To think there is no such thing as childrens food

[Willowtree7]

I believe children do not need "childrens food" just smaller versions of... well... just food. It makes me so sad to think that children have fish fingers and chips for dinner followed by a petit filous yoghurt and washed down with squash because that's what we have been led to believe children should have.

I'm totally in favour of an ice cream on a hot day and the odd treat but not coco pops or cheerios for breakfast. It's like people recognise you shouldn't give too many sweets but beyond that don't see nutritional value in meals.

Our diet affects our learning, concentration and health. It's the most vital thing we all need to get right and yet we feed children processed rubbish that is so bland it needs sugary ketchup to give it flavour and this is considered normal.

Before anyone says it's about money and crap food is cheaper, i think A) that's a vop out for people that buy it and B) that's not the main reason people feed children poor diets. It's about lack of understanding of what food is. People that feed children wholemeal bread, humous and porridge are considered to be the unusual ones on some circles!! How did we get to this?

They don't serve 'kid food ' at the nursery my son goes to do actually no not very different

I don't get the eating different meals because you eat at different times thing. DC and I eat early, DH eats late, we all have the same. Either I make something that can be reheated or I prep it all and then just finish off his quarter of the meal when he gets home.

I remember steak hache & frites
And nutella and bread for breakfast along with a bowl of hot chocolate. Or sometimes pain au chocolat.
And a billion different kinds of mega sugary biscuits. And hot dogs. And those pushup icecream on a stick things.

Yeah. French kids don't eat sugar or junk food.

wow so many perfect parents with perfect lives.\

Nothing wrong with fish fingers or chicken nuggets and the like.

Hell sometimes we all fancy something quick simple and orange.

What I do disagree with is the assumption everywhere that kids won't eat anything unless it's shaped into an animal and covered in bread crumbs. Restaurants, cafes, soft play even 95 per cent of MN seem to have a "crap drawer " in the freezer in case of a child visitor.

I'm not going to include children with sensory issues or a medical reason for being fussy.

But the rest, well there seems to be such a fear of the fact a kid might waste away to nothing should he not like what's on offer.

As pp said what would have happened of these children had never been introduced to Turkey dinosaurs.

Alot if lies and nonsense with the advertising and tbh I understand buying the kids meals when they get a drink a desert and a main meal for seven pounds (processed really cheap crap sadly) and an adult main meal cab cost £15 + my kids don't eat adult sized meals and no longer would want the same things and it's hard to justify 30 quid for then to eat 1/3 of something.

Definately should be smaller portions of the regular menu available.

And why is the kids version of a burger or pizza or sausage so disgusting. Why can't they have a nice smaller one instead of the cheapest nastiest dried out crap. They deserve better.

Slightly
I'm not saying that a French child has never been known to eat junk food, I'm just saying the food culture is very different over there and is more geared towards children having adult food, in general. The French are very proud of their cultural heritage and a big part of that is the food. In France, British children have a reputation for eating crap / being fussy eaters. "He eats very well for an English boy" I have heard said. need somebody more French than me to verify this before I start sounding like a batshit Francophile

Oh this is one of my favourite rants. The crap that some restaurants serve on the children's menu I find really frustrating. Everything fried, chipped, brown looking. My worse meal was at Giraffe on the Southbank which served a crappy looking hotdog in a cheap white bun without even a sprig of lettuce in the plate. Gross... I shared my dinner with my DD in the end The best kids food I've found has been Jamie's Italian, although Carluccios, Wagamamas and Bills are pretty good too. Jamie always makes really appealing fun, nutritious food with salad and you get to choose it through those cool viewfinders. He really understands his audience.

Yy to the hotdog at giraffes .

As a rule we quite like giraffes as they are family friendly and reasonably priced but the kids hot dog (they dislike frankfurter sausages anyway) and the kids burgers are dire.

Doesn't seem to matter where you go, even the places that make their own burgers cooked to order the adults will coke out 2 feet tall with salad and a nice bun and a nicely seasoned fresh burger. Garuntee kids will be a really dry really cheap worse than macdonalds and probably deep fried to and they are never ashamed to send it out burnt and cold either. Cos it's just for the kids so it doesn't matter

We do buy into a lot of odd ideas about France and French culture. My first experience of France was as an exchange student 30 years ago where I had not croissants dipped in hot chocolate for breakfast and pudding was natural yoghurt with a tablespoon of sugar on top - not really any healthier than weetabix.
I also lived in France for a couple of years as an adult and there are plenty of McDonald's, sugary cereal and biscuits in the shops. I do agree that, where I lived at least, people did tend to eat together as a family but I suspect that was due to being in a fairly rural area where people often finished work at 5.

