To not understand why some parents make such poor food choices for their kids?

[Quit4me]

I was standing behind a mum with 2 children in a queue the other day. One child was a baby laying almost flat in a pram aged about 3 months. The other was around 6. The baby was really sweet smiling out of the pram which is what drew my attention to them. Then she grizzled and the mum said ‘whopps sorry I took away the milk buttons didn’t I. She was feeding her (the baby) milkybar buttons. Quite a lot of them.
I then noticed that that the mum was overweight, the nan who was also with them was overweight and most sadly the 6 year old was very overweight /obese.
Why would any mum be feeding their 3 month old chocolate? Obviously the whole family and little girl could have had a medical condition but Barring that why don’t parents see that feeding them sugar and too many processed foods early on is creating so many health problems for their children?
It makes me actually quite angry and sad for the children and I cringe seeing it.
Yes I know it’s none of my business directly, but this is everyone’s business because it’s a huge problem for the UK and is going to increase multi fold in the coming years.

You’ll get endless justifications on here for why you shouldn’t judge this behaviour. And judging her achieves nothing. But you’re not wrong to recognise it’s appalling.

OP wasn't recognising anything, she was starting a finger-pointing judge-fest so that everyone could make shitty comments about "stupid, ignorant fatties" in much the same vein as people who used to pay to go have a giggle at lunatics in the asylum.

All these sarcastic comments are funny and all the rest of it, but did people actually gather that this was a 3 month old, eating chocolate buttons?

Just confirming that everyone is keeping up

Feeding a tiny baby chocolate is abuse, plain and simple

Oh get to fuck is it abuse and calling it such minimises the actual abuse many children do go through.

The funniest thing about this thread is people believing a 12 week old baby who would struggle to swallow baby rice is consuming chocolate buttons without choking to death

YANBU OP. It’s clearly not right. I also see far too many people feeding young children salty KFC/McDonald’s etc, living off nothing but chicken nuggets etc. In lots of situations I think poverty & lack of education come into it, but also I think a large part of it is laziness too (unpopular opinion). And by the way, we DO teach cooking & nutrition in schools, it’s part of the curriculum in primary When did school become responsible for curing all of societies problems?

You’d have got away with this one if you’d not mentioned the adults were over weight. Soon as you wrote that you were fucked.

And babies can eat chocolate huttons from about 4 months without “choking to death”

@BilboBercow

The funniest thing about this thread is people believing a 12 week old baby who would struggle to swallow baby rice is consuming chocolate buttons without choking to death

Why? You do realise that 30 years ago it was the norm to feed babies from 3 months food right? I was eating mushed soggy rusks at 3 months- I have photos to show it! If a baby can suck your finger and swollow milk, it can suck and swallow chocolate!

@grassisjeweled

All these sarcastic comments are funny and all the rest of it, but did people actually gather that this was a 3 month old, eating chocolate buttons?

Just confirming that everyone is keeping up

It's goady horseshit, just so you can keep up.

@Whatwouldscullydo

How were you close enough to see the baby? What happened to social distancing

If you are unable to see a baby from 2m away you should likely go to the opticians.

@Bluntness100

You’d have got away with this one if you’d not mentioned the adults were over weight. Soon as you wrote that you were fucked.

And babies can eat chocolate huttons from about 4 months without “choking to death”

Bluntness, why do you think that is out of interest? Why does mentioning the adults overweight being so much more vitriol?

The funniest thing about this thread is people believing a 12 week old baby who would struggle to swallow baby rice is consuming chocolate buttons without choking to death

The funniest thing to me is how little people seem to know about weaning. 3 months used to be the recommended age to start weaning. Yes a baby would easily choke on a sugar-coated chocolate button but not on a round slip of soft chocolate that melts in the mouth straight away. It would probably be very messy and drooly though!

Though mostly I don't find the thread funny. I find it sad.

@Annabell80

How do you know the baby was 3 months? I don't think any of my 3 had enough teeth at 3 months to eat buttons. If this is true then it's sad but as you said absolutely none of your business.

My DC didn't have teeth until nearly 13 months, still managed to eat...

@madmara

Doesn't sound like you were maintaining a 2 metre distance.

Why can't people follow health guidelines during a global pandemic?

A global pandemic that is disproportionately affecting overweight and obese people, by quite a huge margin.

Also I am more trying to discuss it as a wider issue, not just this one case

Then why even mention this family? Just ask the question in your title, no details of this family are needed?

