Is DS’ diet really that bad?

[enuquer]

Please be kind.

DS is 2, will be 3 at the end of the year. His daily diet is usually

Breakfast: weetabix or rice krispies/corn flakes

Morning snack: an orange or a yoghurt

Lunch: Ham sandwich with an orange or yoghurt (whatever he doesn't have for snack) and some wotsits or quavers

Afternoon snack: 2 biscuits or a small packet of chocolate buttons

Dinner: pasta/pizza/ sausage and mash with carrots/fish fingers/chicken nuggets/ the occasional McDonald's happy meal (probably once or twice a month)

Dessert: ice cream or a small chocolate bar

Then he sometimes has chips if me and DP have had a takeaway, and he isn't asleep yet.

The only fruit and veg he'll eat are oranges and carrots. During the day he does drink water or apple juice and has a bottle of milk before bed.

We recently stayed at my mum's as my mum said that he shouldn't be eating those foods and his diet is awful.

Is it really that bad?

@HaveringWavering I just looked on a yogurt brand's website, for example 11g/100g = >13g in a small pot. Have just checked now, an M&S yogurt is the same, 11g/100g. Some were higher, some lower.

Obviously every yogurt is different, and clearly smaller yogurts are smaller (!), but fruit yogurt is as unhealthy as ice-cream (just looked it up: 12g/100ml).

Lots of people eat too much sugar, many UK children do, it causes a lot of health problems.

The NHS includes fruit yogurts on their top offenders list for high sugar diets: www.nhs.uk/live-well/eat-well/top-sources-of-added-sugar/

All these people saying 'they won't eat anything else...' I'm sorry but how do they get access to that kind of food? It's not like a 2yo goes to the shops and chooses what to have. It is really that simple-if you don't buy it they won't eat it. I agree that there is no reason for a toddler to eat chocolate, or crisps, you don't miss what you don't know.

Also a child will not starve themselves so he might refuse at first but will he keep refusing if there's literally nothing else to eat except what you cook and serve?

Your DP needs to be on board though as otherwise all your efforts are undermined and the child see it.

[quote lannistunut]@HaveringWavering I just looked on a yogurt brand's website, for example 11g/100g = >13g in a small pot. Have just checked now, an M&S yogurt is the same, 11g/100g. Some were higher, some lower.

Obviously every yogurt is different, and clearly smaller yogurts are smaller (!), but fruit yogurt is as unhealthy as ice-cream (just looked it up: 12g/100ml).

Lots of people eat too much sugar, many UK children do, it causes a lot of health problems.

The NHS includes fruit yogurts on their top offenders list for high sugar diets: www.nhs.uk/live-well/eat-well/top-sources-of-added-sugar/[/quote]
But why use adult products and portion sizes as reference in the context of a discussion about children’s diets?

@HaveringWavering I just looked at a small pot because that is a known size of a yogurt and the size of pot I gave. People can look at the size/sugar content of their own yogurt if interested. I have seen people give two small yogurts (petit filous size), we each have to look at our own habits I guess.

The facts are that at >10% sugar by weight, yogurts are unhealthy foods, but many people consider them healthier than e.g. biscuits or ice cream.

It is often healthier to give a large portion of a healthy food than a small portion of an unhealthy food. My younger child ate a lot of yogurt because they did not like cheese, because it was plain yogurt I did not have to limit it.

And some have more sugar in than the middle one I selected btw.

[quote lannistunut]@HaveringWavering I just looked at a small pot because that is a known size of a yogurt and the size of pot I gave. People can look at the size/sugar content of their own yogurt if interested. I have seen people give two small yogurts (petit filous size), we each have to look at our own habits I guess.

The facts are that at >10% sugar by weight, yogurts are unhealthy foods, but many people consider them healthier than e.g. biscuits or ice cream.

It is often healthier to give a large portion of a healthy food than a small portion of an unhealthy food. My younger child ate a lot of yogurt because they did not like cheese, because it was plain yogurt I did not have to limit it.[/quote]
A “small pot” for a child is not the 100g size that you looked at though. OP did not say that she was giving her child two pots. You exaggerated the amount of sugar that OP was likely to be giving her child in yoghurts, which came across as judgmental and scaremongering.

DP needs to start eating whatever the family meal is and not eating separately and caving to your son. It sounds like it is learned behaviour given you said he would eat anything a year ago.

@NanooCov

DP needs to start eating whatever the family meal is and not eating separately and caving to your son. It sounds like it is learned behaviour given you said he would eat anything a year ago.

My children ate everything enthusiastically post weaning…. And then at about 2, 2.5 started to refuse many things they previously enjoyed.

It is a well known pattern and especially affects fruit and veg. There is some theory that says it is a instinctive and based in evolution, designed to prevent toddlers helping themselves to every poisonous berry and plant they come across.

