To think beige kids dinners are fine?

[reachermarry]

Scrolling FB today and seen a video come up from a mum of 2 and what she gave her kids for good during the day.

cereal for breakfast with option of fruit/veg

picky bits for lunch, on this occasion included a sandwich, Dairylea dunkers, a pack of fridge raiders, banana, an angel cake slice.

for dinner the child had, fish fingers, chips, peas.

for pudding was given a fromage frais and a mini Maryland bag of cookies.

Now I am not sure how old the child was as there was no mention, but the comments were horrendous, comments were saying how she should be done for neglect because of the ultra processed food she’s feeding her kid.

What’s your views on it?

I’ll start, I see nothing wrong with this diet, maybe breakfast could be a little more filling, perhaps an option of something else on the side, but that’s just my child, I know some kids don’t like big brekkies.

I can’t be the only one especially growing up in the lower/working class families, that had a diet consisting of quick save chips, and pizza/sausages surely?

I would like to know who it is so I can take a look.

My fussiest eater has always loved fruit and veg. She barely touched protein for four years though!

Id be interested to see what the majority of the people on here posting 'it's crap' feed their kids on a daily basis.

How can you not see the comments basically saying this day of utter shite are actually feeding into that though?
If you’re telling people cookies, cakes, fake cheese, reconstituted chicken, chips, fish fingers all in one day is fine then that’s what you’re teaching them.

The reality is this is shit food and it’s shit parenting to feed your child this every day. We need to stop pandering to the people who make the lowest amount of effort and lead them to believe that actually their attempt isn’t too bad

Oh come on...

A child was fed crisps, sugar drinks and deep fried salty chicken and chips (and probably more sugar drinks)

And you think this y the SAME as cheese spread, bread sticks, peas, fish etc.

The OP is better than the crisps and coke.

Whilst it's not the best diet, to think they're the same is silly

MN would be horrified at the packed lunches at my school in a deprived area. We have rules about the number of sweet things but some lunches are made almost entirely of processed foods. There's a limit to how much as a school you can keep policing parents about this though, other than make recommendations.

I agree they are.

Why? Can you really not image a child’s day that is not filled with junk like this?

Asian diet. No to very little UPF. Mostly vegetables and lentils. Super cheap!

As you asked!

It's not great for one day, but it's just a snapshot of one day. Unless we know what the resr of the diet is like, then I can't pass any judgement whatsoever- although tbf, I still wouldn't pass judgement anyway, other than quietly agree it's something I wouldn't choose to feed ny child on a daily basis.

We have a beige dinner once a week (as well as macdonalds once a week) but I know that my kids have a pretty great diet 80% of the time, so one or two meals I don't get worked up about.

Yuppppp. A mother was very proudly talking to me about how her kids packed lunch is "way healthier than the school lunches" - shed packed a single wrapped chocolate chip brioche, a frube, a cheese string, a mini pepperami, a fruit winder and a capri sun.

She was very happy she had included so much fruit in it, and how impressive it was her kids ate cheese 🤷‍♀️

That sounds like a really normal days food except for fridge raiders and having a sugary thing twice, other than that isn't it normal for a kid?
There was nothing to say this kid has fish fingers for tea every day. We have oven chips, nuggets and peas once a week in our house and a variety of things the rest of the week.

When you've started of well then had a fussy eater for a while, it does become difficult to imagine what people are feeding their children. I for one would actually appreciate ideas as now my autistic child isn't as fussy it would be nice to try and get back into some healthier options again. Whether or not they will work is another matter!

But this entire day could be made much healthier with little effort, as pp said:

Eggs for breakfast instead of cereal, or just oatmeal and fruit if a light eater
Sandwich with cucumber, real cheese and tomatoes rather than vile Fridge Raiders or Dairylea
Dinner with a piece of fish or chicken, potatoes and some veg rather than fish fingers and chips. Or pasta with veg thrown in. Or a veg stirfry/curry and rice ( our preferred way of eating).
Kids don't need pudding after every meal, IMO.

So form memory my child would eat most things with a bit of cheese added - I can’t stand tuna pasta bake because I ate it so often when she was younger , ditto cheesy risotto , pancakes sone with lemon and sugar and sone with cheese for breakfast , jacket potatoes with cheesy coleslaw ( homemade )

Typical days food for 5 year old daughter ;

Breakfast: dippy eggs, slice of whole meal toast and butter as soldiers, plain yoghurt and berries.

