Apparently Tuna isn’t a suitable food for a primary aged DC (Lighthearted AIBU?)

[TunaIsOk]

This is from ExH after he video called DD (Aged 7, Year 3) and she told him she’d had tuna pasta for tea (her favourite).

His text to me says that he doesn’t think Tuna is the right food to be feeding a primary aged child.

I asked him if he’d looked at the school menu for lunches recently. Tuna Sandwiches and Tuna Jacket potatoes available every day, three times in the 4 week menu there’s some sort of Tuna Pasta Dish available on the hot menu, it’s very popular from what I’ve been told.

DD often opts for the tuna dish if it’s there.

No reply.

But am I being UR to give DD tuna? I know I'm not don't worry!

For context, tonights was fresh from the fish monger this morning but I do use tinned as well. There was also sweetcorn, tomatoes and peppers in it as well as a tomato sauce I make myself.

“You can get at least two adult portions out of a 140g tin”

Ah, the new Mumsnet chicken

@MyrtlethePurpleTurtle

“You can get at least two adult portions out of a 140g tin”

Ah, the new Mumsnet chicken

Tuna is nowhere near as good as a chicken. Tuna only feeds me, my husband and our 4 kids lunches for 2 weeks but a chicken feeds all 6 of us dinners for a month.

Wow - reading some of the articles on fish, I am shocked. I always thought fish was super healthy and I’m now WTF. Especially on swordfish.

Probably being a bit of a twonk tbh.
Here at the end is a link to NHS recommendations if your interested but I wouldn't worry our youngest (now 15) is tuna mad and has it 3 times a week (loves a tuna/Cheddar toastie 4 lunch)... He hasn't had mercury related problems.
www.nhs.uk/live-well/eat-well/fish-and-shellfish-nutrition/

@thinkfast

Tuna is fine for a child, but I wouldn't give it to a young child more than twice a week (due to mercury). So if my child were eating lots of tuna at school, I wouldn't be serving it at home.

You don't eat lots of tuna in a sandwich or pasta dish though. It's not the main component. The guidance is based on amounts (ie 2 tuna steaks a week) having 4 tuna sandwiches still wouldn't equal one steak

YABU to waste delicious fresh tuna steak in a pasta dish though.

I don’t give my dd tuna more than once a week for that reason - it may not say it on the NHS, but it is true that there are heavy metals concentrated in large fish. When dd had school dinners she ate tuna jacket potato once a week so we never ate tuna at home.

We eat mackerel or salmon or trout as an alternative, although salmon or trout is expensive so that is once a fortnight. My dd doesn’t like sardines or whitebait or anchovies or pilchards, which is a shame but I keep trying to tempt her, the smell puts her off. I know she would like the flavour of sardines if she tried.

This is so odd. I've always loved tuna. As a child I regularly had it. As long as she has other foods I dont see the problem.

@LollyLol the amount of tuna served on a school jacket is tiny, probably a lot a desert spoon and mixed heavily with Mayo as that's far cheaper than tuna. No need to make that the only portion.

Absolutely bonkers! I remember my friend’s ex being like this when they first split. He once turned up to drop the DC off and asked to look in the fridge because the (then very young) children said they’d eaten beans on toast for tea every night which obviously wasn’t true. He also said she needed to go see the GP because their eldest child was too much of a fussy eater, the GP basically laughed her out of the room.

He just sounds like a bit of a controlling wanker, tuna is fine.

The NHS website says 2 portions of oily fish for girls is fine, 4 portions for a boy. The pollutants that build up are more damaging for girls than boys. A portion is about 40g, so a third of a can of tuna.

If a girl is eating 3 portions of week or more on a regular basis it would be better to switch to an pily fish lower down the food chain.

It isn't bonkers. It's science.

@LollyLol

The NHS website says 2 portions of oily fish for girls is fine, 4 portions for a boy. The pollutants that build up are more damaging for girls than boys. A portion is about 40g, so a third of a can of tuna.

If a girl is eating 3 portions of week or more on a regular basis it would be better to switch to an pily fish lower down the food chain.

It isn't bonkers. It's science.

A portion is more than that for a child of the OP's DD's age. One portion is 55-80g for her (and nearer the middle of that range), as she isn't under 4.

Technically, a single tin doesn't contain enough for a portion for one adult and one child of her age - 140g is the amount recommended for an adult alone.

This directs to the BDA, which in turn links to this

@Mundra

You shouldn't have tuna more than twice a week due to the concentrations of heavy metals in the fish- this is even more important for children who are small, and thus have lower safe limits of heavy metals in the bloodstream.

I agree with you. It takes about a year for the mercury to leave the system after stopping. You might want to add a few different fish but be aware of salmon as it can also contain high levels of toxins (especially Norwegian farmed salmon).