cheese/cereal (although I don't think of them as 'as' processed)

They do have treats which are obv processed - sweets/crisps/choc etc.
I think that's it really

DS 18mnths eats whatever we eat except for alcohol, hotter spicy food and caffeine though is partial to the odd sip of black coffee once in a while

We almost always cook from scratch in the evening with more processed stuff at lunchtime and eat a very varied diet. He's allergic to pistachios and cashews but otherwise nothing is off limits. If we have a piece of cake, crisps, sausage roll or (on rare occasions) fizzy drink, E number filled ice lolly or fast food meal he has some too. I'd say he has something like that most days but also loves veg and would probably pick fruit over chocolate.

You called?

I feel your pain, safmellow. I've finally, finally got my dad onside in understanding what is and isn't the kind of food I'd like DC to eat.

So far she's not really had much chocolate and has yet to work out how amazing it is. I'd like it to stay like this for as long as possible before the inevitable happens.

So no, mum, can you please stop handing her an entire Tunnocks Caramel Wafer...

Ham
Bacon
Smoked salmon (erring on the edge of not processed but at the end of the day it is - but packed full of nutrition)
Bread (the original fast food, lets face it!)
Fish fingers, the occasional nuggets, chicken dippers
Oven chips, occasionally
McDonalds, after swimming about once a fortnight

You could go really hardcore if you look up the Paleolithic diet and say anything that isn't in its totally natural form is processed, including milled grains etc - (sorry haven't read all replies so sorry if someone has already covered this).

So orange juice...porridge with milk...anything with polyunsaturated fats...legumes, grains....

Yes, that's taking it pretty far.

You can't really argue that pasteurised homogenised milk isnt' processed either. But once again, taking it to the extreme of the argument.

So in the spirit of the thread, my first list sums up most. I don't like "frankenfats" (I cant' believe its not butter and its ilk) - whereas canned tomatoes, the odd jar of this or that (even though they probably contain some of said frankenfats!) and whatnot get through. I'm not a food police. I don't do frubes, but have a secret midnight penchant for green mini babybells (the processed goat ones!) mmmmmgoaty goaty goaty....

Oh, they have biscuits and sweets too sometimes, though not crisps (I dont' eat them so forget to buy them) but they love fruit and my daughter is a salad freak (tomatoes and cucumbers particularly) so things kind of even out a bit I find

Fish fingers are one of DD's favourite foods!

otherwise, baked beans, the occasional oven pizza on lazy/poorly days... I don't think anyone can be expected to make amazing 'from scratch' meals every day of the week. I doubt it does harm!!

Oh hell I had a pot noodle the other morning and it was devine. Filthy dirty devine. But the children have not partaken of. Yet.

My name came about when my HV was reassuring me during PNanxiety. Fishfingers are OK. Fresh fish, packed in boxes and frozen. Then they are perfect rectangles to cut up and coat.

I used to feel I was failing as "ubermum" to not cook from scratch. DCs ate what we ate. Trouble is we were on quite a low-fat, low carbs diet. My DCs started eating like horses for weeks - HV laughed and said "Fish, then need cake, and crumble and apple pie and custard. They need bread and potatoes. They need fat in their diet".

Sure enough, added in the custard (tinned) crumbles, more fat and carbs and their eating "calmed down".

They are now 5 & 7. I am less anxious. They have eaten all manner of take-aways Thai, Vietnamese, Chinese, curry. They have had candy floss and toffee apples. Pasta 'n' Sauce and supernoodles (whilst camping). Ready meal Mac n Cheese (Waitrose though, naturally ). Haribo. Blue bubblegum flavoured ice lollies, vimto double boak>. There have been teas served of chocolate spread on toast. I cannot give you my DS's favourite sandwich combination as it is so grim and individual it would out me.

Most things are cooked from scratch. But nor when we are on holiday. Or the odd occasions when opening a tin of Heinz ravioli and serving with some brocolli and toast is all I have time for (they love that),

They are fit, healthy and wonderful. Fishfingers Are OK.

Fish fingers
Sausages
Chips
Tinned beans/spaghetti
Tinned soup
Jar curry sauce
Chicken dippers/nuggets/etc
Fish cakes
Oh and Ham dd asks for a ham sandwhich every bloody day for lunch doesn't get it though.

Dd has probably at one time had most proccessed food but we generally have one easy meal a week which could be any combination of the above. If we have take away so does dd, and she only drinks water at home.

btw mine are older (6 and 4). My not quite 2 year old niece has never had a biscuit, chocolate, etc. Her treat is soda water with a squeeze of orange instead of normal water. She has avocado on homemade sourdough made from my brothers 7 year old sourdough starter (they grow up so fast!!!) but you could argue that's STILL processed, for perspective!!!

Can't wait to slip her a twix when her parents aren't looking at Xmas

Only kidding a bit

Just to bang on a bit further, how hard is it to get grass fed beef?! Hard! You could even take the argument to the extent that any non wild fish or any grain fed (or formula fed, in essence) meat packed with hormones and antibotics is processed, in a sense. God knows where that line should be drawn!

19 months.

He has:

Dairylea
Scotch eggs
Mini pork pies
Alphabeti spaghetti
Baked beans
Quiche
Biscuits
And he has froot shoots once a week as a treat (shame)
Haddock goujons

He has a lot of home made food. But I don't beat myself up if not everything is cooked from scratch. Convenience food has its place.

In terms of processed food, my DD, who is 17m, eats:
Bread (wholemeal or white)
Ham (naice or cheap)
Sausages - we do try & get good ones without lots of nasty stuff in.
Baked beans (we let her have about a spoonful, without too much sauce)
Own-brand 'ready-brek' type fortified instant porridge.
Occasionally, a tiny smear of decent marmalade or peanut butter.
Margarine if we have run out of butter.

she will eat almost any veg & is obsessed with cherry tomatoes & cucumbers, & fruit generally. So I salve my conscience by serving some of those with every meal. She doesn't get sweets, chocolate, squash etc & I'm fairly strict about foods with unnecessary added sugar in. If I wouldn't eat it, she doesn't (I don't have a sweet tooth).

But, we do make the majority of our, and her food from scratch as much as possible. We are also careful about counting her salt intake on days when she has anything processed.

if one more person uses the phrase "cook from scratch" I swear I will combust.

DD1 : what ever the fuck she will actually eat

DD2: Whatever i'm eating.

Lots of homemade meals, but convenience foods/processed foods would be

Peanut butter
Jam
Marmite
Biscuits
Crisps
Ham
Cheese
Bread
Cakes
Chips
Sausages
Baked beans
Cereal
Custard
Yoghurt

Generally breakfast is cereal with milk, a banana as a mid morning snack, a home cooked meal such as chilli con carne for dinner, biscuits or rice cakes as a mid afternoon snack and a sandwich or toast for tea with more fruit and some yoghurt.

Just wanted to say that I'm loving this thread, makes me feel normal! Fish fingers and beans on toast are a staple in our home