To have thought my dcs diet was ok until I joined mumsnet?

[Meandmygirls2009]

I have always thought my dc ate ok, but since joining mumsnet and reading lots of posts I am worried that I do not feed my dc a healthy diet! Typical day consists of:
Breakfast: bagel and orange juice
Snack: grapes
Lunch: cheese sandwich, mini cheddars, raisons
Snack: 2 chocolate digestives
Dinner: home made spag Bol, strawberries

Does this sound ok? I am worried the daily mini cheddars and digestives are too much after reading what other children eat :(

I'd try and avoid raisins - as they are particularly bad for teeth - sticky, sugary and prone to getting caught between teeth. That said they were the healthy snack the children's centre insisted on giving so I had choice of having a DC having a melt down missing out or missing the group or giving them some.

I don't think what they are having is particularly bad - yes it could be improved but I find you have good food days and bad.

Read in New scientist this week - it's the bitter chemical in veg that do us good which are increasingly being bred out - I have little to no chance of getting them to eat bitter veg that's left or really sourcing more traditional veg that hasn't been messed around with. So guess even on days they have a lot of veg - I could still be doing better.

ds has hardly eaten anything this last week apart from junk food and curry homemade from scratch = lots of oil/ghee and salt

We are on holiday but if not his diet would be similar though more veg than fruit because he hardly eats fruit he drinks lots and lots of milk which apparently is not good for him either

Mine have lots of milk - though another article I think from New Scientist sort of said it hard to know milks/dairies impact as it's such complex stuff. Though did read drinking more as children should mean they'll grow a bit taller.

www.newscientist.com/article/mg22730310-200-time-to-ditch-milk-exploring-the-dairy-dilemma/

Me too op! My child eats cereal for breakfast, has biscuits and cake a couple of times a week and has a juice when we are out. Rest of the time she eats home cooked food, childrens yoghurts and plenty of fruit and veg.

Yes I guess the spag Bol only adds up to one or two portions of veg per person, they still get 5 a day though, not every day though, and some days more than 5 a day. I think I am probably addicted to biscuits and bread but I just cannot break the habit. My oldest probably is too as she is always asking for toast and biscuits. It feels like food is a minefield when you start looking into it. I think I agree with the people who say to be relaxed about food, otherwise it could become an obsession. It seems some say not to eat wheat, some say dairy is bad for us, others say fruit is bad for us, there won't be much left to eat apart from veg!!

As a veggie that suits me fine!

I also think some days are better than others, today has been a good day I would say as dd has had an apple, grapes and strawberries as well as cucumber, beetroot, avocado and carrots with her dinner. So probably managed 6-7 portions of fruit and veg.

However there are frequently other days where she may have only 1 or 2 portions.

She certainly eats better than I did as a child and I want her to enjoy food, this includes treats.

Sugar is NOT cocaine. ...at least it is natural within fruit. As long as there is adequate activity through the day I personally think the menu given in the OP is fine. MN has very vocal holier than thou do gooders but you will find ( in my 8 years on MN ) that most do the best we can. Sometimes we are angelic and sometimes we just can't be arsed...it all comes out good in the end

Can someone tell me the harmful effects of my child drinking diluted apple juice for every drink - given he is 6, in peak health and fitness and has just had an all-clear dental check.

Is it causing some secret mischief we've yet to discover?

Same child munch a couple of boxes of raisins a day as a toddler too. I'm dreading the ill-effects of that one - sure to kick in any day now.

I love the MN worthiness over food. The kale munchers are the ones who scoff biscuits at parties when their mummies aren't looking. Of course, mummy would never believe this but hey ho. Balance diet for mine; sometimes they have pizza, sometimes they eat chick peas and rice cakes. I am wary of eating disorders, Anorexia is the single biggest psychiatric killer.

Love this post.

(Jayzus wept) I'd be overjoyed if DS would consume juice, pasta sauce, grapes, raisins or strawberries. Just one of those would be amazing. Daily or even just once a week.

DS is 7yo & the only F or V he ever eats are cooked carrots & fruit leathers.
Ketchup doesn't count, right?

you know what? I am just really shocked at the backlash on this thread against posters who are genuinely trying to give sensible, balanced advice.

I talk to dietitians as part of my work and consider myself well informed. But even if I didn't do that, there has been so much in the news lately from doctors, dentists and dietitians about the harmful effects of sugar in children's and adults' diets that if you've missed it you must live under a rock.

Boasting that your child doesn't eat healthily or taking some pride in serving up food and drink that will decay their teeth (ie raisins eaten as snack) is just really dim behaviour.

Breakfast: bagel and orange juice [ Here would be eggs, protein, probably no carbs at all and only tap water - basically you are feeding them junk sugar for breakfast]
Snack: grapes [ here - no snacks - they are full from the healthy protein and fat - graps es are yet more sugar]
Lunch: cheese sandwich, mini cheddars, raisons [ today ours had fish and veg actually but yours have basically sugar again !!! and I am not a dairy fan either and dried fruit is sugar.
Snack: 2 chocolate digestives [ wow yet more snacks, - none here - are you trying to win an award for how to give your child as much junk sugar as you can and ruin their teeth?]
Dinner: home made spag Bol, strawberries [ spaghettti is processed carbs yet again, why not just give them the meat? We would have a roast chicken and lots of veg; strawberries - you are piling on the sugar yet again]

Basically that is nothing like how we eat but no point in people beating themselves up over it. Just go the way you want to go.

OP it is not very likely that your children will be getting even 1 portion of veg from spag bol.

You've just proved the point that your DD is addicted to biscuits (it's the sugar in them).

Voddie- there is a great US video about sugar being the new cocaine and it's no different if it's in fruit or a sugar bowl. Your body doesn't care - once it's digested, it's all the same.

It doesn't all come out good in the end- quite the opposite. More children than ever are having to go to hospital for extractions and almost 70% of the population is overweight or obese. This is a serious public health time bomb. There's been enough on the news about it. You don't need 'blame' holier than thou MNetters!

Ha ha ha.

That was a paradoy right Red? That comment about the biscuits is genius snidey judgementalism. Totally nailed it.

Tomatoes may be a fruit but they are also a vegetable.

you know what? I am just really shocked at the backlash on this thread against posters who are genuinely trying to give sensible, balanced advice.

They may be trying to give sensible balanced advice but they are for the most part talking total shite. Sugar is worse than crack cocaine, wheat is poisonous, non of your vegetables count as vegetables, fruit juice kills.....its all a load of bollocks.

Most of us know what a good enough diet really consists of. Give them real unprocessed food for the most part, lots of it made from plants, light on the sugar. A few treats.
That pretty much covers it.

That sugar film - it's Australian

do you think that children eat more sugar and processed foods than say the 70's or 80's...I don't. I think that children do not get the same amount of exercise that is the problem

Oh I'd say they did! Do you not remember the rubbish that was on offer? Omg easi singles anyone? Calvita? LILT! Cidona, chopsticks, monster munch? spaghetti hoops? Cheap frozen burgers that probably leave some poor sods cjd? Honestly, dc diet much better these days if you make any effort to feed real food at all...

Two bourbons very day after school and butterscotch angel delight!

*every

So I got told by my child's dentist that the only fruit that is any good for teeth are bananas. Yet if we confine children's eating habits to such a degree they will a) have unhealthy attitudes toward different foods when older and have the freedom to choose themselves and/or b) be social pariahs for being "fussy eaters" as so often seen on threads on MN

My mum really cooked - proper week long chicken and all that - but the processed food we had was all manner of awful. Even the cheapest burgers today would be better due to food standards and animal welfare policies