There's nothing wrong with 'kids food' or cereal as part of a balanced diet.

That French nursery menu honestly isn't that different to DS primary school menu, they just have more courses. There's plenty of yoghurt and sugar, chocolate, chilli, lasagna etc. - nothing I'd consider hugely different

While I do object to "kids' food" in restaurants being generally cheap and crap, I also roll my eyes at the kind of Nigel Slateresque creepy knicker sniffing fetishisation of food that some people indulge in which makes me want to hot foot it down to the nearest dirty burger van.

I mean, yes of course it's good to eat nice stuff but it isn't a moral failing if you don't.

Some people just take it too far. Like the other week I was with friends in the park and it was hot so the kids wanted lollies and at 50p a pop most of us ended up getting them. But there was one friend who just gave long explanations to her kids about how she had nice ice cream in the freezer at home and she didn't want them eating cheap lollies because they weren't as nice and they could have nice ice cream when they got back and on and on blah blah blah.

This despite that all the nice ice cream in the world is fucking useless if it's in the freezer at home and you're in the park and it's hot. And also with her performance parenting she was rather unsubtly getting the message across to the rest of us that she disapproved of us feeding our kids crap.

It's fucking ice cream! It's not fucking healthy anyway, however much you pay for the bastard stuff.

Fuzzypillow - to be fair, I also remember pâté, artichokes, moules, etc as well as the vast waves of sugary bliss that was 70s French childhood. No clue what French kids eat nowadays cos I don't live in France and no longer know anyone there. It's different, but it's not home knitted yogurt and quinoa different either.

There's a wee bit of a tendency to compare the worst bits of UK food to the ideal bits of French eating habits, which doesn't necessarily make sense. For example, although I enjoyed my tiny drop of red wine in my water at dinnertime, that's one habit I will not be copying for DS (not till much older anyway). Nor do I feed him Petit Filous, or lashings of Nutella.

I don't think that the solution lies with either idealising other times and/or places, or pretending that a 4 year old's palate is exactly like an adult's and children never go through phases where suddenly a previously acceptable vegetable becomes repulsive, etc.

I think Wagamama's kids katsu curry is a good example of catering for children that accepts child preferences while still offering good food: the main ingredient (meat or sweet potato), cucumber, carrots, sauce and rice are all served separated but attractively presented - unlike adult dishes where all those things would be piled in together.

I also roll my eyes at the kind of Nigel Slateresque creepy knicker sniffing fetishisation of food

Hahaha, yes!

Restaurants, cafes, soft play even 95 per cent of MN seem to have a "crap drawer " in the freezer in case of a child visitor.

After a couple of unsuccessful tries serving teas my DCs would like to playdate friends (like a bland pasta dish made with some leftover roast chicken, which was uneaten because I had made the fatal mistake of putting leeks in it), I now just take the path of least resistance and get frozen pizzas when playdates come. The last thing I want is for a kid to dread coming to play with my DCs because they are afraid of the food I might serve. Let their parents deal with their fussiness - for one meal my own DCs can eat crap.

I understand buying the kids meals when they get a drink a desert and a main meal for seven pounds (processed really cheap crap sadly) and an adult main meal cab cost £15 + my kids don't eat adult sized meals and no longer would want the same things and it's hard to justify 30 quid for then to eat 1/3 of something.

This is exactly why we had my DD stick to the kids' meals this past weekend when we were away. Someone upthread mentioned that they just ask for half portions at reduced price wherever they are - I will be much more assertive in future about doing this myself, even if I don't see it on the menu. I rather suspect, however, that "chain" restaurants will be a lot less keen to accommodate than independents.

Erm, turkey dinosaurs and potato smilies FTW

Yy chains are often reluctant to deviate from the photo in the kitchen. Probably cos you don't need a "chef " when making up the meal is just a series of timings in the microwave or deep fat frier.

Often alot if things are made up alreasy. Where I used to work the custard was in the pot with the sponge and just zapped it and shoved it in a bowl. Not having part of it wasn't an option.

What would be really really nice is if they did chicken nuggets that they weren't a cheap bag of crappy nuggets but ones that were made in the kitchen.

Why can't they make smaller burgers for the kids why are they coasters in disguise.

We need higher standards.

Don't know about France, but my nephews, nieces, greatnephews. greatnieces all live in Scandinavia and I have been struck by the fact that their school dinners look so like an ordinary healthy adult meal rather than some kind of service-station take-away. (I know this not through hearsay or idealised reports, but because all school menus are posted in the local press every week. Not a sugary pudding in sight.)

