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.

@Bog re the baby snacks/adult snacks and sugar don't be caught out. There's a lot of fancy packaging and they make claims like 'Only sweetened with grape juice' or 'yoghurt coated' or 'pure fruit' but then if you look closer I found plain rich teas had way less sugar than any brand of baby biscuit I could buy. Similarly if your baby will eat plain yoghurt that's way cheaper than suckies and the like, evein if you sweeten at home you'll add less sugar than manufacturers (about 10% on average). Not that sugar is the enemy but weirdly non-baby food is often healthier for babies than baby foods.

Your son's diet is overall OK. You're doing a grand job. I'd swap the biscotti and sucky yoghurts for cucumber/carrots/fruit. I think it's important that he also sees you eating the food as well, so you need to join in!

Make a big bolognaise from scratch. Do two packets of mince, onion, garlic, tinned tomatos, tomato concentrate, maybe a veg stock cube. BUT add in finely chopped carrot, apple, mushroom, celery. (The apple tip I got from Annabel Karmel to make it sweeter). I use a mini chopper if you can't be arsed with finely chopping. If he's open to it, add in whole peas or sweetcorn.

Then freeze it in portions for the whole family. Add more salt to the grown up versions.

We like it with rice as nice change from pasta.

I make a massive vat of it. It's all about the Secret Veg, and everyone eats it in one go and no one has to THINK about food.

I don’t think you need to cut out the biscotti/crackers completely - just have them maybe twice a week or so. You could try porridge with fruit too. Vegetable sticks of cucumber, peppers, carrot and baby tomatoes with hummus, tzatziki or cottage cheese are nice for snacks or even do a few for a light lunch and add oatcakes.

Peanut butter on toast is another breakfast option.

Pudding like rice pudding and cheese eg with apple or baby bel you get dairy and also protein with the rice.

Definitely try things like frittatas and pilau rice dishes/risotto and add vegetables to whatever you can do to encourage him to try different foods, eg in curries, Italian ratatouille, Spanish fajitas etc.

Boiled eggs, hard boiled eggs, beef mince, avocado, steak cut into little thin strips, sweet potato chips, olives, pomegranate seeds, satsumas, bacon, anchovies, celery, gouda, goats cheese, grated cheese.

^ Some suggestions of things my children have liked at that age that are fairly quick and easy to prepare. Whatever you cook, cook it in butter or lard.

Some easy fruit and veg snacks to substitute. Apple slices with peanut butter. Apple and a babybel. Carrot sticks and Hummus. Sliced red and yellow pepper. Grapes and Cucumber. Blueberries and raspberries.

Some breakfasts. Porridge with grated Apple or pear. Greek yogurt with Berries or mashed banana. Mashed banana on toast. Banana and oat pancakes - blitz a couple handfuls of oats in a blender till fine, mix into whisked egg and mashed banana then fry off in a non stick pan. Can save the leftovers for snacks. Scrambled egg and cooked tomatoes, mushrooms or baked beans.

Some evening meals you could all eat. Jacket potato tuna and sweetcorn. Roasted vegetables and grilled fish. Roast chicken, roast sweet potato and greens of some sort. Cauliflower and brocoli cheese with crusty bread. Spag bol with extra veg. Homemade soup. Sausage casserole with lots of veg and beans in. Mild homemade curry with butternut squash and cauliflower in.

@Bog
I commented earlier, but I just came across your other post and I wanted to say, you are fucking amazing. To be forging on after such a loss, to be raising your child alone, in your grief. At this time of year. And you're worried and asking for help checking what he's eating? When its like 90% there anyway (and better than a lot of people in real life)? Fucking amazing. You keep going. She would be so proud of you.

I agree, but in moderation. I would do fish fingers once a month, nuggets once a month and sausages maybe twice a month.
In the winter I do pasta, veggie soups with cheese, boiled eggs soldiers & steamed brocoli, asian rice: rice with peas, sweet corn and I crack an egg in the pan with the rice to bind everything together.

