To give a 14 month old a vegan sausage roll?

[Moancup]

I did an archive search and yes, it appears any Greggs product is the work of the devil. But they’ve gone plant based since then so…

14 month old DS has become much fussier and often very averse to being spoon fed. I’m trying to experiment with soft things he can feed himself and today tried him on a Greggs vegan sausage roll. It went down a treat (alongside some peas and peanut butter toast) But I’m aware they are super salty and I just feel a bit like I’ve crossed a line maybe? RIP the first six months of weaning when everything was homemade and wholesome.

AIBU? Would it be nutritionally better to let him eat fish fingers every day?

They definitely can get enough nutrition without having special soft foods, but you do you if you're really concerned about it!

You have a child with a savoury palette rather than a sweet one. Mine would prefer a sausage roll over a bag of sweets. Let him guide you and keep record what he turns his nose up at.

I.e. if you want to give your child a sausage roll, carry on, it's fine, but you don't need to tell yourself it's necessary as a 14 month old can't eat a range of normal foods so a sausage roll is one of a few suitably soft things.

Of course he's becoming averse to being spoon fed he's 14m old.

The fact that its vegan is neither here nor there, however it is likely super processed crap.

I gave mine whatever I was eating from 9 months including junk. I wouldn't give meat substitute though, too processed even for me.

mines had a normal sausage roll. chill out. he's fed, healthy and happy.

Personally I wouldn’t have given my Dc aged one a Greggs sausage roll of any kind, even before I heard of UPF.

Of course eating junk occasionally won’t harm but I wouldn’t get in the habit of feeding them processed greasy salty food.

He will be fine but you can make your own sausage rolls if he likes them

I'm sure a Waitrose sausage roll would get universal approval.

Since you asked about the salt content, I've just looked it up.

The meat sausage roll is 1.6g salt, the vegan one contains 1.8g salt.

Guidance for salt intake for 1-3 year olds is no more than 2g per day. So it would probably be best to cut the sausage roll in half rather than give him basically his whole salt ration for the day in one thing!

If he did eat a whole one don't panic, the 2g thing is an average so if you think he ate over 2g of salt today, just feed him less-salty foods for a couple of days and it will balance out.

You sound very stressed about food - he doesn't sound unusual in what he's managing to eat, it's fine and normal to do a mix of self-feeding and spoon feeding mashed type food at this age. FWIW I was definitely of the "not bothered how much food goes down" category - they do naturally reduce their food intake around this age and it's all OK. Their growth slows down a lot as they enter the toddler phase, they are not growing anywhere near as fast as they do throughout the first year, so it's alright if they're not incredibly proficient with food. Milk will act as a supplement to his diet too. He'll be OK :)

Mine loved the Geordie dummy at that age (just bog standard sausage in those days) and tbf still do!

I did tend to make my own but out and about a greggs is fine!!

See also tortilla "pizzas", chopped up chicken rolled in cornflakes for "chicken nuggets" and chips just being any veg chopped up and air fried with the tiniest drizzle of olive oil!

Way too salty for a little one in anything more than a bite or two of it! If you want to give a sausage roll I'd find some with a better balance on ingredients in the supermarket and give an appropriate amount of the least salty one you can find. The person who said that too much salt is only a problem for people with cardiovascular risk was talking unscientific nonsense for adults it's definitely a problem for small children to have too much salt.

And I'm no zealot generally, I gave my children some relatively healthy convenience food and sometimes not so healthy ;) Not at 14 months though.

Granddaughter is vegetarian and eats too much fruit..she is tiny and I would definitely feed her a greggs roll if it fattened her up TBH

Thanks. I am very stressed about food. He was IUGR so just over 4lbs at birth, then labelled failure to thrive due to tongue tie and reflux. It was only how well he took to weaning that got him off the 0.4th percentile. He’s doing great but the consultant thinks he still has some catch up growth to go, so I worry about losing progress. Delays meant we didn’t get a dietician referral until a few months ago but they were mega impressed with what we were (then 😁) doing. He had an unusually high fat diet but I think many posters forget the proportion of calories that should come from fat any child under 2. Salt has always been my bigger worry, partly because he’s always been a cheese fiend.

Absolutely this 👍

In an emergency when nothing else is available, maybe but I wouldn't make a habit of it. It's ultra processed, high in salt and you have no real idea what's in it.

