To serve this portion size to my children (pic inc)

[Blondeandinept]

My son is on the 75 centile for height , 20 for weight. My daughter is 50 for height, 25 for weight.
As a family we are very very slim (in 5'7 and weigh just under 8 stone). We're very fit, gym, sport etc

My mil saw this and was appalled. Said it was way way too much. My children would be peckish an hour later if they didn't have this kind of lunch (it's the weekend, hence all the breaded items!).

My son is 6, my daughter 3.5

bakeoff and don't forget 'waif^ (skinny)

My three (almost 9, 7 and 5) would be appalled if I served them this! They'd be begging for more food almost immediately. I'm not sure where they put it all but they do pack away an awful lot of food. So if your children are satisfied with this amount of food then ignore your MIL I say!

Looks fine. Would even say give more !

Looks fine to me and if they want more they can ask. Considering how many kids are overweight these days it's much better than giving them a mountain of food which may encourage them to eat too much.

Looks fine but maybe add some carbs for energy. Otherwise it's great to me!

DD 5yrs would be asking for more but every child is different. I'm sure you know your child better than your mil.

What is it? Processed fish fingers or some processed breaded chicken thing? I cannot believe you are so obsessed with everyone's weight including tellingly your own which sounds too low to me and yet to serve this rubbish, or are those two observations connected. More real veg (as opposed to a token leaf or two), less weird protein thingy, if that is what it is. It looks like the thrown together plate of some one who does not care, about anyone else that is. I can see you care about what other people think of you.

My daughter is 50th centile height and 20th for weight and would eat more than that a lot of the time and sometimes less. As long as they aren't complaining of being hungry, are growing normally and behaving normally its fine. My mil is similar and has had to be told to keep those opinions to herself (was telling my daughter that she'd get fat if she ate all that, etc)

My kids eat Waaaaaaay more than this and they're a healthy weight and size too (except my daughter, 6, who is actually ion the skinny side)

What you eat in the Mediterranean and what's called the Mediterranean diet are likely to be very different!

And I do, actually, know quite a lot about low carbing, which is why I run the low carb Bootcamp on Mumsnet ...

Anyway, OP, sorry for derailing your thread. I think your MIL was both wrong and rude!

If it's oily fish being consumed 6 times a week surely the Med diets referred to above have quite a lot of fat?

BIWI

What you eat in the Mediterranean and what's called the Mediterranean diet are likely to be very different!

I live in Amalfi, hence the name. I grow my own veg, make my own olive oil, wine, tomato sauce, pasta, bread, have my own animals for meat and eggs. Follow a very traditional diet and have no processed foods in my home.

You've overstepped the line and made a fool of your self.

And I do, actually, know quite a lot about low carbing, which is why I run the low carb Bootcamp on Mumsnet then you should know that adult needs are different from children's needs and that children need to eat everything, especially carbs for energy.

and if your knowledge on carbs is the same level as the med. Diet I'd be seriously worried following your bootcamp

EddieStobbart

We eat "blue" fish twice a week, so normally anchovies and tuna or salmon then we have class, mussels, octopus, cuttlefish, squid. It depends on the mornings catch. Most of our fat comes from extra Virgin olive oil, with we use raw. Especially on fresh bread 😏

so you run a low carb diet boot camp on MN but can throw around phrases like "a med diet is low in carbs" and "we don't need carbs". Whilst you corrected the second comment after denying you said it someone who actually knows what they are talking about re carbs, wouldn't bloody well post such an ill informed, dangerous comment in the first place!

I lived in Greece for years and have Greek family, I ate loads of chips and bread with every meal - never been skinnier but I imagine that had to do with sunshine,low stress levels and endless daily swimming

Ime Greeks aren't particularly healthy,late nights and constant smoking doesn't help. Low rate of heart disease but again I think low stress/relaxed way if life has a lot to do with that.

And I'm sure I read recently that there is a really high rate of obesity in Greek children which ties in with my experience- they feed their kids until they are fit to bursting!

None if which has bog all to do with the OP which was about portion size

It's become a bit of a comedy thread now. Made my chuckle over my brekkie (relax, it was museli with almond milk, a banana and a few bites of toast. Got those carbs in!)

And I'm sure I read recently that there is a really high rate of obesity in Greek children which ties in with my experience- they feed their kids until they are fit to bursting

And the fact they are now feeding kids low quality highly processed foods because they really cheaper.

Exactly children need to eat everything. High fat, low fat, highly processed, whole grain, carbs, protein, veg, fruit. EVERYTHING

No, children do not need highly processed food, nobody needs highly processed food. It's bad for you, potentially very damaging, even in small amounts. I don't 'clean eat' my children but I tried to avoid highly processed and cook from scratch as much as possible. I can't believe anyone would think this was a bad thing and that kids need plastic ham and frozen chicken nuggets.

who was it said there was an obesity epidemic amongst Italian kids?

Actually my experience was 20 odd years ago before the troubles out in Greece, huge children being forced fed huge amounts of 'good' food.

How do you manage to force feed a child? Mine just stop eating when they're hungry and nothing would convince them to eat any more.

*when they're full, I meant

Goofy - I've seen kids pursing their lips while parents spoon feed them,following them round with a loaded spoon,pleading with them to eat. I expect after a while the kids just give up and swallow what's shoved in their mouths.

This is NOT all Greek kids btw but it was a common sight when I lived there and so I'm not surprised by the statistics.

That's shocking. I've lived in Spain, Italy and France and worked with children in all of those countries and never seen anything like that. Poor children.

Yeah,it was a bit of an eye opener!