But easy access to the deliberately addictive pull of salt and sugar in processed food and lack of good role modelling from Dad can’t help.

Easily fixed with a few tweaks. At 3, you're forming his tastebuds for life, so getting him "hooked" on fresh tastes now is a good idea. I used to find raw very thinly cut carrot sticks, cucumber sticks, baby tomatoes cut into quarters handy and minimal faff. And remember that he will want to eat what he sees you eating, so introducing those elements to your own plate as standard will have a huge influence on him. I've relaxed now the kids are older but I was pretty militant until age 4 so that they're tastebuds would be steered in the right direction. All of us crave what we eat and it's a slippery slope if processed foods are introduced too young.

Breakfast: weetabix or rice krispies/corn flakes

Morning snack: an orange or a yoghurt

Lunch: Ham sandwich with an orange or yoghurt (whatever he doesn't have for snack) and some wotsits or quavers

Afternoon snack: 2 biscuits or a small packet of chocolate buttons substitute with banana/apple

Dinner: pasta/pizza/ sausage and mash with carrots/fish fingers/ with a side of salad sticks or peas or corn
chicken nuggets/the occasional McDonald's happy meal (probably once or twice a month)

Dessert: ice cream or a small chocolate bar

@icedcoffees

It's suspect it's pretty similar to what a lot 2-3 years old eat in reality, to be honest.

I know MN toddlers all eat quinoa, couscous, olives, 10 varieties of veg and baked salmon for dinner but in the real world, pasta, ham sandwiches, yoghurt, oranges etc. are pretty normal foods for toddlers.

I don't think he needs biscuits, chocolate bars and buttons every day, though, and I would get rid of the apple juice and just give water or milk.

I agree with this. It’s not dissimilar to what my 3 year old eats when she’s with me, although we don’t do juice or the biscuits. She happily eats a much wider variety of food, less processed and with more vegetables on weekdays at nursery but just won’t eat the same things when I make them.

P.S. kids "yoghurts" are a joke. They are sweets masked as dairy. I never buy anything from that aisle as the marketing of that crap to children really annoys me. Try giving plain natural yoghurt (which believe it or not is already sweet with natural sugars), add dollop of jam or drizzle of honey if you need to to begin with and gradually reduce. We all really enjoy natural Greek-style yoghurt. It really doesn't need anything added.

You need to have a zero tolerance approach, if he doesn't eat it then he has to go hungry I'm afraid. He'll soon eat

It's suspect it's pretty similar to what a lot 2-3 years old eat in reality, to be honest

Are you serious?

I suspect it's pretty similar to what a lot 2-3 years old eat in reality, to be honest

Hence the childhood obesity crisis! Take some responsibility for your children, people!

With so much nutritional info at your fingertips now, there is absolutely no excuse to feed your kids such shit.

@happydays2345

You need to have a zero tolerance approach, if he doesn't eat it then he has to go hungry I'm afraid. He'll soon eat

2 year olds? No.

Lots of good advice on here OP, but also lots of slightly worrying advice.

Not sure how people think breaded chicken is better than a chicken nugget? Or how a potato waffle is better than oven chips?

Not sure how people think breaded chicken is better than a chicken nugget?

If it’s breaded chicken made from scratch yourself, compared to a commercially produced chicken nugget then of course it’s better.

Breaded chicken is better than a chicken nugget because the latter contains (at least sometimes) salt, sugar, vegetable oil and artificial flavoring.

I am a bit concerned by the 'starve your children, it's fine' brigade.

@DancingCoyote

Lots of good advice on here OP, but also lots of slightly worrying advice.

Not sure how people think breaded chicken is better than a chicken nugget? Or how a potato waffle is better than oven chips?

Breaded chicken is sometimes better because it can be a proper piece of chicken rather than arseholes and eyelids minced and squished together

rather than arseholes and eyelids minced and squished together

And bound together with a host of factory produced chemicals and transfats

I’m with yout mum it’s a bad diet, I don’t know why folks are focusing on veg, it’s like one person says it and everyone else copies. It’s the amount of sugary shit he’s eating, biscuits and chocolate.

To be honest though your partners diet isn’t good either and I doubt yours is much better. He’s basically learning to eat that crap and of course prefers it to anything else.

You have a DP problem

yeah, the actual meals are not great but bung a couple of bits of veg in there and they are acceptable

Try a year without Macdonalds and ditch all the sugary stuff and juice

Be wary of substituting with too much fruit as a number of posters seem to be saying. A simple malt biscuit is actually better than too much fruit which can ruin teeth.

Off topic but those Munch Bunch strawberry/vanilla ones are actually really nice! We got them as a substitute from Tesco last week and I scoffed most of them after thinking they sounded horrid.