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?

Nicer restaurants in more affluent areas have a better range of small portion foods whereas the stereotypical cheap pubs often have poor quality childrens menus. It also seems more normalised on some sections of society to feed children well than in others where squash and white bread is a stsple in the diet.

I am absolutely SHOCKED at this rudeness and ignorance. OP do you genuinely feel this way or are you after some attention?

Mine have a taste for home cooked meal meals and like trying new recipes. They'd feel short changed if I was to give them pizza or fish fingers. Which I sometimes do.

It is absolutely nothing to do with class culture. Mostly to do with the individual child and the overall lifestyle. We all aim to do the absolute best for our children, unless you are a believer in force feeding don't suggest other parents with children that only eat nuggets are lazy.

My two children (5yrs with autism and 10 months) enjoy healthy, fresh food and don't actually enjoy takeaways etc. but that is not because I am a saint of a parent - I'm just lucky they are that way inclined! It actually has very little to do with me. .I offer them the food, they eat it. If all they wanted was fish fingers. .they'd get it because I hate the thought of hungry tummies.

But I know a handful of engaged, intelligent parents whose kids eat perhaps 10 bland things on rotation .l absolutely do not judge them for that..And they are not remotely negligent.

My first post should have displayed the first paragraph in italics..sorry

When DD had her first happy meal(fish fingers) I cried with happiness. She tried something new,liked it and ate it!!! This was after two weeks of her not eating at all(except one ice cream and some crisps a day) ,then refusing everything she was eating before and painstakingly efforts of reintroducing them. She ate toast,cheese,fruit and yogurts and that's it.
She's a lot better now 4 years on but every dish added took a lot of effort and repetition,not helped by the fact that she didn't feel hunger.
Her diet is still not great,but it is varied,she is eating and she's healthy and happy and that's good enough for me.

TooGood There's a massive amount of class-based prejudice about how children are fed. Unfortunately it's all part of demonising "the other" as lazy, ignorant, "don't care enough about their children", etc.

slightlyglitter I know, absolutely despise it though

At the risk of being mocked, my parents are/were very well educated and 'well off'. I only ever ate crap as a child because it was all I would eat but they were extremely devoted and engaged parents. They tried, I refused.

I hate the magical thinking "oh it must be something you're doing. Children from past generations never had potato smiles!" No, but they bloody lived on bread & dripping & jam sandwiches you frigging numpty. Food in my grandma's generation was bloody beige. Variety was limited. My grandparents were super adventurous because they ate PASTA on holiday in later life.

It's similar to the "oh MY child slept through from 7 months because I am just a SUPERIOR PARENT". Some children (like me) are relatively unfussy, eat anything. Some children (like my sibling) find strong tasting food hard to deal with, retreat to well known foods. Many kids go through a beige phase during early childhood - this isn't "lower class parenting", it's a perfectly normal developmental phase that protects small wandering people from poisoning themselves.

"Nothing wrong with fish fingers at all."
*
Rubbish.
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It's ok to feed your kids fish fingers. Most of us do at some point. But you don't have to lie to yourself that there's "nothing wrong with them". We eat them because they are cheap, easy, and taste ... if not delicious, certainly comforting. But they are not good for you, and they are not good for the environment. There's no need to pretend.

But it depends though! If you buy a piece of fish, cut it up yourself and breadcrumb it then it's probably not a problem! I accept that very few people are talking about the non- Birds Eye variety though!!

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

It makes me sad that children starve to death all over the world. Children in the developed world eating enough of perfectly adequate food? Nope, can't get sad about that.
Pretty pathetic thing to get worked up about. Feed your own kids, let everyone else do the same and mind your own.

Bolognese was something that we had about once a month, and it was basically mince browned off with an Oxo cube and a tin of tomatoes mashed into it. No herbs to speak of, no splashes of things like Worcester sauce to "lift" the flavour. And I remember mince being so fatty and grey, not the steak mince that my DC have now.

Pizza was a once a year treat at Pizza Hut when we went to visit grandparents.

My parents have never made macaroni cheese.

