is this too much food

[Bigmrsdragon]

SIL came around today and conversation turned to the change reported this week that 7 a day is the recommended amount of fruit and veg a day.
She said that her DCs get at least 10 portions a day so it doesn't bother her. I said that all my DCs could do it except DS3 (5) who is very fussy, she asked what I feed him and when I told her she ranted for ages saying I over feed him and if I stopped giving him so much he would eat more fruit.
I don't know if I am or not because I don't know what everyone else feeds their 5 year olds. I think my others used to eat the same amount but it was awhile ago so I may be confused.

Okay so in a typical school day he has

Breakfast- a piece of toast (with nothing on) and a glass of milk
School snack - half an apple
Lunch- a piece of bread folded in half with ham, a babybel, a box of raisins and a glass of water
Dinner- in the winter it is something warm like spaghetti Bolognese or chilli and rice and pudding can be a mouse or yogurt or a homemade cake or crumble. It fits on a child plate/bowl with room to spare.

We have takeaway once every two weeks. They can also have fruit for a snack after school but DS3 doesn't like fruit very much so he doesn't tend to have any.

So is that too much, or not SIL was very upset with me because she thinks I will damage him.

Some people try and apply adult diet rules to kids and that's not good for them, ditching the bread and eating only protein for lunch sounds suspiciously like the Atkins diet and the school would probably not be impressed!

He won't have cereal in the morning or cheese spread bloody fussy boy
I will try the boiled egg though because he will eat them.

SIL suggested (and wrote down and text me) that he should have less than her 7 year old

Breakfast- banana and grapes
Snack - apple
Lunch- a sandwich one slice of bread with cheese spread,Apple, orange ,raisins and water
Dinner- wraps with lettuce,chicken tomato and carrot or a jacket potato with tuna and cucumber all served with sweetcorn or peas pudding is fruit yogurt or fruit salad

Do her DCs not have any warm food then!?
I wouldn't want my DCS going to school on a portion of fruit alone - ignore her.

Sounds like SIL has a child with a small appetite and is projecting her anxiety a bit!

Her son eats a lot of fruit, his teeeeeeeeth (sorry I have a thing about it) his breakfast should set him up for the day

And I don't think fruit alone cuts it

Well if he's not too fat, and he's not too thin
And you don't refuse him food when he's hungry and you don't push food on him when he's not
Then clearly he is not being overfed, or underfed.

Your menu in your OP sounds perfectly fine to me

Her DCs have a jacket potato or stuffed pepers for warm food they have wraps or salad from what she has said.

SIL menu plan dire.

Is basically sugar.
And where is the fat?
Is basically the menu that one of the perpetually dieting women in my office would aim for.
Also risk to the teeth from all that acid.

Yeah ignore her she is talking through her arse.

Just to clarify - I'm not suggesting bread is bad, but if I was finding it difficult to get my child to eat enough fruit and veg, and it was a choice of a slice of bread or some cherry toms, carrot sticks and cucumber, I know what I'd choose. An alternative would be tuna pasta with some chopped peppers and sweetcorn mixed thru. As long as there's some veg with lunch.

And plenty of kids take bread free packed lunches to school, my DS's school certainly don't have a problem with it.

My five year old eats double, and is probably skinnier! goes to check for worms

My 2 year old eats more than that. Your sil is talking rubbish. My DS won't touch anything salad related, but will eat fruit and veg til it's coming out his ears. Your DS is getting veg in the spag Bol.

What's with being able to write down what they eat anyway? I couldn't as every day is so different I thought variety is good

My 7 and 3 year olds both eat lots more than that.

Breakfast: boiled egg and toast or porridge with fruit or greek yogurt with fruit.

Snack: fruit/veg and milk provided by school

Lunch: 2 slices of bread with ham/chicken/egg/tuna/cheese, a portion of fruit, one or two portions of cucumber/carrot/cherry tomatoes/peppers, a babybel or fromage frais.

