Do your kids always have their 5 a day?!

[TeddybearBaby]

This is a really boring one, I’ve never posted before. I’m feeling stressed about nutrition - more dc than me! I really believe in ‘everything in moderation’ and try to get a bit of all the food groups in.

Do you all make sure your kids have at least their 5 / 7 a day? Aibu to stress about this?! DS and DD will probably have around 2/3 pieces while at school and I was going to make macaroni cheese because it’s their favourite and they need a nice chilled out night. Both very tired from the end of term etc. but I’ve started stressing that it means they won’t have their 5 a day 🙄.

Maybe I’ll put mushrooms / broccoli or salad with it. But what’s your opinion, is it fine to sometimes not have your 5 a day or is it a MUST?!

All @DayKay said was, was that she adds fresh blueberries to her muffins. Shoot her now! . If you're making them yourself and a full portion size goes in, then a full portion size goes in. Of course it can be counted.

And to the rather bizarre post about 'I didn't realise bananas were included.' Why on earth wouldn't they be?!?

Make sure he takes multivitamins Teddy.

I'm lucky if she has 1 of her five a day. Hope this helps you feel better!

One does, one probably doesn't. DD1 is extremely fussy, I do try but a lot of the time she will just leave vegetables I give her. She will eat peas and raw carrots so they are pretty much a daily staple. She will also eat some fruit.

DD2 is obsessed with fruit and veg, she would rather eat an apple than sweets or crisps and her vegetables are the first thing she eats on her plate!

@PerfectlySymmetricalButtocks
I would go for a more filling breakfast then, rather than processed crap instead of fruit for snack if she gets faint.

Yes always

I just think of bananas as one of the least healthy bits on the fruit bowl

Great potassium hit though

As for cakes I'd prefer a huge FO caramel salted goo of a muffin, and then a healthy dinner with loads of good crunchy veg as nature intended than trying to bake 'cake substitute'

But hey, each to their own.

Why can't you make fruits - and veg - such a standard food that they belong in cakes too? You can bake a chocolate cake, but you can also make strawberries tarts, and add a carrot or 2 to fresh orange juice.

it's a good thing to teach the kids that fruits and veg are not the enemy and belong to treats and regular meals.

BatShitBuns I love a cake with beetroot in it. I love beetroot.

@MarthasGinYard
Daykay wasn't saying blueberries in cakes instead of loads of good crunchy veg. She simply said as well as, then why not. And indeed she's right, why not? (Unless it hampers the taste for you, then obviously not).
I'm not sure why she got jumped on.

PerfectlySymmetricalButtocks poor kid, would you be 'allowed' to give her some rice cakes with cheese or something like dried fruit to have with her snack and lunch? If she is feeling faint then she needs something more to eat. I did not realise that some schools did not allow packed lunches. I would ask her gp to write a letter explaining that she has been feeling faint and that she needs something extra to the food she received at school.

No. 2-3 most days, sometimes 0 sometimes 10. I don't tend to worry so much about their veg and fruit intake at this point, just trying to get them to eat balanced meals is a struggle enough. They'd exist on eggs, bread and ice cream if I let them. I know it's frowned upon but fruit smoothies are an easy way to get them to eat fruit. Homemade so you know what goes in. I don't do any meal without some veg in it. But another thing is how much of it they will eat. Lately I've been able to get them to eat spinach and broccoli omelette so there is hope

arethere I don't give her processed crap for a snack, parents aren't allowed to provide any snacks. The problem is that the calories from fruit are burnt off too quickly. I don't think a slice of bread and butter for a 10 year old would be a terrible thing. Especially as she otherwise only has bread once a week. I can't make her eat more at breakfast, I'm pleased she eats anything at breakfast quite honestly.

No 0ccams no food from home. It used to piss me off, in EYFS they only had 1 choice for lunch, for 2 years, once every 3 weeks, she'd tell me, "It was jacket potato with cheese but I only ate the cheese." If you only give them 1 choice, at least try and make them eat it. I had it out with the school so many times.

If the meals were healthy, and that's a big IF, I'd rather the schools to only have one choice. It works very well in other countries. The kids quickly understand that if they are hungry, they have to eat and they won't die because they eat a piece of broccoli.

no we don't achieve this. We reliably have one apple a day and then maybe one other portion of veg if we are lucky. (eg in a pasta sauce)

we do take vitamins and have cereal and bread that is fortified with vitamins and minerals

I worry a bit about the lack of fibre

That works with most DC, not 2 of mine, unfortunately. DD managed to go 2 years just having grated cheese and pudding for lunch once every 3 weeks. She still doesn't like potatoes, except for 1 brand of ready-made mash.

"Why can't you make fruits - and veg - such a standard food that they belong in cakes too? You can bake a chocolate cake, but you can also make strawberries tarts, and add a carrot or 2 to fresh orange juice.

it's a good thing to teach the kids that fruits and veg are not the enemy and belong to treats and regular meals."

I see this as a contradiction in terms meself.

Why not learn to enjoy the taste of fruit and veg as it is- rather than hiding it in a meh cake?

Rocket and tomatoes (for ex.) are truly one of life's great pleasures.

Why not learn to enjoy the taste of fruit and veg as it is- rather than hiding it in a meh cake?

I don't think fruit tarts are meh cakes for a start, and why can't you do both? You can have a veg salad for starter, a fruit salad for pudding, it doesn't prevent you from having an apple puree with black pudding or adding extra veg to a pasta sauce.

You can't eat too many vegetables I am sure some sick individual will prove otherwise but that's the exception it's easier to build meals around them.

The best thing is to offer kids a varied diet and don't make them believe they have to struggle through the main to be rewarded by sweets.

Nope.
It goes in fits and starts.

I try and get them to eat veg with their meals and they have fruit as snacks as well as the usual crisps and chocolate. Some days they eat healthier than others. I think they probably don't eat enough vegetables, but sometimes I find it hard to get them to eat a meal at all.

Mine do, but they both love veg. Left 15 year old DS to fend for himself the other night - made himself a prawn salad. He's a bit health conscious though.

But given that there is genetic variation in 'hunger' and 'fullness' hormones, which affect people's predisposition towards being overweight or slimmer, isn't that variation also going to affect children?
People have different levels of self-regulation because of these things.

... okay there is research on this
www.karger.com/Article/FullText/489824

www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4798905/

I guess things just aren't at the stage where people routinely know their and their children's genotypes for these things and how they might need to change what they are doing because of that.

oops, wrong thread.

Meh, sometimes.

I do the old crudités trick too, and big bowls of homemade lentil and veg soup.

If we do have something like macaroni cheese I try to serve cucumber sticks with it and a fruit for pudding.