Is my son eating too much crap?

[Bog]

Sorry I have another thread on here but everyone here is very helpful and for traffic.

Son is 18 months old.

For breakfast he has either rice crispies or weetabix with marmite (not much) on toast

Lunch is usually half a cheese or ham sandwich with either a banana or half an apple, or Raisins. Sometimes I add a few of those veg crisps for kids or 3 of those organix animal shape crackers.

Either mid morning or afternoon he has a baby biscotti or organix snack

For dinner it's veg with some kind or protein. Frozen birds eye chicken, fish fingers,scrambled egg or the frozen baby food shapes. Annabel or something or other. But is this too much rubbish? Usually after dinner he has a pudding of petit filous or a suckies yoghurt.

He drinks water during the day and has a nighttime bottle of milk.

Thank you for all your help 🙏

Really sorry for your loss. Feel quite emotional for you trying to do the best for your son in what is clearly a really challenging time. We all have our own strengths and jobs within the household, it must be a huge shock having to take them all on suddenly

you’ve had some good ideas here but don’t worry too much, he will be just fine

Absolutely second what @ShirleyPhallus said. You're doing really great, OP, especially considering all you have been through this year. Your son is lucky to have you as a Dad

I am by no means a great dad. When I'm working the telly is on, he plays by himself but the telly does all the work. On my lunch I take him outside for a walkin the garden. The weekends are better as I can take him out and he doesn't watch telly then.

Honestly it looks fine to me (only qualification - I have three, but they are all older and in good health and eat well). Someone up thread mentioned looking at the whole week and I think that's good advice - if he's getting a decent variety over the whole week that will really help. Bear in mind if he's 18m he will probably get way pickier suddenly btw 2-3 (all 3 of mind did this) and then you'll be dealing with someone who only eats toast cut in squares not triangles for breakfast. Then they start school and start to chill out again around 5-6. You are playing a long game here. Keep mealtimes relaxed and fun and eventually most of them eat most stuff or at least say no politely. But he's getting three meals a day, he's being offered plenty of fruit and veg and different types of protein, if some of that needs to come out of the freezer that's fine.

The diet really isn’t that bad OP . I have young teen boys who are athletic , rather tall and rarely Ill and mumsnet would have been horrified by the diet of the fussy one especially . I would concentrate on improving the protein element and try and get the five a day into him . as much as you can try and feed you both the same - for us that meant lots of child friendly meals for a while and us eating at a child friendly time . I am sorry for your loss .

Don't add much fruit - a banana and something else is enough (and ditch the raisins, they are sugar bombs). You want more veg.
I'd add some protein to that breakfast too (a boiled egg and soldiers).

Don't be hard on yourself. I can see you are really trying hard with good quality kids ready made products, but as a fellow working parent I can suggest the following:

On the weekend cook a big batch of bolognese sause. Add broccoli stalks alongside onions and carrots to add more veg. Split into individual portions and freeze. Same with any meat stew.
Individual chicken drumsticks are good and easy source of protein.
Small steaks can be made very quickly and easily. Offer different steamed veggies with it. Their tastes change so much one day he will say no, another day will give it a go.

I think his diet sounds fine - it looks balanced.

What do you eat? Can you give him what you have yourself instead of the 'baby' stuff? It would save on effort and money.

So sorry to hear about your wife. It must be so hard when she was the main caregiver. Don't beat yourself up - you sound like you are doing your best, and your best is definitely good enough. Do you have a support network beyond your parents?

The baby snacks I thought would be better than an adult snack in regards to sugar 😋

It's fine, honestly. You'll get shot down on here if you so much as let your child look at a piece of chocolate.

Is your son content and happy? Yes, then you're doing a fab job. Don't beat yourself up over what you feed him.

I would buy yourself the Annabel Karmel cookbook. You can then batch cook at the weekend, pop it into tubs and that's hot meals sorted for the week.

The meals in there are fine for all of the family- my children are now much older and I still use some of her recipes.

I would also try switching to wholewheat pasta- we've always had it and my children don't know any different. Then you can make a quick and healthy meals with wholewheat pasta for everyone.

For a snack mine love wholemeal pitta toasted and beg sticks dipped into little pots of natural yogurt. Might be worth a try.