I assume they have separate arrangements for SN, and looking at the menus they do cater for vegetarian/religious restrictions. But there seems to be absolutely no problem in making ordinary NT children eat boiled spuds and stew and vegetables, and drink tap water. Parents are supportive of this arrangement because they like their children to eat healthily (and because it is paid for by taxpayers so any other arrangement would mean additional expense).

Yes, there are McDonalds all over Sweden. But children do not expect their school meals to look like McDonalds.

It is only in this country that you get told in all seriousness that it is impossible to get children to eat plain home-cooked style food at all, in any setting.

That french nursery menu looks pretty similar to my son's nursery. Maybe his is particularly exemplary compared to others in the UK I'm not sure.

I've just looked it up. Yesterday he had mackerel pasta for lunch with tomato salad and fruit for pudding and vegetarian kofte for dinner with carrot salad and crumble and custard for pudding. Water to drink and fruit as snacks.

I remember when my DD was at nursery (however this was over 15yrs ago), they were quite often served fish and chips, and I'll be honest, I didn't mind.

Tbh, DD was served what we were eating from about when she started school, the odd night if DH and I wanted a steak (or salmon), DD would have a different cut of meat (sausages or chops etc) but would still have the same veg.

I am lucky that DD wasn't fussy and she generally ate what she was given.

However, if DH was working nights, generally DD and I would have something quick and easy, e.g toasted sandwiches, sausages and beans, soup etc or god forbid, McDs as I just couldn't be arsed cooking for just two people.

I know it comes across as sanctimonious but actually YANBU OP. When did it start, this blandification and restriction of what children eat? I imagine there were always things considered particularly suitable for children (milky puddings etc) but presumably, before fast food and freezers, children otherwise just ate what everyone else ate. And in the past when food was harder to obtain and prepare, I somehow doubt that there were many picky eaters. We have done this to ourselves over the last couple of generations - children aren't genetically programmed to only eat beige crap.

I'm afraid you do sound a bit sanctimonious

Ds was weaned on pretty much whatever we were eating. That included plenty of fresh veg and home cooked food. It also included the odd night where we have fish fingers. Because we like home cooked food, and occasionally we like fish fingers. The idea is to bring them up eating a variety of stuff and not have any hang ups about food, right? That surely includes a 'moderation in all things' attitude. Which allows the odd ice cream and burger as long as they generally eat ok.

I do think any restaurant that is suitable for kids should do a smaller portion of the adults dishes though, I'm with you on that!

As a disclaimer, ds was so skinny at one point that his paed told us to feed him MORE sweet things and 'junky' things. Her point was that he didn't seem to like eating very much and he needed to learn it could be pleasurable. We gave him a bit of choc and the odd biccy and he gradually started to like food more. He's pretty good with it now.

Moderation in all things, right? It's not good for them to have chips every night but neither is it good for them to feel excluded from kids parties, the odd ice cream, and yes, fish fingers. The goal is to raise kids who have a good relationship with food. You don't do that by looking down your nose at fish fingers.

We have done this to ourselves over the last couple of generations - children aren't genetically programmed to only eat beige crap

I think to an extent we have. My parents never bought us kids meals we never had orange food in the freezer. They would cook loads of things I didn't like ( not all in the same week hust in general )but if I went hungry that was my look out . Rhwre was always veg to eat i neverbjad no food at all unless ideas naughty and sent to my room

People talk about the path of least resistance. I think that's a very clear indication of how things are now. There are just so many demands on a persona time there literally is no time for people to have wasted sat there not eating. They jeed kids fed and in bed or to the next activity or off to their work without the worry they will wake hungry in the night and disturb you when you get home from your evening shift etc

It can't be helped and it's certainly not a dig at parents we all do what we have to do to get through our days. We always ecoevt there will be time to sort things out bit there never is.

And certainly people have taken full advantage and stepped up the kids range. All the spiel about added vitamins and counts as 1 of your five a day or now less salt etc

Maybe people are even fearful their own food won't match up to the standards we are supposed to believe this orange stuff has. Without realising that of it was any good it wouldn't need the vitamins added in the first place.

There are just so many demands on a persona time there literally is no time for people to have wasted sat there not eating.

People were always busy, surely. And in times when sourcing food was harder, growing it yourself was likely, and cooking it would have involved more effort and less convenience, you would think people would have been even less keen to have their meals wasted.

My DC love the cheap crappy meals on holidays and when we eat out, that's half the fun of it. They have proper, fresh, nutritious meals at home. (Most of the time) Having said that I think a half portion of the regular meals should be on offer too, not that my lot would go for it.