To be shocked by this government dietary advice for babies and children?

[fourfoxsakes]

from the government in Northern Ireland that is published online? Surely we don’t do these things any more such as mixing baby rice with milk and advising people to feed their very young children rice crispies and cornflakes for breakfast and advising people to give juice with meals! Surely this is bad advice, I am honestly surprised that the government have been allowed to publish this crap. I have no doubt people still do these things which is an individual parenting choice but surely the government shouldn’t be advocating for this?

Well every time my DD has been hospitalised she’s been offered Rice Krispies for breakfast on the ward. Maybe someone should tell the hospital it’s not healthy.

Completely agree - ignorance is truly alive on this thread. The cereal companies have done a brilliant marketing job and people really just want to bury their heads in the sand... It's easy, it's cheap so it must be ok... And don't tell me otherwise, 'cause I'm not listening!

Yes this happened to me when I was in hospital after giving birth - absolutely shocking and completely unacceptable really, the bar should be higher. As well as midwife advice for me to eat processed cereals when I had low iron levels post birth... Ignorance permeates throughout the system... Doesn't make it right.

Porridge only takes three minutes in the microwave if you can afford to buy instant oats. The cheapo bag of porridge oats have to be cooked on the hob and takes ages..If you were actually poor, you'd know that.

How so, obtuse? You said one of your DC was veggie and one was allergic to fish. So how are either of them eating salmon? (unless the veggie one is also the one allergic to fish, but you did not make this clear).
I am being relentlessly logical.

There's always people whose tastes change (for instance my DD, who eats hardly anything these days but pretty sure there's some ND there) but they are more likely to continue eating a food if they start eating it in early childhood, that's why food tastes are cultural.

Yeah, British stubbornness is both admirable and frustrating. Meanwhile here when last year (or maybe the year before) the recommendation came that people should significantly reduce consumption of things like ham and sausages, they did.

Agree, if you make the instant kind and make it with milk, but some upthread are talking about how cheap a bag of oats is. Which was what I was thinking of.

Also children go on and off things. We’ve had the porridge phase, weetabix phase, cheerio phase, now we’re onto rice crispies over here.

I genuinely had no idea people felt this strongly about generic cereals. If you prefer porridge or toast, you could’ve ordered that from the hospital menu.

I agree, it's education. You have to know that an omelette exists and that you can cook it before you can look it up online, of course.

How much does it cost there? A 1kg box of oats that can be cooked in the microwave in 3 minutes (doesn't say instant on the box though, just says wholegrain oats but definitely cooks in 3 minutes because I only ever cook it in the microwave) costs one euros where I am, that's a lot cheaper than rice crispies which cost more than 3 euros for 500g. The gluten free oats cost a bit closer to 2 euros but that's a lot cheaper than gluten free cereals here which are 5 or 6 euros a box.

They are relatively low sugar when compared to other cereals marketed at children. As others have said, public health and food advice needs to be as accessible to as many people as possible. The result is a solution that might not be as optimal as it could be but reaches the population who need it the most.

I'll say it again, in the UK, processed cereals are fortified with vitamins and iron.

The cheap bags of oats can definitely be used to make porridge in the microwave.

Takes longer than three minutes but definitely possible

Are the parents in these struggling families you work with so educationally and intellectually limited that they can't be expected to engage with any kind of information or education?

To acknowledge again, I personally genuinely do come to this conversation from a place of fairly major financial, educational and cultural privilege. But my sister is an unemployed single mum of three on benefits.

She scrimps and saves and budgets like mad. She has her fridge temperature set two degrees warmer than me to save on electricity. She cuts her own hair and can't replace her worn out coat. Her rent just went up by 2% and she's super stressed. But her kids eat the dreaded porridge and fresh vegetables every day! They sleep 10 hours a night and play outside and have very limited screen time. No nits and cavity-free teeth. Healthy weight. Despite her poverty and other challenges, she's able to recognise what's actually good for them and raise them and protect them accordingly. Why can't your clients?

(And can I also add, though you will no doubt find this ridiculous, that we actually don't ever buy Rice Krispies. Why? Because they are so ridiculously expensive for what they are!)

It's mostly down to what the majority of children are used to, they are in a strange place, often in pain and a bit scared. Familiar foods help alleviate some of that stress. Of course some it is also down practicality of catering arrangements, much easier and safer to do cereal and cold milk than hot porridge in a ward environment. You're right though, the idea that Rice Krispies are some kind of demon food is laughable.

This thread did make me think of the hospital menu my son had when he was in hospital too.

He usually had coco pops for breakfast and lunch/dinner were the typical 'kid' foods such as chicken nuggets, pizza & fish fingers followed by ice cream or chocolate cake with custard for pudding.

Rice Krispies are fortified with iron. They contain around double a portion of porridge.

As you say, the ignorance on this thread...

It'll be because they expect more children will eat rice crispies, because, as you said, they are more likely to be used to it. Not for catering reasons, breakfast in hospitals in my country are always porridge (always, you don't get a choice) except weekends when its more of a brunch so its porridge plus something else, so clearly easy enough to do in a ward environment,

I think some people here are very disconnected from the type of diets of many, many children in families of particular demographs. This advice needs to include everyone. Many of us MN posters can and I would imagine often do do our own research, but many more parents are incapable of doing so for various reasons or just have no interest in it, so the advice needs to be simple and accessible. Is it perfect? No. Is it many orders of magnitude better what many children are being fed? Absolutely. And it needs to be realistic and accessible enough to capture those who most need the help for whatever reason.

Having worked in many UK ward environments, it depends on the set up. In countries like yours where hot breakfast food is the cultural norm, you have catering facilities set up for it. We do not. Especially given that most hospitals now have external catering services, not in-house kitchens.

I’m not sure if this is serious or not! You’re asking why not everyone can be like your sister, who like you has presumably come from a background of financial, cultural and educational privilege? You really have no idea what other people’s lives and upbringing may have been like? What other challenges than being poor (and in your sister’s case, being poor after a privileged upbringing) there might be for people to face?

This is exactly what's going on. I think most MNers have little idea of how many poorer families live. This advice is aimed at them - those children who go to school having had no breakfast or just a can of fizzy drink and a bag of crisps.

Exactly. Public health advice like this isn't aimed at people who look at it and know that they are already doing better. It's aimed at the 'lowest common denominator' for want of a better expression. It needs to achievable by small changes that are within budget and using items that are widely available.