You are a great dad and anybody can see just how much you love your darling son. You are so strong for being able to even get out of bed in the morning with the awful tragedy you've been through. There are much worse things you could be feeding your son and I'm sure things will improve even more with time as you begin to heal and have more energy to put into batch cooking simple meals. As others have mentioned, there are plenty of easy 'hidden veg' meals that might even help you with your veg intake if you struggle! You are doing a great job regardless of what has happened but it is even more admirable that you haven't buried your head in the sand (which I wouldn't blame you for!) and are getting on with bringing up your son and providing him with a stable childhood. There is no correct method to raising a child so don't feel like a failure if he has a biscuit as a snack instead of carrot sticks everyday or you let him watch some telly while you unwind. You are a credit to your son and your late wife💐

@Bog I have a 5yr old and (almost) 3yr old and their diet isn't perfect. I really try my best but I am totally and utterly exhausted 99% of the time!

You are an amazing dad.

As long as he's having his daily multivitamins (haliborange liquid one you can get in morrisons or amazon.. Only saying as my DS won't have any other one). He'll be fine.
Sneak brocolli and onions in to pasta.. I like to sneak mushrooms into baked beans.
Some days my childs diet is awful (all frozen oven food) other days it's varied.
As a full time working mother I know the struggle, you can only do your best.

Also another thing, cottage pie is a good one, you can mix carrots, beef, potato, cheese.. A hearty meal.
Don't underestimate the nutritional value of potatoes. 🙂

I would be thinking of fruit as the potential to add vitamins rather than worrying about sugar. I learnt from a dietitian that if your child doesn't like veg that a fruit alternative is recommended. My little guy has a diet like yours as he is a very picky eater. If you can then do add more variety and freshly made foods but it's essentially an ok diet with just a couple of tweaks needed (that I also need to make for my own child!!) Best of luck, you're doing great.

He needs veggies, steamed with a bit of olive oil, and stop the fried things (fishfingers or nuggets).
You setting him on the obesity path.

for snacks try things like babybel or chopped up fruit in plain yoghurt (a cup of milk is also fine and he should be having a couple of cups a day). Berries are great Dd eats loads.

You can batch cook things like bolognaise easily (use a jar, it’s fine). We found with most things grating cheese ontop got DD to eat it. Baby carrots sliced up a bit, try sweetcorn in tuna and mayo mixed in with pasta.
scrambled eggs with a dash of milk, grated parmesan cherry tomatoes. DD likes quesadillas (I cut chicken into chunks season stick in airfryer then dice finely, she’s funny about chicken so it has to be in little bits).

I am so sorry for your loss x

Also apples and berries are low sugar fruit so I don’t worry about that, Dd used to love cherry tomatos halved as a snack.

@Mamoun
Nothing wrong with a chicken nugget or fish finger, all in moderation.
At least fishfingers have omega 3 in them.
I have a nephew who has special needs and will eat only toast, yoghurt and crisps so could be a lot worse!

I found a good quick way of getting extra veg into DS at that age was home made pasta sauce. Just get loads of veg, courgettes peppers carrots, aubergine, tomatoes, onions, mushrooms etc, roast with garlic add some passata last 10/15 minutes, blitz. Freeze in ice cube trays then transfer to a zip lock bag. Warm in the microwave in a minute or two. You can use for pasta on its own, with tuna/sweetcorn. Homemade pizza topping (can use pitta if you haven't got time to make a base) DS loved it and still does.
It's also a good way of using up any slightly bendy veg in the fridge

I really recommend just plain yoghurt. Get a big tub, it's cheaper and kids love it even without anything added to it. You can add berries or bananas or other fruit to it, or mix in some kind of puree if you want (like a homemade blueberry puree - just heat some blueberries up gently in a pan with a splash of water until they break down, it takes 5 minutes). A homemade smoothie (just use plain yoghurt and fruit) is also nice sometimes as a treat for pudding. You can cut costs with a smoothie by using frozen berries.

Try to eat some meals all together rather than serving him his own special meals. At 18 months I find children can be pretty accepting of new foods, more so than when they are older. My 2 year old will happily eat things like curry and lasagne for example.

Soup might also be a good option for lunchtime, perhaps with some toast or bread and some veggie sticks on the side. My 2 year old likes a selection of picnic type items - mainly chopped veg, bits of cheese, peanut butter and crackers.

Good luck! Sounds like you are doing well. I'm sure loads of us could improve our kids diet (my partner happily feeds haribo to my older child plus the 2 year old which I'm not keen on!).