Food was basically meat, potatoes and veg like peas and carrots. Cauliflower and cabbage when they were in season, latterly we added broccoli to the menu. Fish fingers and baked beans were a treat food every now and again. School dinners were similar.

I wasn't at all unusual in the 1980s rural southwest

Just want to say I see your point about wholesome foods being unusual to some. Have often been given funny looks for giving my DD a banana rather than a slice of white toast (she can have after if she wants) for breakfast when visiting family.. making my own soups... limiting sugar etc. As if there's something wrong with me!

^ bold fail on "Rubbish"

My mum was a flippin good cook and I ate home prepared crab and mussels etc from a young age but my brother only ate chicken soup (Heinz), cheese and crisps til he was 14. He's now got 60 odd marathons under his belt (running not the chocolate bars!) and cooks a wide variety of food for his family 3/4 times a week. Having a bland "child" diet does not mean you are doomed to a life of crappy food. Some children like bland food, almost all grow out of it and lots will end up as annoying foodies. Relax.

Another 80s girl here.

Grew up eating things like toad in the hole except I didn't like sausages or mash so veg and gravy for me it was

I remember a god awful bacon suet steamed pudding. I ate the bacon.

Liver and onions. Eventually went vege to avoid that

Quiche
Spag bol
Mac and cheese

My mum.made a gorgeous lasagne!!

Plus the usual meat potatoes and veg
Stews
Jacket potatoes

A treat would be choosing some exotic fruit in Safeway

And if we were lucky every now and then my dad would buy and cook some salmon steaks and serve with prawn and mushroom sauce..

There were plenty of nights I had very little as I didn't like sausages or suet or liver or new potatoes, mashed potatoes ,

Never would I have been allowed anything else though

I cooked for myself when I went vege

I totally agree. I had fish fingers chips
And beans for dinner and it was amazing. Why should it be reserved for kids?

Adult palettes are hardened. That why children's food is blander on the whole.
Also children waste a lot. Between dropping it, deciding it's the the texture or touching something it shouldn't lots if it goes to waste ( in the west) .Adults have grown out of this so get the expensive stuff.

Children grow into adults . It's fine.

Isn't very bland food for children a recent development?

No, its not a recent development at all. Twas ever thus.

My mum was a freezer feeder kind of mum and I do think its why I've become stuck in a rut with food. I obviously ate it as a kid but when I got older and realised how boring it was I stopped eating meals and snacked which was essentially worse and I eneldednuo with a bad relationship with food and just ate because I had to. Now I have my son I'm determined (learning) to not pass it on. I agree knowledge is lacking in my case anyway as what i think is ok then gets torn apart when I read posts like this lol he's not fussy loves fruit and veg meats will give anything a go I've just got to force myself to set an example. We still probably have more frozen but it's not stockpiled full of breaded stuff it varies between stir frys frozen chicken Sunday dinner stuff mince beef I can't do everything fresh as it can be so expensive and I'm still learning. I'm determined not to pass it on to my son though but some foods me turned on here I've never even heard of lol

We all aim to do the absolute best for our children, unless you are a believer in force feeding don't suggest other parents with children that only eat nuggets are lazy.

Who said anything about force feeding? I don't think, however, that letting an otherwise healthy, normally developing but picky child miss a meal now and again when the fare on offer wasn't to his or her liking is the child abuse implicit in the "hate of the thought of hungry tummies". A child who didn't actually feel hunger might be a different matter, but I suspect that's a rather rare condition.

I'm rapidly coming to the conclusion that food bores are on par with political bores . . . fucking tedious in the extreme. I'm sad so many kids on this Earth are starving, enslaved, abused, getting het up over fish fingers and frozen peas?

Never did I say 'child abuse'. 'Hungry tummies' implies child abuse to you? Interesting

DeadGood isn't Ella's kitchen stuff purely clever marketing though, I find it hard to believe its that healthy if it comes in a packet like that to appeal to kids and babies? I'm sure it's better than regular crisps but not healthy per se?
Not being antagonistic, just asking really x