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?

Come on. We all know there's processing the animal and cutting it up. That's not what we're talking about.

We're talking about the difference between a piece of beef meat being grilled and sliced and eaten, and something like a mechanically reclaimed beef grill that's had additives, fillers and moulded to look like a steak.

Stop being deliberately obtuse.

It is shite. It’s UPF and it’s ubiquitous in this country. However some children have issues with food and genuinely will only eat beige,
ultra processed food. I’m not sure attacking people personally is going to get anywhere though. I thinK the change likely needs to come from the industry itself. Also more and more people are time poor and so rely on convenience food.

Steak is cut from the carcass and put in a pack. There are no added ingredients, no more processing than cutting a slice from atomato.
Processing is a loose term, but as far as the usual use for dietary purposes go then suggesting steak counts as a processed food is absurd.
Sausages, bacon and burgers are all processed meats. Not steak

Yes but there’s a huge difference between processed food and ultra processed. Which I’m sure you well know.

I don’t think there’s anything wrong with good quality fish fingers, or the nuggets made from chicken breast
The £1 for 20 are questionable imo.
fridge raiders are highly processed and the smell is nauseating and personally I gave my boys a chunk of cheese rather than Dairrylea dunkers( much cheaper and less salt) not to mention the plastic tubs.
Again moderation in all things, and I’d happily let mine have the biscuits( and sweets, chocolate etc)
Kids are more likely to self regulate and none of my 3 have a sweet tooth as adults and have perfect teeth( unlike me!)

🙄 Of course there's a process. As there is in most things we do.That's simply not what is meant by the phrase 'processed' or 'ultra-processed' food though. You can wilfully fail to understand that if you like, but the world isn't going to change the definition to fit in with you.

• 'that's simply'. Won't let me edit!

This absolutely. I got absolutely lambasted on another post when a woman who was taking her autistic child on holiday would struggle as her child only ate chicken nuggets /turkey dinosaur and one other ultra processed food (sorry can’t remember. I said that I would do everything in my capabilities to ensure my child did not live on that diet . Wow I was called a twat , entitled, awful person, cruel etc . !!!!!!!!

It’s a shit diet

I saw that thread and people were annoyed because you seemed to be treating a post about tips for taking an autistic child with ARFID (whose safe foods included naan and Yorkshire pudding, as well as various types of breaded meat) to an unfamiliar country not known for those foods as a debate about chicken nuggets.

If you think this is bad you should see the school dinners in my kids infant school.

3-4 days per week they have something like Pizza, burgers, cheap sausages, fish fingers and chips, ultra processed chicken meatballs which look and taste disgusting. 1 or 2 days a week they have something that looks less processed: roast, curry with rice etc.

for pudding every day: sugary yoghurts, jelly, cheaply made cakey things no better than the op’s angel slice.

You can feed your infant kids as healthily as you like at home but unless they take packed lunches then they are getting a meal of an entirely processed nature 3-4 times a week, and for many its their main meal at that.

I think Jamie Oliver's push for healthier school dinners went out the window with Covid unfortunately. Before covid at Secondary school DS's would get a plate of food with 2 vegetables. Afterwards he was getting things like fish fingers and chips in a disposable cone with no vegetables - and it didn't stop when covid ended.

What is the point of AI-written answers? Seriously?

Once you start looking into UPF it’s hard to actually see some of this stuff as food any more. It’s just a collection of artificial chemicals masquerading as food. So having some upf is fine but thinking there is no problem with having it for every meal
say in day out is a problem. This stuff is not good for you

That’s a shit diet 🤷‍♀️.

We have 'beige' max twice a week sometimes it's not worth the battle! Mine won't have any fruit with breakfast but get loads as snacks.

If it's day in day out then yes it's too processed and sugar content too high so needs examining but I don't see the need to chastise parents about it.

I cook from scratch 5/6 times a week my 3 year old is very much in the beige stage and will stick to what he wants, it helps us balance it knowing his nursery is very healthy where he magically eats vegetables!

I grew up on findus pancakes when home from school as thats what I was given by childcare half the time so my kids diet to mine seems pretty good 😂

No, that's not okay for a child. Highly processed foods are not nutritious. That's lazy parenting. I'd understand once a week, because it's a busy day or out and about, but not on a daily basis.

I said I would do everything in my power to ensure my child did to exist on highly processed non food. I also added that my kids did not eat processed chicken twizzlers, nuggets etc very often at all .

I am not sure how it’s acceptable to feed a disabled or neurodiverse child non - food only .

Well probably because many autistic people have severely restricted diets and there’s not much you can do about it. So it’s either food they WILL eat or starve. Which do you find “acceptable”.

I will say that when you get into the autism/ARFID range your principles quickly go out the window. One of mine is autistic and a poor eater. Not ARFID, but limited range and worse is underweight (3rd percentile BMI). At that stage, you're happy when they eat Nutella sandwiches. I know perfectly well it's not nutritious, and we're generally a cook from scratch household.

that's certainly not true for your average fish fingers eater, but I'm saying this to caution anyone who says they'd never allow it.

Am I allowed to say? She’s on YouTube. Easily findable in shorts. Typical food includes fridge raiders, processed sandwich meat, Nutella for breakfast and angel cakes. Nobody else is feeding their kids fridge raiders and angel cakes.

She also uses frylite which is no good for anybody. Interestingly she’s been on a weight loss journey herself openly admitting she’s lost two stone but if you look at what she eats, it is still utter shit just at a reduced calorie intake.

You think parents of autistic kids with severely restricted kids aren't doing "everything in [their] power" to improve their kids diets?

It must be nice being so much better than everyone else.

I hear exactly what you are saying . I have worked for years with severely autistic young people. Whilst I am not a parent of a young autistic child I have experience of mealtimes and restricted diets. I am sure you are very, very relieved when your young one will eat a Nutella sandwich. I do not want to cause any offence.

At some point the parent of an autistic child has fed them the unhealthy food that became the staple though

the longer we can keep childen from experiencing poor food the better the chance they have in life