About how you feed your child

[Hoppdoit]

Each to their own and I think it’s all down to personal choice.

I think I was just a bit shocked, probably because I don’t have kids 🤣

Yesterday at our family Christmas get together our 4 year old nephew asked for some cheese and was given a carrot instead. His dinner was turkey and broccoli. At dessert time I heard his dad say “you can have a small piece of chocolate cake because it’s Christmas okay?”

Is this standard?

What did everyone else eat?

Nope! Unless he's dairy intolerant...but then why the cake? And no cheese?

Weird. Is the child overweight?

I don't think there is a standard way when it comes to feeding children.

I have two who eat normally, one who is autistic and eats everything in sight including non-food items (sensory seeker), and one who is also autistic but barely eats anything at all except for a very specific lost of foods (sensory avoider).

The standard in my house is that we don't fuss over food and we make sure a good variety is available and offered.

Everyone else ate everything you would imagine on a Christmas Day...and no he’s thin as a rake, as are his parents

It was more like they seemed to be very alert on “bad foods” for him, he wanted some cheese and chocolate etc

I'd have given the cheese and then he probably wouldn't have wanted chocolate cake. No shite is given here normally. Visiting though, he'd have been allowed whatever was going. Thankfully, he liked savoury food more than sweet (odd child I had).

I mean having a carrot after a meal helps restore the PH balance in your mouth 🤣 but I doubt that was the reason!

It just sounds like they're trying to stop him eating lots of junk. If it were me I'd have let him have cheese though imo

Urg, "bad foods". According to DS' dietician there are no good foods or bad foods, only food.

I agree ☝️ there are no bad foods! They were perpetuating that though!

Maybe he is always asking for cheese but never actually eats it.

DD eats what we eat. I actively try to give her cheese because she doesn't like milk so it's a good source of calcium.

DD recently attended a birthday party for a 5-year old. There was a box of chocolates on the table for the children. All the other parents told their children they were only allowed one, with the rationale that more would make them sick and give them a tummy ache. I would normally let DD have more or less as many as she wanted at a special occasion like this and she would probably take three. She's never had so much chocolate that she is sick.

Everyone has different rules but I personally think everything is fine in moderation and that kids have a tendency to get obsessed with things they're not allowed to have.

Mine eat whatever we eat. We cook everything from scratch and don’t eat junk but I would never risk giving my children food issues by teaching them that some food is bad or only allowing them food that is low in fat. I find refusing a kid a piece of cheese pretty bizarre and unnecessary. Especially as presumably the adults were eating it!

Was it maybe blue cheese or flavoured cheese or really strong cheese?

Some people don’t like giving young children things like blue cheese, I know I was very wary of giving DD things like Stilton or Brie when she was that young. Also with stronger flavour cheese a lot of children might not like it. I know quite a few who would only really eat a mild cheddar at that age and would find a lot of the cheese board type of cheeses too strong. I’m sure plenty of children do eat these with no issues but others wouldn’t.

Chocolate and Christmas kind of go hand in hand but it can be a bit overkill this time of year. School/ nursery give selection boxes, family members give selection boxes, santa brings chocolate coins, large tubs of chocolates are floating around everywhere at the moment. It’s easy for a small child to eat their own weight in chocolate this time of year but I don’t think Christmas dinner is the place to restrict.

I think most parents are pretty good at knowing their child’s eating habits and what the will and won’t eat. Some people are just a lot stricter about treats than others. I’m quite relaxed with DD as she had never really been a huge fan of chocolate. She would eat crisps and popcorn until she exploded so I do need to watch how much she has.

Meh could be all manner of things.

Maybe he always asks for cheese and doesn’t eat it. Maybe it makes him trumpy,

I was called mean the other day for not letting DS have a Capri Sun when his cousins were. For some reason he always wets himself when he has it, as his Auntie found out when she sneaked him some

Hard to say really. I think it’s fine for everyday eating but at special meals such as Xmas it seems very odd, the point is to break out.

However, having said that, I have one who had no behavioural issues but used to go off their nut when they had certain foods with red colouring. Rather than announce to a table full of people that child had a weird behavioural reaction and embarrass them I would just say no to them to lollies if there were red ones and things like trifle if it had red jelly. I extended this to all my kids as I didn’t want some weird discussion with a table load of people and bitching that siblings could have it, why couldn’t they etc. To others I probably just seemed grinch like with the kids food. I also have friends now with a child that reacts extremely badly to chocolate with their behaviour so I understand why they would say no, but again in a group of people they can’t be arsed explaining so others may just think they are uptight.

Allergies, intolerances?

It might be that they have trouble getting him to eat his veg. He might have a preference for cheese and chocolate - I’m with him on that! If you have a child with a small appetite you try to make sure the stuff they eat first is balanced.

They don’t want him to eat cheese?! That’s bizarre. Cheese is really good for growing children. They really do need quite a lot of fat at that age, not to mention calcium.

Some people are strict on what their kids can and can't eat. I know someone who makes a big thing to her older DD about sugar and bad foods. Thing is I've seen slightly older kids with parents like this go crazy for the restricted stuff at parties when the sugar police parents aren't hovering!
Personally I think everything in moderation is fine. I don't like food being referred to as good or bad although DD is aware of what is healthier choices. Referring to certain food as a treat annoys me too.