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?

[quote notanothertakeaway]@CallMeRisley
@Moonbabysmum

Do you call biscuit/cake a “naughty snack” to your kids?

Referring to biscuits / cake as a "naughty snack" is unhelpful

And so is referring to them as "treat"

It's OK to have these in moderation, but unhelpful to introduce feelings of guilt around food, or to imply that the horrible veg must be tolerated to get to the reward of the lovely cake

This book explains it far better than I can

]][/quote]
Thank you, I’ll check this out. It was always “clear your plate or you won’t get a treat” in my house growing up.

I have a 3 year old too so some of this sounds familiar! I do think that's too much sugar as a daily menu.

I would stop offering biscuits/crisps/chocolate/ice cream as a starting point. I tend to offer my 3 year old a couple of healthy options and if he doesn't want any, he goes without a snack/dessert. So for example, ill offer him a banana or babybel, mini cheddars or veggie crisps, strawberries or grapes, yoghurt or a sugar free jelly pot.

If you want to change his main meals (I'm not clear from your posts if you want to or not) then I think you need to get your partner on board with eating a family meal each night with no alternatives. Then if your DP wants to eat other foods, he does it separately after toddler is in bed?

Meh, I have an autistic ds with an extremely limited diet so that looks ok to me.

It's probably not the best but anything is better than nothing!

I'd probably - and did - make my own fish fingers nuggets and pizza when my son was small. A scone based pizza is quick or I'd do a French bread pizza on a mini baguette piece (so basically cheese on toast) and ds could choose his own toppings.

@Babaghanoush same. Glad I was born in the early 2000s before this takeaway culture was a thing

i think you need to drastically reduce the sugar content and increase the fruit and veg.
I know it can be difficult to get children to eat veg.. what worked for me was putting a tiny amount of a new vegetable on their plate every day ..first 3 or 4 days just leave it on the plate. Eventually tell them they need to try just a tiny amount. Repeat ..can take up to to 2 weeks. It's fear of the unfamiliar.
You can also hide vegetables in dishes like spag bol, shepherds pie, etc. even in pizza. I'd stop buying the crisps, chocolates and biscuits, get him out of bad habits now, it's harder as they get older.

Bags of chocolate/ice cream/crisps EVERY DAY!?

Of course that is a shit diet.

How do people still not know this.

Corn Flakes and Rice Krispies are high in salt and sugar.
Ham is very high in salt
Processed white bread: high sugar and salt.
Quavers and Wotsits: salt and fat.
Sweetened yogurts, biscuits, chocolate
All these things accustom his taste to the salty sugary taste of junk food.

It isn’t all about the nutrients, it is about his palate, taste, addiction to these tastes (why do you think the manufacturers do it?) and learning to depend on these tastes and reject others.

Many many toddlers go through a food refusenik phase (mine certainly did) but they don’t have to get hooked on the salt, sugar and flavours of junk food.

Can I ask, what is wrong with cornflakes sometimes? We have weetabix, porridge, shredded wheat or egg for breakfast but also recently bought cornflakes which he enjoys too.

Cornflakes aren't horrific if you don't sprinkle sugar on them

I only sprinkle sugar on mine sometimes never for the toddler, she gets them with fruit

At this age I'm of the camp 'if he's hungry he'll eat. Offer what you're eating otherwise ready break. is always an option. That's what I did with mine

[quote Rivermonsters]@Babaghanoush same. Glad I was born in the early 2000s before this takeaway culture was a thing[/quote]
Where did you live, Antartica? I was born 30 years before you and we had several Indian, Chinese, pizza and fish and chip takeaways in our small Scottish town. Most run by families who had been there decades even then. Always a fish supper on a Thursday.

Oh and no I still don't think that your suggestion that @randomchap's child would die was in any way appropriate or acceptable.

Can you offer natural yogurt with fruit or raisins on top?

@MrsArchchancellorRidcully same, no normal child will starve themselves

I mean, do processed frozen food for dinner if you want, but at least make the snacks non sugary and more healthy, cubes of cheese, slices of cucumber, squares of wholemeal pitta, a few grapes all on a plate together

@Zzzzfthg

Can I ask, what is wrong with cornflakes sometimes? We have weetabix, porridge, shredded wheat or egg for breakfast but also recently bought cornflakes which he enjoys too.

Nothing is wrong with cornflakes!

MN just likes to hyperventilate over any kind of cereal that isn't porridge or muesli these days

@HaveringWavering it was an example 🤦‍♀️ if I wanted to tell someone to die I’d tell them to die straight out. Well I didn’t grow up with takeaways etc

@Mamabear2020

I have a 3 year old too so some of this sounds familiar! I do think that's too much sugar as a daily menu.

I would stop offering biscuits/crisps/chocolate/ice cream as a starting point. I tend to offer my 3 year old a couple of healthy options and if he doesn't want any, he goes without a snack/dessert. So for example, ill offer him a banana or babybel, mini cheddars or veggie crisps, strawberries or grapes, yoghurt or a sugar free jelly pot.

If you want to change his main meals (I'm not clear from your posts if you want to or not) then I think you need to get your partner on board with eating a family meal each night with no alternatives. Then if your DP wants to eat other foods, he does it separately after toddler is in bed?

My only issue with this is the jelly. Artificial sweeteners are really bad for us, especially young children. It sets the body up to expect sweetness and messes with hormones. I'd rather mine have a small amount of full sugar juice than one full of sweetness.

Any breakfast cereal is crap if it is super sugary - most people put sugar on cornflakes and loads of syrup on porridge

Yes, we do eat dinner together, and I try to give DS what I have, but he refuses and cries and DP ends up giving in and giving him whatever he has.

He only has a bottle before bed as he doesn't drink milk out of a normal cup and he won't drink milk during the day.

Whenever I try and speak to DP about not giving DS whatever he has, he says DS will be fine and he needs to eat.

@enuquer can you physically remove the food from DP to stop him giving it to your son?

I think it's a child thing! Just keep offering better options
Of course they want to eat what they like - so do I! If I had a choice I would happily live off pizza, cake and chocolate. I don't particularly like salad or most veg or a lot of the other stuff I eat but I know I have to eat it to have a balanced diet
Children don't know that, and some adults are still stuck in only wanting to eat their favourite foods (maybe like your partner?)

Does he have pudding every day? We stick to just having it at the weekend so it's more of a treat. I've adapted some of the sweet things dc love to be more healthy too, so for example instead of choc milk we make our own with cocoa, milk, banana, avocado (makes it really creamy!) and nut butter, no added sugar. Or I make sneaky veg meals and snacks, like beetroot brownies, courgette cookies etc.

Kids will refuse food, especially if your partner's got something more enticing on offer that's not the dinner you made! We mostly all eat together and eat the same things, if dc don't want to eat it that's their choice (we offer them porridge before bed if they've refused all dinner though!). They do refuse some stuff but mostly eat pretty well for little kids I think.

Daily crisps and chocolate at that age isn’t great. The rest is ok IMO but if the takeaway is regular then probably too many chips too.