After school snack: brioche, fruit, yogurt, possibly cold chicken or cheese if they are hungry.

Dinner: raw veg sticks with a dip, some sort of hot meal with veg, carbs and protein. If they are still hungry they can have fruit or yogurt for pudding but they rarely are.

They are both tall and slim and active.

FWIW I have found that when having eg pizza and salad, if they are pretty hungry I offer them the salad to start while they wait for the pizza and they will put it away like nobody's business.

So today they each demolished half a red pepper, 1/4 a cucumber and 2 large beetroot in the 10 mins it took for the pizza to cook

Might be worth a try if anyone is trying to get a bit more goodness into theirs

janetthegirl good suggestion, but my skinny greedy five year old comes from a long line of skinny greedy whipper snappers, its a bit of a family tradition.
Heck, of he actually gets worms I wouldn't be able to keep up.
(And for the record, I did get worms as a child. Twice [twice])

Where the heck is enough protein in the diet of SIL's child? Unless child is having a lot of yogurt & unstated milk.
I presume the wrap & bread must be wholemeal, too, or I'll start asking about iron, too.

I imagine cheese spread is much more fat than protein? 3-4 grams each of protein in the lunchtime sandwich (wheat) and again in the evening wrap (wheat) or jacket. This is suggesting 25 g protein needed per day for a 7yo.

(OP: I can see enough of those things in your child's diet, just am not sure about balance for SIL's kid)

I thought DS3 had a light appetite, but he's a complete pigoid compared to OP or her SIL's child.

Layl77 - he does have a variety of different things for dinner (tacos, tuna pasta bake, sausage stew , meatballs, lasagne etc) I was just trying to give a basic idea of a normal day. He tends to have the same for lunch and breakfast because he is fussy especially during the school week. When we are at home for lunch he can have subway or wraps or carrot soup depending on what he wants.

Oh bah, that should have been

NiceTabard- excellent idea! Mine get raw carrot sticks while waiting for dinner which contains them cooked- they sometimes don't like cooked carrots but sometimes will eat them raw!

lol @ random carrot preferences.

Anything that helps, isn't it

That doesn't sound too much. Appetite vary so much.

My skinny little five year old eats

Breakfast: bowl of shreddies and glass of milk or two wetabix

Snack: banana

School lunch box : ham sandwich, dairylea Dunkers, an orange or some grapes and a small biscuit or home made cake

After school snack: Apple or orange or crumpets

Dinner: spaghetti bolognese or fish fingers with veg

Supper: toast and fruit and milk

He runs round a lot though and is very lean. Looks a lot to see it written down !

Your SiL is feeding her children an odd diet for a child - there doesn't seem to be enough protein at the start of the day or enough fats for healthy growth / vitamin absorption.

My boys (6&7) eat the following:

Breakfast - 2 eggs cooked however they like. DS1 will have 2 slices of toast with his, DS2 normally has scrambled with some grated cheese and no toast.

Morning snack - something from lunch box.

Lunch box : 3 slices of bread with either ham / cheese or both in. Crunch box with an apple, carrot sticks, cucumber sticks, pepper sticks. Occasionally a muffin / muesli bar / slice of cake if I've made any at the weekend.

After school : whatever's left from their boxes if anything, or fruit.

Dinner : whatever we're having. Spag bol, roast, stir fry, fish & chips - they have 1-2 serves of veggies with theirs plus some sort of potato serving, we probably have 3-4 serves of veggies/salads but no carbs. We are trying to lose weight (healthily!), they on the other hand are growing and active boys.

We rarely have puddings but the boys are allowed yoghurt if they want something sweet after meals.

No idea on current BMI state but last I checked they were in the middle of the green zone. You can definitely see their ribs! Both getting a healthy covering of muscle too.

She sounds like a gloaty bitch to me. Your menu sounds fine.

I was probably a bad mum cos I used to worm mine every 6 months whether they needed it or not, just like puppies :).