British kids and eating habits - IABU ?

[lovemycoffee2]

I have two young kids and we live in the UK but we are not originally from here.

At home we cook everyday from scratch our food and we take that food at a lunch box at our workplace. We have a light dinner again made from scratch.

The issue is our kids which are of course going to school/nursery and they love to copy their friends!

In the UK it's healthy if a kid eats sausages (god knows what the meat has inside), or for example Heinz baked beans which have 10% sugar and 20% salt (leaving 70% being actual beans) or if they eat fish fingers which are pre-fried (even if you bake them they were already fried before got frozen) or chicken nuggets (again pre-fried which god knows what was the oil quality).

It's also acceptable to drink juices which have no sugar but plenty sweeteners.

Also, it's perfectly fine to have a ham sandwich for lunch which has ready made processed bread full of emulsifiers and ham which (like sausage) god knows what ingredients has.

It's ok that primary schools offer desserts, even if they are small portions and low sugar on a daily basis - not on a weekly or as special occasion! I don't have a dessert everyday, why my kid is offered one?

Honestly, are all these things ok? Am I paranoid?

I am very worried that the kids will either end up obsessed. with diabetes or with other health issues given all the processed food and the fact that we are what we eat.

YABU - are you crazy?

YANBU - unfortunately this is a "balanced healthy diet" in the UK!

We’re an Anglo Spanish family and spend a lot of time in Spain. Kids love those cakes! I feel guilty about the amount of plastic packaging but nothing else.

Malta is the fattest country in Europe, with higher rates of obesity than the UK.

Ahhh I live on 'The Continent'....I've never seen so much sugar served at breakfast. So much greasy food and fatty meat . Don't get me wrong I love living here but bloody hell their diet is shocking too

My DD has often had a rocky road, a brownie and a caramel shortbread for lunch - it really is not a balanced diet!!

I can because i have parents. And a father that cooked everyday decent food after 18.30. Cleaned the house and drove us around. While my mum did very little unfortunately.
So ive seen by example. The best example.

I think the UK guidance as changed back to 4 months ... could be wrong though

Dutch DC eat white bread with butter and sprinkles for breakfast! Luckily, my DC weren't keen. Even some adults still eat that for breakfast. The equivalent of our Coco pops etc.

But your diet means no temper tantrums so what do you mean? That is the meal you are having school won't let me put sweets in end of the argument. I deal with 4 separate lunch boxes a day ...more in school holidays all have different things in .....maybe being firm is something you don't get on the continent

Keeps them moist and fresh! Loved them 😄

Many years ago my son had a 6th birthday party at McDonald's. One of the guests arrived with a brown paper bag containing a whole meal roll and a banana. I was told that the child wouldn't eat a maccyD , had never had one and was to have this. Child was duly given his special bag. Did he eat it. Did he hell. He went round the party table, after the others had finished what they wanted and had gone to play, and hoovered up the forbidden leftovers like a starving man on a desert island. The more you forbid something the more fabulous it seems.

The OP is just stirring and trying to cause faux outrage. Nobody thinks processed foods are healthy so I’m not sure where you are getting this from. I grew up in France and lived in Spain for a while. It’s very similar to the UK, so maybe you want to broaden your horizons.

Feed your children what you want, children will always want what others have and will make things up accordingly (but everyone has an iPad mum!!!).

Boring.

I don't think you're in any place to be critiquing people's nutritional choices, you can't even read and understand the values in a tin of beans.

Worry about your kids diets and keep your nose out of everybody else's.

In school!? that absolutely does not happen here. Its some fruit hiding 'pudding' they give them on a friday, even the 'ice cream' with it is frozen yogurt .

Many families do not have the time or money to buy fresh and cook from scratch every day, certainly not the nurseries or schools. They provide meals that most kids will eat, sometimes it’s the only meal they have each day.

Grandson is 6 months. Weaning from now. Definitely not 4 months

Are you currently a child? Because your user name suggests not so surely are aware that lots of things have changed since then. Don't get me wrong, your dad sounds a legend, but thats given you an embarrassing naivety about being a parent.

But you are still not a parent so have no bloomin idea what its like to be one. Maybe you were an absolute angel for your father, maybe you have rose tinted specs or maybe you are just again, judging something you have absolutely no clue about.

I think the guidance now says 'around 6 months' and parents are told to look out for signs they are ready such as being able to sit up, pick up food and put it in their mouth and swallow food rather than push it back out. I don't think most babies at 4 months can do those things. My DS wasn't interested until 9 months but my DD was ready at 6 months. I personally don't know anyone whose baby was ready prior to 6 months.

This. 💯

Oh you do sound much better than us. Please teach us your ways.

I am completely obsessed with 'what my family eats in a week' videos on youtube. I follow a couple of French bloggers (neither of whom have children) an Italian/Moldovan girl who along with a cousin of hers post their food in Italy, some Germans and alot of the Scandinavians.

We are being sold the idea that everyone in Europe does everything So Much Better Than Us. It's not wholly true. The Italian/Modovan girl who is my favourite blogger right now always eats very lightly but very sweet for breakfast. Her standard is a shop bought rum baba with espresso and nutella reigns supreme. That's quite typical it seems.

I also lived for about 6 months with a German/Swedish couple for various reasons 20 years back. Breakfast was cornflakes and orange juice and their children typically got boiled pasta with ketchup and milk for dinner. It was often enough that it was not a 'one off' as far as I could see.

Hope you’ve got your hard hat on op, there’s a lot of the western world who seem to think the diet you’ve listed is fine, and are very defensive about it.

You could always go somewhere else. I raised mine in Scandinavia.

On kids menus there…. Hot dogs and chips. Eating out is a treat, not an everyday occurrence.

What you’re not going to manage is to change anything, and particularly not by ranting at other mums on Mumsnet.

A HAM SANDWICH??

clutches pearls