Still feeding 2 year old “baby” food

[Disneymagic321]

Such as cereal bars or Ella’s kitchen biscuits or even crisps . At what point did you switch to “grown up” food (e.g wotsits) that has a lot more sugar, salt etc? So far he doesn’t know any different and is happy. I give small exposure here and there, so he’s not completely sheltered and try to keep snacks healthy ish e.g, fruits, raisins , rice cakes with hummus, dates. Someone said to me why are you still giving them baby versions, he’s big now! So I’m interested in your experiences to help me get a good balance 😊

When you say baby food I thought you ment baby dinners in a jar or blended food. What you describe are snacks for children a see no issuse given then dc likes them so why not continue.

2 is very young to be having crisps full of salt and rubbish. My 3.5 year old still has childrens crisps, Ella’s kitchen yoghurts and Oatix oaty bars. He has a little bit of chocolate here and there or an ice cream or cake as a treat but I figure if he likes eating the healthier stuff, I’ll encourage it as long as I can!!

I'm 37 and my guilty pleasure is rusks

Getting changed for swimming in one of the cubicles today, next cubicle occupied by a Dad and a toddler who couldn't yet speak. Nice little conversation going then I hear Dad say " We'll go and get you a sausage roll now and do you want some sweeties? "

@doadeer, sugar in actual fruit isn't 'free sugar', and comes with fibre, vitamins, etc., so it's different from sugars in fruit juice, plus it's hard to eat nearly as much when it's in whole fruit form. So basically you should read the juice concentrates as sugar and decide if you're happy with 7% added sugar (4% apple, 3% raspberry). Personally, I'd probably give one sometimes to a one or two year old, but try to avoid for an under one.

I was more bothered by the banana crispy tiddlers, where the ingredient list starts with 35% apple juice concentrate and 35% pear juice concentrate – so essentially 70% added sugar (www.sainsburys.co.uk/gol-ui/product/baby-toddler-special-offers/kiddylicious-banana-crispy-tiddlers-4x12g). They're basically sweeties, which would be fine if they were marketed as such, but they aren't.

UK sugar recommendations are a bit lower, 19g for 4-6, and no formal recommendation for under 4s other than 'try to avoid' (which is not exactly massively realistic for most of us, but that's the official advice).

I never bought them, too expensive. DD livec on Sainsburys breadsticks, bananas and cow biscuits as snacks, I never even bought kiddie yoghurts, just a family pot of Onken.

If they like them still give them , i stopped but also for financial reasons as they were all a lot more money

@Babdoc

When did "snacks" for babies/toddlers become a thing? I had my DC thirty years ago, and simply mashed or gave small portions of my own meals to them. None of us were eating stuff between meals.

When their Marketing Depts told us we must give our kids snacks (much like the Nappy firms insisting wains still need nappies at 3 and 4 years old - I wonder why!!!). That said, even 30 years ago most people gave their kids a cup of milk and a cow biscuit mid morning.

My 18 month old has a normal breakfast - toast, cereal, porridge, eggs, the same as us

Lunch and dinner are normal meals like us except on the very rare occasion - once a month maybe - where she gets a toddler ready meal from Annabelle Carmel. Pudding is always (grown up) yogurt or fruit unless the grandparents get their hands on her and she gets cake (maybe every 8 weeks?)

I do still buy the Organix carrot puffs and the Heinz biscotti, although they tend to get deployed if we’re out and about around 11am / 4pm (ie an hour from a meal) and I can’t distract her out of hunger if we’re at home I’ll try a toy or a story to keep her hungry until the next meal but sometimes when out it’s unavoidable.

She is a PFB though, god knows what standards I’ll be on when her little brother turns up in the spring 😂

I still give my 3 and 5 year olds baby biscuits and crisps, if they're on offer, and I've managed to get them back on the flavoured rice cakes recently! They also eat some hula hoops and quavers. Because they've got used to snack at nursery they're pretty arsey by meal times if they've not had anything.
I second what a pp says about sugar though - these fruit wind up things have eye watering levels of sugar. I try to stick to the 20% rule for sugar content, but even that seems a bit high.

@Crimesean
There are loads of concerns about artificial sweeteners promoting metabolic syndrome and insulin resistance, among other things. A quick search on pubmed shows that very clearly.
However, I also don’t want them to eat things only for a sweet taste.