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?

Firstly nutritional advice changes frequently over the years so all these poster confidently posting that they know what is 'right' because they've watched a few tik tok videos are deluded. For example the focus last year was protein, this year it has moved to fibre intake

Secondly all public advice is deliberately a balance between perfection and achievability. 5 portions of fruit and veg and 10,000 steps are both numbers artificially created to encourage those who otherwise might eat none and not move at all. There is no scientific evidence that this is the 'best' amount.

Why do British parents need advice that will appeal to them while parents in my country can get proper advice? Its like the uk government treats its populace like children who can't be expected to understand things or follow advice unless its easy and appealing.

I did absolutely everything by the book - no juice, only home made veg purees during weaning, very little sugar. Ate healthily myself - never mentioned diet or anything negative about food

DD had an amazing diet up until about 3 - then just started refusing more and more foods.

Only now at 21 do I see signs that she's slowly improving.

Sometimes these things aren't under our control.

Cornflakes/rice crispies/juice might very well be sensible compromises.

I really wish we could move away from sugar as the bogey man. Our bodies actively need and sugar. There is nothing wrong with orange juice.

As usual society has taken something and ran to an extreme. Abuse of refined sugar has turned into people freaking out about naturally occuring sugar in fruit that works in conjunction with other nutrients.

Because sadly there is a huge element of apathy. Why would you take the time to cook eggs or whip up porridge when you can hand your toddler a cereal bar instead? It's cheaper, doesn't need any gas/electric, preparation or cleaning up afterwards. Many say "well we were brought up like this and it didn't do us any harm".

Though I take the point of the posters pointing out that this advice is aimed at people doing far greater harm than a bowl of rice krispies.

At no point did i write anything about cereal and banana

There are very few kids who end up in this situation under medical advice compared to the extent of the problem.

I've had the same from the food angle. My eldest is 14 and was an utter horror show when it came to food - properly phobic about a lot of things, food of any kind was massively stressful, would starve himself rather than eat an unsafe food. For a couple of years there were about five foods he would eat and the dietician was very clear that calories were the priority for a long time. The rejoicing when he tried a fucking chip was ridiculous.

It's taken a huge amount of work to get to a point where he has a more or less decent diet, under medical supervision. The kind of diet set out in the OP would have been a pipe dream for us for years and years.

But general health advice should be aimed at the majority, not the rare outliers like you and my son.

The majority of kids don't need sweeteners to accept milk and water from the outset, any more than they need a diet that is based around bread, yoghurt and peas.

(I happily feed both my kids the dreaded cereal, processed food more than I probably should, and sweet drinks on occasion. At school DS1 consists entirely on sugary junk. But where parents can, setting their kids up with good habits when they're little can save a lot of problems down the road - I've never got over the number of kids who were in hospital to have multiple teeth out under GA when we were in for a different surgery.)

I'm shocked that so few people realise who this advice is for and what has to be considered when its written.

It's not for people who have the money, time, knowledge and capabilities to provide salmon, eggs and bagels for breakfast (to quote one poster above). The stuff they recommend has to be cheap and it has to be for sale in the local SPAR or whatever which will be the only shop many people can get to. So ground almonds just isn't possible! It has to be something children will almost certainly eat, or the response will be "Well I wasted £5 on that meal which was my whole food budget for the day, no one ate it, and so I won't do it again."

Also, all the people who are suggesting bran flakes without reading that high fibre is not recommended for small children... This is guidelines for early feeding not all children of all ages.

Cartons of juice are shelf-stable. If don't want to buy fruit that risks going off, this is one way that kids will get some of a five a day. It's not as ideal as an orange; it's better than no fruit at all.

Could you have got up a bit earlier or prepped the night before?

We do chia pudding, overnight oats, porridge with seeds and nut butters, homemade beans on toast, avocado on toast etc before leaving for school at 7.45am.

It's so important for kids to have proper nutrition before school.

That's why the advice should be honest and clear, so at least they know its not the best thing to feed their child. More in person advice and information in childhood would help too - we have regular health checkups throughout childhood here, where you are asked what your child is eating (amongst other things) and that makes you think about their diet and how ideal or not it is (and screen time and how much sleep they get and if they're eating their lunch at school and things like that)

Also because the vitamin C in juice assist iron absorption

This has to be one of the most MN things I’ve ever read 😂

I’d die of hypoglycaemia if I ate that. They’re not filling at all, full of sugar (refined carbs) and awful in terms of nutrition. Diabetes anyone?

I think the original question needs to be "AIBU to be shocked that not all parents care about nutrition".

The government is not formulating advice for mumsnet children, it's the ones who are still drinking bottles of milk redbull age 4 because it's easier for their parents than feeding them. Rice Krispies or a slice of (shock, horror) white bread is an improvement on their current diet. Many of their parents have never worked so in theory have time to mill oats/make sourdough, but they are doing what they know, and most probably their neighbours are doing it too.

But the sample menu has eggs for three of the five suggested tea-time meals! If you actually look at the whole thing rather than just criticising the inclusion of rice crispies, they have tried to ensure that the day as a whole is balanced. Which is a much better aim than trying to ensure the macros in a baby's breakfast would please a TikToker.

Exactly this.

Ok so they're not babies/ toddlers? Bit different then. And maybe most people can't afford smoked salmon and ground almonds?

The lack of awareness of simply outstanding.

Pure orange juice has fructose, naturally occuring sugars. NOT refined sugar.

So which DC are having the government breakfasts that are being doled out at schools, I doubt they will be scrambled egg and overnight oats

This. I am wondering if it’s serious - who the heck eats avocado for breakfast (aside from the fact it’s incredibly bad for the environment due to the vast amount of water used to grow the avocados and the food miles involved).

All my children “barf” at the texture of chia and avocado. One of them likes porridge. One hates bananas. One just hates breakfast full stop - might have a slice of toast but nothing else.

So yes - we do eat Shreddies and Rice Krispies and, god forbid , sometimes a croissant or pancakes. With a side order of vitamins and maybe a slice of melon if I can persuade them.

Self discipline and success are not aspirational in modern UK culture.

I'm sorry about your medical condition (and that apparently it's so poorly controlled) but having a bowl of Rice Crispies doesn't give anyone diabetes.

Mumsnet is becoming synonymous with 'fucking oblivious'