Thank you I have to for the sake of our son.

Premium MN is recommending that fishfingers are limited to once a month but an 18 month old could eat vegetable soup instead 🤣

At 18m he eats what you give him. Maybe rephrase the question in your mind. "Am I feeding my son too much crap". Yes, you are responsible here.

I think that's a bit unfair. The food isn't crap. It's convenient and expensive, but there's a lot worse out there.

"crap" was the OPs word, not mine.

I was making a different point. Good work for missing it.

I’d recommend batch cooking one day every couple of weeks or do a load to last you a month. You can cook the veg fresh and any carbs etc. I batch cook a lot from ‘what mummy makes’ and it lasts my now 13 month old a while. If I feel she’s bored i will just batch cook another 2-3 meals to switch up the variety. It’s hard graft initially but once you’ve got a stock it makes life so much easier ! Good luck, I’m sure you are doing your best.

It’s not horrendous. He’s getting his fruit/veg. It’s easy to up it, e.g. add 2 portions of veg to an omelette. Give unlimited different types of fruit as snacks (don’t worry about the sugar from fruit, I worried about this and both the dentist and the gp reassured me it’s fine). Perhaps shake things up a bit with the dinners as they seem a bit bland. Don’t break your back over it though. If you’re knackered during the week, just focus on cooking from scratch on the weekends.

Genuinely my DD would have taken veggie soup over fishfingers at that age.

A year older now and she’s all about the fishfingers, but does still love the veggie soup.

Ive definitely found it pays to be open minded about what they can/ will eat OP, doesn’t always have to be what you would think of as ‘kid friendly’ (as long as it’s safe from a choking point of view). Mine loves prawns, mushrooms, couscous, olives etc. On the other hand she also loves biscuits and won’t entertain tomatoes, cucumber, peppers, cauliflower and many other veg. She does like frozen peas straight from the freezer though the weirdo - we call them lollipop peas because I fibbed her off with them once when she was trying to get an actual ice lolly, and now they’re one of her favourite snacks. Worth a try OP!

@ShirleyPhallus
My DCs, now 6, 4 and 7 months eat veggie soup at least once a week and have always done.

They say, from 12 months old you child should eat like you, it doesn't mean should eat junk food. Literally a switch turns at 12 months and people go from organic vegetables soups and purées to fish fingers.

I make a tasty soup topped with cheese and croutons and they love it.

Mine eat plenty of veg but soup would have been everywhere at 18 months.

Unless you're spoon feeding I guess but mine hated that

Seems fine to me OP.
Wait until you get to the toddler stage and they refuse to eat anything healthy!

The day is great until evening evening meal. If you start cooking home made food, they can have leftovers for lunch the next day. Will make your life a lot easier!

And that’s great, for you, but this is a recently bereaved father who is a bit lost in the kitchen anyway. Now is not the time to be suggesting the fishfingers are relegated to once a month in exchange for making soup, which in itself can be daunting to make and requires real skill in itself to eat for an 18 month old otherwise there’s a huge clean up operation too!

Very sorry, my heart goes to OP, genuinely.
But it has no bearings on the fact that, away from the OP's personal circumstances, fishfingers and chicken nuggets are junk food. They may have vitamins and other things but their deep fried and processed characteristics make them junk.

But this thread IS about the OP’s personal circumstances so is not the thread to be telling him that fish fingers are junk food. They’re perfectly fine.

Thank you all for the helpful feedback. I honestly thought fish fingers as long as they are high quality were OK. He doesn't have chicken nuggets. He just has those bird's-eye chicken fillets chargrilled or sweet and sticky ones.
I will try soup but will spoon-feed him that lol.
I know I sound incredibly lazy when I say I have no energy and I'm one of those typical dad's you read about on here but our son was very much wanted and I love the bones of him. I'm just trying to make sure he has a lovely happy life.

And this is going to sound awful I don't know how to cook much. I really should at 27 so I will look at simple recipes and start from there.