Also, I never believe threads like this anyway ‘I just don’t understaaaaaannnndddd !’

You clearly do and just want to feel superior. 🤷🏻‍♀️ Hope you feel better about yourself now.

I have to admit I did judge today when I saw a family in the playground with a baby of about 9-12 months in a pushchair clutching a big bag of Haribo... does happen!

Whilst simultaneously shutting gyms , pools , sports ,many health care clinics , where shopping deliveries are like gold dust and half the stuff still.out of stock.

Any help or advice this family may have been getting, has stopped til god knows when....

@FoxyTheFox

Feeding a tiny baby chocolate is abuse, plain and simple

Oh get to fuck is it abuse and calling it such minimises the actual abuse many children do go through.

I think overfeeding a child is abuse. I've seen the damage it does to the children (now adults) growing up overweight. They weren't particularly bullied but the psychological issues are there, they hide how much they eat as well. There are many forms of abuse, neglect is a big issue in the UK that is hardly dealt with because it's too difficult to gain any traction and people believe it isn't 'real' abuse. It leaves its mark though...

@AmaryllisNightAndDay

I doubt the baby was 3 months old, it wouldn’t even be weaned?

My generation started weaning at 3 months, some earlier. And babies don't need to be weaned to suck a chocolate button til it melts, if mum puts it in their mouth. Like a spoonful of mashed banana.

Firstly, there's the cost aspect - calorie for calorie, healthy foods cost something like 3 times more than unhealthy foods.

That's one of the things that has changed over the last 50-odd years. The price of food has come down (compared to household spending) but the price of sugary fatty food has come down much more. So the amount of sugary fatty food people can afford to eat (as well as portion size in general) have gone up over the generations.

My DH (probably your parents' generation) is not fat (see above) but had his teeth destroyed by a sugary diet in childhood. That was the first thing that happened when sugar was starting to become widely available to children. And people didn't realise, even doctors - my brother's teeth were also destroyed, not by sweets but by sugary medicine at bedtime.

Yes, all correct. And remember getting the polio vaccination on a sugar lump?

Why? You do realise that 30 years ago it was the norm to feed babies from 3 months food right? I was eating mushed soggy rusks at 3 months- I have photos to show it!
If a baby can suck your finger and swollow milk, it can suck and swallow chocolate!

Yes babies at that age may be able to swallow very smooth food. Babies at 12 weeks don't know they just have to suck on this chocolate until it melts and definitely wouldn't be able to swallow it while it's solid. If I'm being kind I'd say you just aren't as "really good" at aging babies as you think you are

@springiscoming12

I don’t understand the people that are saying mind your own business, etc. Feeding a tiny baby chocolate is abuse, plain and simple. That poor child

Wind your neck in and stop talking nonsense. Even the NHS recommend chocolate for under 12 months in certain circumstances.

Feeding a tiny baby chocolate is abuse, plain and simple. That poor child

I shouldn’t worry too much about the fictional baby in OPs story.

Come to think of it I'm not sure a baby would be capable of eating chocolate buttons, so I really hope it's not true

@Tianatiers

Come to think of it I'm not sure a baby would be capable of eating chocolate buttons, so I really hope it's not true

You’d be amazed. I think my son was given his first one at roughly three months. I was horrified but it doesn’t seem to have done him any harm.

@BilboBercow

*Why? You do realise that 30 years ago it was the norm to feed babies from 3 months food right? I was eating mushed soggy rusks at 3 months- I have photos to show it! If a baby can suck your finger and swollow milk, it can suck and swallow chocolate!*

Yes babies at that age may be able to swallow very smooth food. Babies at 12 weeks don't know they just have to suck on this chocolate until it melts and definitely wouldn't be able to swallow it while it's solid. If I'm being kind I'd say you just aren't as "really good" at aging babies as you think you are

This really isn't true. My children in the 90s were weaned at 3m and ate soft solids. They also had chocolate buttons. Including from the nurse at their vaccination who popped one in their mouth to stop them crying after the injection. Not saying this was 'right' just that it happened.

I was born in the early 70s and there are photos of me at a v. young age being fed something pureed. No idea whether my mum gave us chocolate, but I doubt it because we weren't allowed to eat between meals growing up.

I was slim as a child but as an adult my weight has gone up and down a lot, largely due to comfort eating during periods of depression.