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

And I don't think anyone on here has said their dc will only drink fizzy drinks

Ds4 still won't drink milk unless it comes straight from the boob, wish he would

No, I'm sure nobody says only fizzy drinks but lots of ppl give juice and squash rather than water. All I am saying is, juice, diluted or not, is a problem with Dc like mine.

Maybe with very disabled Dc we get the exaggerated version of the usual problems. Our Dc are irrational and unreasonable to the nth degree- well, mine is- you can't argue with someone like that. You can't bribe someone if they don't understand you or remember long enough to stay bribed. And you can't reason with someone who seriously doesn't care. So avoiding trouble in the first place is a big strategy for us... What's interesting to me is that it might be useful in other situations too. I certainly used it with my other DC.

Jaded, my DS is older and less work and worry now. It was definitely worth it in the end. I see so many of his peer group whose health is even worse than it needs to be, through poor diet.

Prevention is easier than cure for all of us, with disabled DC or not. But you and I have learned the value of this the hard way!

I love it when Mnetters think that fruit juice is low in sugar. I have a small Tupperware box at work with 15 teaspoons (approx 75g) of sugar in it. I use it to demonstrate to children and their misguided mothers the amount of sugar in a can of full fat coke and a 250ml glass of orange juice.
As for aspartamine read the real science, not the selective scaremongering. What there're worried about is the ability of the body to manufacture methanol when it absorbs the breakdown products of aspartamine. Your body produces just as much if not more methanol when you eat fruit and many other whole foods.
Common sense is required. A small portion of crappy cereal with milk is better than no breakfast at all. I doubt that op DS has weight issues based on his breakfast entirely. At least she is addressing the problem and with sensible advice will no doubt do her best to help him develop better eating habits.

Fruit juice is naturally high in fructose. It has not been artificially sweetened with added sugar or sweeteners. I think it is pretty "misguided" to compare a can of coke and fruit juice by referring to the sugar content alone.

Salt and sugar are delicious and they definitely change the way we taste food. Once you are into it, everything tastes bland.

I stopped cooking with salt when weaning DS1. He's now 15 and I don't miss it at all. Which isn't to say I don't smother fish and chips with lashings of salt and vinegar!

I do agree with Jane about sugary drinks and I try and get my children to view them as a snack rather than a drink.
I don't however think it is always as simple as only offering water I did with DD as a baby, I tried every cup available, she would drink milk out of any of them but just spat water out. I persevered for 7 months.
She got a nasty D&V virus at 11 months, dehydrated as she wasn't having food or milk and was admitted to hospital to have a drip. I explained about her not drinking water and the paediatrician told me off for dehydrating my own child, he told the nurse to get her a drink of squash and she necked it.
So I gave DD fruit juice with meals and weak squash in between, I still offered water regularly and now at 14 she drinks mostly water. My three boys all drink water as well as other drinks. Only one of them did as a baby though, with the other two I gave juice and gradually diluted it.

Well all know it's harder to change things with children than start good habits. Most children will drink water once they are weaned. Most animals and humans the planet over do that. Just do your best but don't think that juices, squashes, diet and full sugar drinks are a great thing to give children - they aren't.

The cheese board went down well, probably a bit too much salt so won't add any for dinner.

I still had to give some nesquick but put a small amount in a cup with milk.

Also gave a glass of orange juice, are you now telling me this is as unhealthy as a can of coke?!

No compairing fruit juice to coke as madness, we tend to water it down but you can try doing that gradually.

My older two always had weak squash with meals and water in between. Ds1 has never been a big water fan but tolerated it if it had been in the fridge and had ice cubes in it. Saying that 20 years ago when he was born I think the only advice I ever had was only with meals and that was from the dentist.

Glad the cheese board went well. You don't have to fix everything at once so if you gradually reduce the amount of salt you add to food, nobody will notice when you stop altogether.

Regarding the orange juice - confusing isn't it?

The issue is sugar. Your body doesn't care if it's added sugar, natural sugar, fruit sugar or whatever - it's just sugar and calories. Artificially sweetened drinks obviously don't have calories but they do teach you to want sweet things so you end up eating the sugar in something else.

Orange juice has all the sugar of several oranges - when would you sit down and eat 4 or 5 oranges at once? But it also has vitamins and other goodness. So one small glass a day is fine and healthy, but using it for all drinks - well then yes, you might as well just have coke. An actual orange would be the best.

Again if you try to change your DS's eating habits in one day you will have a riot on your hands. If he isn't used to drinking water and doesn't like it then sugar-free squash and orange juice once a day would be a step in the right direction.

This article explains it better:

www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2014/jan/17/how-fruit-juice-health-food-junk-food

Hi op good of you to come back and update us, agree with pp about small steps in the right direction. would your DS drink a cup of warm milk with pure cocoa powder (not hot choc mix) mixed in? Its low sugar and can be a little bitter compared to the sweet hot chocolate powders, but it might tempt him into drinking milk without having to add sugary stuff like cereal to it. We had eggy bread and grilled tomatoes today, it was lush!

yes, kundry has it right. Any parent buying expensive real orange juice for a child is not doing it any more good than a glass of tap water and probably more harm. However by all means give the child a whole orange to eat which is a very different thing although even then if you eat too much fruit and not enough other stuff that is not great either as it's basically sugar - fructose and our ancestors would have found that only in season once a year not something that was a staple food.

Please don't beat yourself up about what your kids eat for breakfast, sometimes we have dippy eggs, sometimes we have Cheerios or a chocolate croissant my DD is 2 maybe it's not home made muesli or whatever but when I was a kid I had coco pops every single day. I'm fine.

The good thing about salt is that if you eat fresh, unprocessed food you can add salt, and enjoy the taste of it. We need salt, it is good for us, vital in fact. It is just if you are eating a lot of processed rubbish you are getting far too much of it.

Yes fruit juice really isn't good. A really tiny glass of it for breakfast isn't the worse thing in the world, but overall it's better not to have it. Much too much of a sugar hit.

Himalayan salt?! Seriously is this a thing now?

Alternatively you could just eat less processed food and use less salt.

Can you provide references for other minerals balancing blood pressure? Medical advice is just to eat less salt not switch to a fancier one.

Benefits of drinking orange juice.

Reduced risk of dementia from drinking any daily juice.

Daily mail promoting fruit juice daily.

Go on, find the articles that list equal benefits for drinking coca-cola. I dare ya'.

I don't think anyone has argued that fruit jive isn't high in sugar.

But I'd prefer my dc to be drinking something that provides nutrients, helps the body to absorp iron & is one ofvthe give a day than the equivalent amount of sugar in empty calories.

Hence they are allowed a glass of pure fruit juice a day. Mostly Water & milk the rest of the time.