to think nesquick whole grain cereal, fat free milk and no added sugar juice is relatively healthy for a fussy eater

[twistedsista]

Hi,

My 7 year old Ds is a very fussy eater, tried everything!

I would love it if he would eat kale with cottage cheese on rice cakes for breakfast but get real no child eats perfectly like that.

Today he had a normal sized bowl of whole grain nesquick cereal with skimmed milk.I know it has some sugar in it but its only about the same as a banana and to counter this he has a glass of sugar free orange squash. Both the cereal and juice have added vitamins. Does everyone else agree this is pretty healthy and realistic breakfast?

Thanks

Marie

Simpler eating is much cheaper and much better.
We only drink tap water here and that's very cheap and much better for all children and toddlers than fresh fruit juice (which is basically sugar) and all these squashes which are filled with all kinds of artificial sweeteners. There is no need to give children so much sugar. It only takes 2 or 3 weeks for any of us to change a habit such as giving up caffeine or fruit juices. If the only thing available for people's precious little darlings is tap water I would bet my bottom dollar even the most spoilt of children would not die of thirst.

Jane so it's OK for kids not to drink anything for 2-3 weeks while habits are being changed? No thanks, my 'precious little darlings' ( well not so little now) will carry on drinking squash. Just like I have all my life , now a very healthy 54 year old.

I bought ds a water bottle (the type with a straw) and he loves drinking water from that, whereas from a regular beaker hell always ask for juice or squash.

Gradual change is the best way imo, not an immediate overhaul of his diet. Baby steps.

My ds has a healthy basic diet (likes porridge, oatibix for breakfast. Eats lots of fruit and veg. Mostly healthy protein.) he does however have too much sugar on top - sugary snacks at school or his sports clubs etc. Drives me a bit nuts but I am satisfied that he eats lots of healthy food as a staple, and is slim and active. I try and educate him about the effects of too much sugar/processed stuff in the hope that he will make healthy choices as he grows and becomes more independent, as that is surely the ultimate goal.

I think the cereal is fine for a fussy eater.

I wouldn't bother with squash. Real juice or water is better imo.

OMG this thread is terrifying - so many people talking rubbish about healthy eating it's untrue.

The facts we have are: boy is a fussy eater, he is over-weight and he loves sweet tastes.

I think the advice you have been given about cutting fats and upping carbs is out of date - the carbs are just complex sugars and will b driving his desire for more sweet tastes. It's sugar that is his real enemy. Fats (in moderation) will help him feel full.

I also wondered if you have had advice on portion sizes? You are clearly very anxious about making sure he eats enough because he is fussy but at the same time he is overweight. He may simply be OK eating less and being left until he feels really hungry - he doesn't sound like some of the other posters fussy eaters who are underweight.

So sugar-free squash is better for him than normal squash as fewer calories (ignore the aspartame madness) but it still encourages him to think all drinks should taste sweet. Juice is acidic and v high in sugar - a glass of orange juice contains the sugar of 8 oranges, when would you eat 8 oranges at once? So ultimately water would be best.

Cereal isn't great and Nesquik cereal definitely isn't as it's so sugary but you are in a bind as he is so fussy. You could keep it for treats at a weekend and have a less sugary cereal the rest of the time. You should also weigh the portions according to the recommendations on the box - most self-poured portions of cereal are much bigger than they suggest, often 2 or 3 times bigger.

Skimmed milk won't be cutting down his calories much - semi-skimmed or even whole milk would have more vitamins and possibly help him feel full.

Ideally he should see that everyone in the family is having much the same as him ie the same milk, drinks etc so he isn't a special case - it will be much easier to get him to drink water if that's what everyone drinks for example.

they may not die of thirst jane but dd1 is very prone to constipation. The more liquid she drinks the better she is. Personally I will go with that above aspartame. Then it's difficult with dd2 but tbh I drank squash through my whole childhood, am a normal weight and have no fillings so I'm really not convinced its so bad.

kundry makes some good points there.

I'm sceptical about the number of adults who drink water at mealtimes.
It's definitely harder for kids to have "just wate" if their parents are drinking juice/ squash/ fanta/ wine at mealtimes.

Indeed i need to drink more water.

DS is generally ok drinking water at home, and we don't usually drink anything different at the table, but when we mix with other families and friends a lot of the kids only drink coke, orange juice, fruit shoot and iced tea at meal times. It's only natural that he looks on it as a treat that he is missing out on.

So our rule when we are out at BBQ's etc is - glass of water first, if you are still thirsty you can have a small coke, then a water and so on....

He never really gets past the first fizzy drink because the water always quenches his thirst. Yet drinking carbonated drinks always leaves people even thirstier I find.

I find the level of sugar in fruit juice really frightening, plus we seem to have moved into a culture of gulping it like water.

I blame Neighbours!

