To give my 18 month old Macdonalds?

[Benji4ever]

Twice a month I take my two DS swimming all afternoon. On way home we get a drive through Macdonalds

The 3 year old has a happy meal. The 18 month old has a few of the chips. That's it.

I saw a mum give me one of those looks as I took some chips from the happy meal and gave them to the little one.

Is this awful? Its only twice a month and only a few chips. Also the 18 month old drink diluted squash regularly.

Aibu to think in the grand scheme of things its not that bad?

www.gov.uk/government/news/children-consume-more-than-a-years-worth-of-sugar-in-6-months

Sugary drinks are a big source of sugar in children’s diets. They’re an even bigger source of sugar in teenager’s diets. Too much sugar contributes to childhood obesity, tooth decay, and type 2 diabetes. Sticking with water for as long as possible makes sense.

My 2 kids drink water and squash and even fizzy drinks too! Dd joins us in a few alcoholic drinks at the weekend. Neither have fillings age 15 and 18.

I’d also add fruit juice to the sugary drinks list, five a day be damned, as the sugar and acid is so bad for teeth.

We use no added sugar squashes and fizzy drinks.

Personally have no problem with this, maybe I am a bad mum! My 2 year old had a mcdonalds the other day as we were all having one so she had the same. It's not a regular thing and she has a balanced diet so not an issue for me at all. She also had a fruit shoot with it, shock horror!

The routine you described, taking the kids swimming, then for a maccys and sitting in the car singing songs sounds just lovely OP. You’ve obviously been through a lot in the last few years and you sound like a very caring mum and these are the things your kids will remember. It’s about balance, it’s not a daily occurrence, I’d look at their diets over the course of a week/fortnight and assess if a few chips is really anything to worry about!

What a strange thing to say. This has nothing to do with whether he had painful dental work. Someone said it was dramatic to say a 10 year old would be screaming at the dentist’s office. I have shared a story of a 10 year old doing just that. Therefore, it was not meant to be dramatic, but personal anecdote. That should have been the end, except for this comment by you. No one ever said he had scream-inducingly painful dental work. But do you think there are a lot of parents that will feel better to know their child was screaming in fear and trauma, but not pain? And that the screaming is still tied to avoidable dental work, which is what I stated. Nothing about pain. Just that a 10 year old might be screaming due to avoidable dental work. It’s just logic.

• He had to deal with something traumatizing for him,


• He had to do it because he needed avoidable dental work.


• If he hadn’t needed the dental work, he wouldn’t have been in that position or had the trauma.

Yes, of course he was afraid of needles. But if he was specifically afraid of needles going in his mouth, when does that happen outside of dental work?

At this point of the day, I’m too sick to keep going. If you’re struggling with my past comments, please feel free to PM me and I’ll explain anything you like and try to provide sources tomorrow. If I continue to talk tonight, my likelihood of being an arsehole is 100%.

I agree with this.

In lockdown when we were all bored and banned from going anywhere, I used to nip to the shop (or <gasp> a fast food chain) and we had what we’d call a car picnic. Replacing a regular picnic. We’d play songs and games and tell jokes and have a really good laugh. The kids remember it all and even now they ask to go on car picnics! One of the few positive memories from COVID

You made out that dental work could be painful and scream-worthy at age 10, and have used someone else’s irrelevant experience to illustrate your point. I don’t think it’s cool to scaremonger people that way 🤷‍♀️

Also, re: this. No. Nothing like a “bog standard Sunday meal.” Four chicken nuggets weigh 66g and have 8.7 grams of fat. A small Happy Meal chips is 68g size and has 12.1 grams of fat.

In comparison, a large roast chicken breast is 150g and depending on preparation by recipe attached, only 7g of fat, even with olive oil and brown sugar added. Without that added, it’s only 4.7g of fat.
www.recipetineats.com/oven-baked-chicken-breast/

This roast potatoes recipe is 151g per serving (1/6 of 2lbs of potatoes) and only 4g of fat.
www.spendwithpennies.com/simple-herb-oven-roasted-potatoes/

I’m not even including the lower calories, carbs, salt, sugar in non-McDonald’s food… see attached images and compare them to the two links for complete picture.

McDonald’s is the same as it ever was. Just because they removed a few saturated fats doesn’t mean a damn thing.

I think it's really good that you take your little ones swimming regularly. I would just worry about them expecting it routinely, but it sounds like your getting them into good active habits too, so balance in everything is the way to go. Just don't use fast food as a reward.

Same! I don't believe half the shite people put on here. You know that saying 'dress for the job you want, not the job you have?' (Or something like that ) I reckon a lot of MN posters write with the values of parents they want to be, rather than how they are in reality. If the vast majority of parents had the same opinions as MN then Fruit Shoots wouldn't even exist!

It would be easy to say on here that my kids only ate organic lentil based meals morning, noon and night - and their poo was so pure they could've legit re-ate it, but in reality my kids ate whatever they wanted, whenever they wanted with zero restrictions. They've grown up to be happy, healthy slim young women who can self-regulate. If you constantly restrict your kids how are they ever going to learn moderation?

Absolutely fine op, although does it fill him?

DD age 1 has the occasional happy meal with veggie fingers and a fruit bag plus water.

She also drinks very diluted juice at home.

Looking at this thread makes me realise that over the last two generations or so, highly processed fatty, salty, sugary foods and over-refined foods have become normal foods in people's minds. In fact they are not. They are the products of a so called "food" industry that cares nothing for health, even children's health, and only about profits. The supermarkets have largely colluded in this, so that most food sold now is not natural or healthy in a straightforward way but highly processed, full of additives and deficient in essential nutrients.

It is a triumph of hype over our natural good sense that these "foods" are now regarded as normal meals. As time has gone on, anything else is seen as unusual. I think that is why so many on here say things like - it is not harmful, its not all the time, and are concerned mainly about dentistry, whereas the health hazards of poor dietary choices are legion. One in three people in this country now get cancer, and heart disease and diabetes are extremely common - join the dots folks, and think for yourselves rather than continue to be brainwashed by the fast food and convenience food industries. They have conned you and possibly your parents generation too into thinking that this stuff is normal food.

Can people stop referring to squash as juice.

squash = utterly pointless flavour with 0 nutritional value
juice = still sugary but made from fruit and actually has nutritional value.

they are not the same

It's really sad.

What is sad @shrunkenhead ?

While I wouldn't give either McDonalds or squash to my kids, I just wanted to say that it sounds like you're doing really well.

My kids are the same age and I'm exhausted all the time and just trying to do my best, even though I'm trying so hard and have an amazing husband.

You're a single mum and you're still having fun with them and have nice little rituals. I think it's lovely and I don't know how you do it. Well done you x

Lol piss off

You’re not from Scotland I assume.

Is that what squash is called there?! Then what is juice called?!

I do this with my daughter, she's the same, when we go swimming I take her to McDonalds afterwards. We go probably once a month.

We eat all our meals together, she eats everything. We eat plenty of meals made from scratch, vegetables, lentils and beans, fruit. Not worried about an occasional trip to McDonald's. She doesn't have squash, she doesn't eat sweets or chocolate.

The only thing that worries me is the salt content.

In Scotland just about every drink is juice except water or milk.

Diluting juice
Fresh juice
Fizzy juice

Although water can be cooncil juice!

I think there’s lots of toddler age children that don’t have squash or McDonald’s. At that age it’s easy to avoid in most cases. When they get to school age, it’s obviously different, but I don’t think you have to be particularly strict about food to not give toddlers those things. Same with fruit shoots, my kids had plenty of them from age 5 onwards, mostly at classmates parties but not as toddlers.