AIBU feeding my kid instant noodles several times a week

[cooknwithbaby]

I had dinner with my DS and my mum saw we were eating instant noodles with chicken soup and extra vegetable I added. She shamed me about feeding my DS instant noodles, saying it was unhealthy.

It's easy for me to make and everybody likes eating it. DS has loved noodles since he was 6 months old. I cook it several times a week. But I usually make it a bit healthier with broccoli. Sometimes I add a fried egg.

AIBU by feeding my kid some instant noodles for dinner?

Suppose it depends on type/brand of noodles and salt/fat content?

To be honest, no one should be having ultra processed foods every day and I dread to think what the salt content is. Giving a six month old this kind of food is really bad. Unless you just mean plain noodles like Amoy egg noodles or similar. In which case, they're not so bad, just be sure to include healthy bases of meat/fish/veg.

Are we taking super noodles or just egg noodles with a home made broth. Big difference the former isn't ideal especially for small children latter is potentially far better

Several times a week is unreasonable.

You say sometimes you add extra stuff. So are there times when the meal just consists of carbs? I think that's quite unhealthy. Ideally every meal should have protein, carbs and veg.

Are these instant noodles that come with the broth in powdered form? If so, then yes that's unhealthy to have several times a week.

Can you make your own stock/broth and freeze it in batches, and then add egg noodles instead? you can cook bits of chicken in the broth ( in smaller pieces), and add noodles and veg like broccoli at the end

Is this a wind up? Of course they are not healthy... 🤦🏻‍♀️ Unless your kids are at a stage that they wont eat anything else, YABveryU.

Noodles are nutritionally similar to pasta surely. The issue is salt etc associated with the instant brands.

My kids (teens) love instant noodles. At least they always put loads of veg in as well.

horrendous over processed muck, that will interfere with their metabolism and most likely lead to obesity and diabetes. Once or twice a year, in an emergency, maybe

My 20mo often has instant noodles, we make them with zero salt stock instead of the flavour sachet and add mixed veg and fish or chicken, the way I see it is it's just an alternative carb to pasta, bread or potatoes

Fine once a week with some protein and veg added. Several times a week not great due to the high salt.

Instant noodles as in the ones like pot noodle or ramen or the ones like fried noodles where you stir fry and add veg?

daily pasta, white bread and potatoe are all very poor choices nutritionally, and these instant noodles are a hell of a lot worse even than that

Carbs should be whole grain, and anything over processed, like white bread should be avoided all together, except as an occasional one off.

Nothing wrong with regular egg noodles but if you mean super noodles/pot noodle sort of thing I would be worried about the salt content

this is why we have such an awful obesity epidemic

The NHS recommends not giving only wholegrain carb options to under 5s actually

Apologies, under 2s

The NHS does not recommend giving under 5s only whole grain carbs, as it can be too much fibre and fill them up too much before they eat other things. Small children should be having a mix of whole grains and white carbs

The salt levels would be a concern in the chicken soup too.

Just make it with ordinary egg noodles like Amoy and your own sauce. They cook just as fast. Then it's perfectly healthy.

pace instant noodles - below nutrition for sharwoods; bit higher than pasta, but you'd add salt cooking it.
instant pot noodles are around 35% of your daily recommended intake
But presumably you wouldn't faff about with pot noodles for a family?

NHS says not to give under 5s whole grain actually

small amounts in balance, but not constantly and certainly not this instant noodle crap

that was helpful - it cut off the salt content at the end 0.38g per portion