Seriously - in the 70's/early 80's my brother and I would have orange juice on holiday in a hotel - in a tiny thimble glass for breakfast or room temp in a wine glass as a starter for dinner.

When we were 14/16 we started watching Neighbours and there was always some character hanging on the fridge door gulping from a 5 gallon plastic container of OJ.

We always associated Australia with health, so when we demanded our mum buy bulk orange juice on a regular basis she happily obliged.

Yet we'd have had less sugar if we'd been swigging from a coke bottle.

OP I was a fussy eater as a child. I still have a few strong dislikes as an adult, and would also far rather go without than eat things I really hate. So I sympathise.

You say your son likes soft cheese. Does he like cottage cheese? Sometimes, I have that for breakfast, rather unclassily eaten straight from the tub with a teaspoon. Not all cottage cheese is equally nice - the one I like best, by miles and miles, is from Lidl. It's really good and quite cheap, too. It comes in smallish tubs - 200 g, I think. That fills me up until lunchtime - perhaps your dietician advisors could tell you a suitable portion size for your son? Occasionally, as they do in Germany, I nibble strips of raw red or green pepper with it, or a sliced apple, but really I prefer it plain. But if your son likes olives, they would go with it, too. Or any other fruit he likes (if any)? Or cucumber?

It's not just constipation, it's also dehydration to worry about. Many children (and many adults also) won't drink enough if tap water is all that's available. They won't die of thirst because there is water in food but they won't drink enough to meet all their needs.

Why are people being so harsh to the healthy eaters? Bottom line no its isn't a relatively healthy breakfast but if you are having a difficult time getting him to eat anything else then it isn't the end of the world.

I would definitely agree with posters who say youve been given outdated advice.

Be brave be post some likes of your DS as someone said there are some really creative MNers who could really help. And genuine nutritionists around as well who will help more than the outdated advice from your GP

No child on this thread will die of thirst if you only give them water to drink at home. I promise you that. Try it.

I sometimes think children are in charge of parents rather than vice versa.

No, DS1 wouldn't die of thirst, but he would end up with a vile headache, in a vile mood, with stinking concentrated urine and probably constipated again, with the agony that ensues. He was convinced he was dying when he passed his last brick.

DS2 only drinks water, so we'd have no problem there.

"No child on this thread will die of thirst if you only give them water to drink at home. I promise you that. Try it."

Luckily DD quite happily drinks water, but I know children who suffer from headaches and constipation because they would rather go thirsty than drink water when it was offered to them.

Jane not dying of thirst is a bit of a low bar to set really.

And Jane lolling at your little comment about 'children being in charge '. Yes, because some of us don't want to deprive our children of essential fluids because we think they should drink plain old tap water.

OP. Try ringing your local council and asking for the Health and Fitness Department. They may have something that your GP doesn't know about. They will give you definitive advise designed specifically for your circumstances.

Our local council offers LOADS of free courses for family weight management, but until we created a "Well-being Hub" no-one knew what was on offer, as there are SO MANY seperate projects under many different departments. Now we have a one-stop-shop for all health needs so GPs etc just have ONE number to give patients and the Hub Advisor contacts the patient and refers them to one or more project depending on their needs.

Your GP may not know everything that is on offer, so call the council or your local NHS practice.

Jane, your ideas are fine for most children, but if tap water was one of things mine wouldn't have, I can promise you he'd go for death-by-dehydration as an option.

I too am ever so good at parenting other people's children.

It's amusing how many posters on this thread insisting "Oh this thread talks so much bollocks. Now let me tell you truth."

Except all the versions of 'truth' don't match up.

MN at its best. I'll have to have since no popcorn picture.

One tip for those of you with water refusing children is to try giving them ice cubes to suck/crunch

Dneice drinks very little. Give her water & you'd think you were trying to poison her. Her urine smells very string

In the hit weather my mum who was looking afte her was very concerned about her fluid intake so she tried giving her ice cubes & it worked.

Add message | Report | Message poster JaneParker Sat 14-Jun-14 14:24:20
No child on this thread will die of thirst if you only give them water to drink at home. I promise you that. Try it.

Guess what? Mine nearly did. Twice

Guess what what else? A properly qualified (not just "I'm a mum on the Internet and know so much better than you") Doctor told me NOT to push the issue. That it is the FLUID that is important, not what type.

So thanks for the bad (and dangerous) advice. Let's hope no-one takes it and ends up in the same position as I did.

Sorry but I am hugely sceptical of the number of people claiming their dc just won't drink water.

Water is wet, it's thirst quenching. There is no taste to dislike, and I do agree with the pp who said that no human being, child or adult will refuse to drink water to the point they expire of dehydration.

Usually, the only reason a child will refuse it is because it's not as nice as the baby juice/OJ/squash/fizzy that they've got used to. Which is down to the parent, not an inbuilt aversion to water itself.

Really LtEve? Your child actually nearly died due to dehydration? Twice? Or is there maybe a tad of over-dramatization going on?