At that price you can get some decent quality sausages from a butcher.

I understand the worry when your child won’t eat, but I’d avoid the sausage rolls for now - not because I’m a zealot about processed food (pretty sure DD had her first chicken nuggets at that age) but because it sounds like you’re already worried he’s getting fussy, and fussy children quickly learn to choose processed foods and refuse the rest. So while he’s still little I just wouldn’t expose him to it.

I know you want to spoon-feed to get calories into him but he clearly doesn’t want you to, so it’s going to become a point of tension for you both. Could you stop the spoon-feeding apart from maybe once a day to get something he loves into him which is calorific, eg macaroni cheese or similar if he’s a cheese fiend?

Then I’d look at letting him feed himself but focus on making the foods as calorie/nutrient dense as you can, so even if he doesn’t eat much it’ll still benefit him. Things like:

Pieces of hard-boiled egg
Toast fingers with peanut butter (in fact, if he’s fine with peanuts, then PB is massively your friend - look at using it in cooking, eg noodles with a peanutty sauce that’s made with PB)
Lasagne
Avocado - pieces or squashed on pitta fingers
Porridge fingers are easier to eat than porridge with a spoon and easy to make
Home-made meat loaf (the BLW cookbook has a good recipe for this as I recall)
Chicken in a creamy sauce - as much full-fat cream or crème fraiche as you can get into things will help
salmon is a good source of fat - try it in a sauce made with a bit of honey as he’s over 1, or in a cheese sauce
If he likes meat but chewing is difficult, I’d try very thin strips of steak, fried very quickly so it’s still tender. Again, doing it in a creamy sauce like a stroganoff would add calories.

Some very helpful ideas @Tygertiger

I’m possibly over emphasising the spoon aversion. If it’s something he likes he’s very happy to be spoon fed. Weetabix, yogurt, fruit purée etc. But he won’t just take anything anymore. Sweet potato used to be a staple but he now rejects it both at home and at nursery, whether given as finger food or mash.

I do understand this is normal and the health visitor encouraged me to think about it as “preferences” rather than “fussiness”. In general everyone who meets him in real life comments about what a good eater he is and most things he’s offered at nursery are allegedly eaten. But I think because of his history I am freaking out a bit at having to work a bit harder to get a variety of food into him.

It's very tricky when you are dealing with a child who was 'failure to thrive' it changes your whole outlook.

Are you scheduled to see the dietician again soon? Ideally he is (still) getting the bulk of his calories from milk - alongside a multivitamin. Then keep offering a good variety of food and if he is chewing it then don't worry about how much actually goes in - he will get there with practice. I would offer a favourite with every meal to get him started but only a small amount, say one fish finger for a 14 month old.

FWIW my son was FtT, super small and didn't catch up til he was much older than yours; at 14 months he only had two top teeth (!) but he was able to eat a drumstick or strip of steak/other meat with his hard little gums. He couldn't eat raw carrot or whole raw apple but that's about it - he could even eat corn on the cob with just gums 😱

A small amount as an occasional treat alongside healthy foods, it’s completely fine. Having it everyday or a whole one, not so good.

My kids are early 20s now but I look back at my highly strung parenting around food and sweet stuff and laugh.

They start secondary school and start buying chips and haribos every day (if they don’t have money their mates will!). Then a few years later they’re pissed most weekends and smoking.

Yep.

I leave for work during the school run, and our local bakery (right opposite the secondary school) is always heaving with kids who come out eating donuts and drinking fizzy pop for breakfast.

After school they're all in Tesco buying cookies, sharing bags of Doritos and more donuts

Moancup · Yesterday 15:33
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SchadenfreudeIstMeinMittelname ·Yesterday 15:22
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Why not give him a proper sausage?
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Because I eat the vegan ones

Have you tried the Richmond vegan sausages? We’re not vegan/veggie but much prefer them to meat sausages in a toad. Quite soft, so he might enjoy them.

Yes, we both like them! Occasionally. With a massive salad.

Thanks, it’s nice to hear from someone who “gets it”.

We’re not seeing the dietician again but the consultant will see him in the new year. The expectation is he’ll then be discharged as long as he’s maintained progress.

He had a very good eating day today - including organic beef mince for anyone losing sleep over the UPF vegan stuff - and some decent practice ineffectually trying to stab new potatoes with the toddler fork.