Lunch; tuna pasta salad (pasta, tuna, sweetcorn, peas, peppers mixed up with olive oil), carrot sticks and baby plum tomatoes

Dinner; steak slices, broccoli, brown rice

Snacks; nuts/ banana/ a biscuit/cheese/bread sticks and dip of some sort

Drinks; water, milk, peppermint or herbal teas

This is not to say she doesn't have things like cakes, crisps, sweets etc. but these do not make up her "daily diet". She will have crisps maybe once a week after school or something. Or she coes out for cake with Nana every Friday after school, before gymnastics club. And on Sundays we make pancakes or waffles for breakfast with maple syrup. And she has cake / crisps etc with her packed lunches or out and about.

We just don't have processed / junk food as a regular part of her meals.

Fine as a one off, not for every day.

Lots of us will have grown up eating this sort of thing and it can seem a stretch to consider a fishfinger some sort of major health hazard- and of course on its own it isn’t. What counts is what a child eats overall, both for nutrition and for building healthy habits. Majority upf every day fails on both counts.

MN threads about food are utterly bonkers.

This is what I don't get either. Alongside "kids food". All the fussy eaters I know are kids that have been made a separate dinner and fed earlier than the adults from the beginning. Funnily enough because the adults can't be arsed to make 2 proper dinners and kids aren't exposed to eating a normal meal as a family. The strange looks I get when discussions of food come up and I say what my kids ate in a day is just bizarre. They just eat what we eat, with less salt and going a bit easier on the chilli.

Looking at that list of foods, if I ate that it would make me feel sluggish and crap. So I wouldn’t routinely be feeding it to my kids.
As a one off emergency - yeah okay.
Daily or even semi regularly, no way. I don’t buy the majority of those foods anyway, so much excess packaging for individual portions.
Typical days food when mine were little would have been eggs and toast for breakfast, ham and/or cheese and cucumber wrap in a lunchbox with some fruit, a pot of natural
yoghurt with berries, veg sticks, cubed cheddar, chicken drumstick when they got older then a cooked meal in the evening, meat potatoes and veg, as little processed as possible.
I was fed on a highly UPF diet growing up and I vowed to feed my kids a better diet.

It sounds a bit grotty when you could just cook some food or choose nicer things

cereal for breakfast with option of fruit/veg

Porridge and fruit or banana and yoghurt would probably be cheaper and better

picky bits for lunch, on this occasion included a sandwich, Dairylea dunkers, a pack of fridge raiders, banana, an angel cake slice.

sandwich, chunk of cheese and an apple?

for dinner the child had, fish fingers, chips, peas.

Baked potatoes fish and peas, maybe something sweet for pudding

I don’t see how swapping in some real food instead of expensive processed convenience food would really be more work?

I give my kids food they will eat. Don't care what anyone else says. If I sat a plate of the famous mumsnet pasta made with secret mixed in veg sauce in front of them they simply would not eat. Can hardly force it down their throats.

Don't bother asking on here honestly. I don't see anything wrong with what you served.

Fine as a one off. Definitely not every day. I think what I find the worst in this is the fact that both lunch and dinner are poor. Wouldn't be so bothered if it were one or the other.

Of the children I know well (i.e. of close friends and family), none of them would eat like this every day.

I reckon the vast majority of kids do eat cereal in the morning.

Im not anywhere near perfect. But DS is 11 and I'm pretty sure there's never been a week where he's eaten a beige dinner every single day! This would be a definite no for me.

I can’t be the only one especially growing up in the lower/working class families, that had a diet consisting of quick save chips, and pizza/sausages surely?

I also grew up like this but I know it isn’t a good diet and not something I would regularly feed my kids. I also grew up sat in the smokers section of Morrisons cafe, eating breakfast whilst my mum sat next to me having a cigarette. What is acceptable changes with the times.

I stopped having I give my kid what they'll eat. I know the more crap she has, the more crap she wants
But I don't give it to her 🤷‍♀️

I don't see anything wrong with what you served.

It’s very easy to find out.