To believe we've forgotten how to eat healthily

[Yoruba]

I'm so completely fed up of the school serving up so much rubbish, with seemingly no understanding that its unhealthy. It is really really hard to find good evidenced advice about healthy eating for children. There seem to be contradictory reports coming out all the time, and I say that as someone who is really interested in this subject so it must be harder if you don't.

The school meals are utter rubbish. They have a sugary rubbishy pudding every day, sweets at every possible occasion and now they have seen fit to start selling ice creams after school to raise money.
Im not even THAT strict I don't think, I'm happy for her to have these foods but evidence shows that eating them regularly alters your taste buds and makes you crave them more. I think they should be occasional foods we eat as PART of a healthy diet, not every day.

But at the moment I'm feeling like a lone voice and I hate dd feeling like she's missing out in not having what her friends are. I don't want these things to be "forbidden" objects of desire.

It just seems as though there is very little knowledge now of what is actually healthy for children.

It is sooo frustrating because often the kids meals are fairly good value for money, in that you get the meal and the drink and a pudding for a set price.

An it's hard to justify spending £6-10 (depending on where you are) on a meal which lolls like it's barely been touched because it's an adult portion.

It's not so bad now I have two and I can divide between them but when there's just one, it's alot of money to spend only to leave half.

That's exactly what my sister did Vintage. She always cooked an alternative from the freezer if the kids refused to eat their dinner. So inevitably, as soon as a healthy stew or shepherd's pie appeared on the table, there would be sulks, and whines and tantrums and she would give in and heat up a pizza. And so of course the next time she tried to get them to eat something nourishing and home cooked there would be the same performance. I remember my mum saying to her once 'just tell them there's bread and butter and nothing else and tney'll soon stop that" but she wouldn't listen.

I agree that the "kids menu" is crap. - Yeah. Particularly when the restaurant refused to do child-sized portions of proper food at a reduced price. Apart from easier stock control, I can't imagine a reason why! And management convenience really isn't an acceptable substitute for customer satisfaction at a restaurant.

Some places are quite obliging garlic of your lucky.

We've been to places before and asked for three meals and an extra plate only to have them come to the table and the kitchen staff have divided up the meal for us (and probably given us more salad/chips/potatoes) than we would have gotten if it was presented as the adult portion. And that's always been gratefully received because it's not just about the food, kids like to feel grown up in that they have their own meal if that makes sense.

But agree others can be iffy and it "comes as it is" so of course that means an adult portion or already in the sauce etc

Sorry Vintageyou posted "one meal made every night" and that confused me .

But why is it a problem?

Is it down to genuinely not selling, or down to the zero expectations of children eating stuff that isn't orange?

management convenience really isn't an acceptable substitute for customer satisfaction

Yes very true but a lot of places to eat ( i won't grace their places with the name restaurant ) wouldn't agree with us GarlicJune!

And why is it not possible to get sauces and dressings etc on the side?

Kid friendly shouldn't mean, breaded and fried, it should mean that it maybe leaves things like mushrooms out, isn't really spicy and things like BBQ chicken can come with BBQ sauce separately as the sauces can be an aquired taste. Frankie and benny I'm talking about you with the really harsh and over powering sauce

I hate the cheese and cracker offer at schools as its normally a Jacobs cracker with a dairylea triangle. processed cheese very high in salt. why not have a couple of small cubes of chedder cheese?

Why would you want to give your children bland food?

However, my DMIL always asks for sauces and dressings on the side and has never had anywhere say no. Unless the food is cooked in the sauce, it really isn't an issue asking for the sauce to come separately.

Delphiniumsblue I agree with you to a point about people not liking things despite trying them but I think children have a natural aversion to new things. This being the case food has to be presented to them time after time sometimes before they try it and realise it's actually nice.

The other bug bear (and yes I have many :o)

Is that it need looks nice. Adult meals are usually presented nicely, there's a garnish, items are definable. It's something you want to eat.

Kids food is just plonked on the plate any old how. Of teen freezer burnt. The chips/mash/potatoes look like they are the dregs of what was surplus to a previous order. There's no garnish and te beans have the skin thing on them that shows it's been sat around. You can tell it's just been re-dunked in the fryer or microwaved.

In schools it's on those plastic trays.
Why is so little care taken over presentation/ what the kids eat.

It depends in the child, joni, my DC3 has always tried everything - the more unusual the better. His brother was the opposite. Some people have a genuine dislike of some foods however many times they try them.or it takes a long time- I hated olives until I was about 57yrs and now love them!

There is always an exception to every rule but speaking generally I think childrens' palettes develop with exposure to different flavours and textures. Often, what they initially reject, becomes acceptable with time.

Even what we are allergic to changes over time. So it is hardly a leap pf faith to think childrens' and adults' tastebuds do to!

There seem to be a lot of adults who can't control their own diet but can control their child's diet.

This is me if I ate like my child I would look better and have more energy, I habit eat out of hes sight then try to make up for it by only having one proper meal which I eat with him (cooked lunch together).
If I could curb the crap and deal with mild hunger between meals I could have 3 meals with him but its an ingrained habit in me now.
The 'kids crap' in my freezer is mine, he is the one who eats as grown ups should I have chicken nuggets on my lap now hes in bed full of salmon risotto

I'm late to this thread but I don't think it's wrong to tell children that some foods are bad for them. There's a world of difference between saying "we don't eat sweets every day as they aren't healthy" or "no, we aren't going to macdonalds for lunch today as we went last week and we don't want to eat it too often" etc and the kind of pearl clutching, banning and forbidding that might lead to 'issues' or secret gorging as soon as they get some independence.

I don't like the expectation that children only eat crap food either MN should start a 'real menus for children' campaign!

God thats a brilliant idea fuzz. What do we need to do?

I was hoping someone else would tell me that TBH :o

I guess finding out if that's something parents in general would support, and then getting restaurants to pledge their agreement to make their children's menus more like the adult ones (but smaller)? No idea where to start though!

Wish I knew too.

No plastic cheese would be a start!!

It needs its own thread first I think.
Anyone......?

Fuzz, that's exactly what they did when I were a lass. There weren't any children's menus, just different prices for smaller portions with fewer trimmings. Still the same in most of Europe, isn't it, away from the shopping malls?

Start a thread in Site Stuff :)

Will do tomorrow :) too sleepy now!

Good idea about the MN campaign Aimed at schools too!

btw RabbitSays get hold of the Paul Mckenna book and cds because it helps with emotional eating as well as weight loss!