To despair at the crap some people feed their kids

[Apotofrealcoffee]

Currently watching a kid who can’t be more than age 3, tuck in to a packet of ‘squashie’ sweets on the bus. No sign of a tantrum, kid seems perfectly happy looking out the window, but out come the sweets. And to pre empt the ‘snobbery’ thing, the parent seems middle class to me and certainly eloquent.

I regularly see kids tucking into chocolate bars, packets of crisps, lollies, all on the school run. Many of them toddlers in their buggies dropping off older siblings. Parents meeting kids at the school gate with full packets of Oreos, bottles of pop, doughnuts.

I’ve been trying not to judge for years and have been repeatedly told it’s ’just one snapshot of their day’ but honestly, I feel like the time for judgement has entered. I have never fed my toddlers crap like that, let alone just after breakfast. My 3 year old has never had a fizzy drink.

Why, just why! AIBU to feel there needs to be some kind of very direct public health campaign at this point? Maybe even a ‘no sweets at the school gate’ rule?

I used to take a packet of radishes out with me for my sons snack, we would get some odd looks, him sat there with his packet of radishes eating the whole lot like a packet of crisps, people probably thought gosh what a healthy kid, he is now overweight 🤷🏻‍♀️ still loves his radishes/cucumbers/brocoli stalk/raw carrot but yep overweight, so getting a peek at a kids snack when out and about really can’t be judged.

Years ago when my children were younger, we were at a play centre & a child (not mine) vomited. The adult with them gave said child a can of coke …

Its all about balance if you restrict food and make it good and bad food you're asking for problems in the future

No that’s not supported by evidence.

Kids who reach 18 with a healthy BMI have an 8% of becoming obese in the future.

Kids who reach 18 and are already obese have an 85% chance of staying obese.

It doesn’t tally that kids who are brought up healthily then go nuts and eat themselves into obesity as adults.

This reminded of my love of pea pods as a child i would eat a bagful of them
Untill i made mysrlf eating to many .

My parents had both very sadly died before my youngest even started infants school and my own children are now young adults, so I have had plenty of 'time to reflect' thank you.

What seems to be emerging from this thread is the lack of a nourishing and filling school lunch, which is so important and one would think, common sense.

Sad that Jamie Oliver did not succeed in his quest for better school dinners.

TBF you probably don’t have that much more considering you’re on here making comments on a thread about something that really doesn’t concern you😆

Oh yea we love pea pods here, granny grows them in her garden but they never make it to the pan they all get picked and eaten (she doesn’t mind 😂)

Because some celebrities have causes they truly believe in and push for years or decades. Jamie Oliver did his for a TV show and once that was done he dropped it

Cake can never be bad. Would you prefer lobster thermidor?

I completely agree with you, it's such a shame to be giving small children junk food before they are old enough to know about it/ask for it. Then, once old enough, there needs to be more moderation. We are only creating problems for the future if we set our kids up to have daily junk food habits.

@ApotofrealcoffeeGrow up!

I don't know why the OP is getting a hard time when she's right. Sweets, treats and fizzy drinks are not a normal occurrence.
Look inside a Greggs or KFC and see the kids strapped into a pram eating this, and it's every day.

I'll hold my hands up, my mum fed me like this. There was times we had takeaways multiple days of the week, crisps and chocolate were daily occurrences.

I became overweight, I hated myself as a teenager and lost years of my adult life learning about food and educating myself.

God I wish someone had instilled healthy balance in me from the start.

In that case better feed your kids UPFs, to be on the safe side.

surely it’s the opposite issue- everyone had access to nhs dentistry when I was growing up in the 70s and 80s - dentistry has effectively been privatised and people struggle to afford the costs for their family and we have children being admitted to hospital to have their teeth removed. Absolutely shocking for a developed country

If you’ve had a lifetime of bad teeth then you weren’t brushing them twice per day! Daily sweets won’t destroy your teeth if they’re brushed, properly & thoroughly, twice per day!

I do feel for some kids whose parents are clearly loving but not acting in the best interests of the child. Was in town the other day and saw a woman pour McDonald’s Coke into a baby bottle and then give it to her 3-4 year old in a pram - I was shocked!

@DoubleBusy2026 , the sugar will linger on the teeth until the teeth are cleaned. Children are often given acidic sugary drinks in bottles. Children are given pop and 'energy' drinks.

It's breakfast time not after school pick up though- and even if they have had their weetabix etc it's not ideal is it. I have been on the bus at 8am many a time and seen clearly under 10 yr old with their hands in pringles tubes/ family bags of crisps and bottles of coke....even if they are fussy eaters it's not a good start is it.

@ItalianChineseIndianMexican
What you’ve failed to read when learning that particular statistic, is what percentage of those kids had a genetic dental disorder that they were BORN WITH, called MIH. My DD had to have 5 teeth extracted under general anaesthetic due to MIH, despite only liking water (she’s autistic and hates drinking ANYTHING besides water) and hates sweets! She was on an outpatient ward with 9 other children who ALL had MIH!!!! They were all born with this condition and some had every single tooth out. But of course LBC or the Daily Mail don’t tell you that bit, do they?! No, just the numbers of kids getting teeth out, as that sounds more shocking and gets more clicks.

I fully expected DD to have beautiful teeth due to her good food habits and the good dental hygiene I’ve taught her and I was mortified going into that outpatient ward. Thanks for the judgement.

EDITED TO ADD: DD’s special needs dentist who performed her surgery, said that every Thursday he comes across to the hospital and performs extractions under general anaesthetic, on 10 different kids and that he cannot remember the last time he did so on a child who didn’t have MIH.

I genuinely don't think there is anything wrong at all with having chocolate or sweets everyday, especially not for physically active and growing children.

Its an entire diet that is bad, not one small part of it. A bit of chocolate or a sweet can be perfectly healthily incorporated into a healthy diet.

What is unhealthy is to categorise foods as ' good' or 'bad'. That's a really unhealthy mindset. No forbidden foods. Just overall healthy varied diets.

No, “children” are not “given” this at all, you mean SOME are. Don’t hook all us parents into your fantastical stereotype thank you very much. My DD only drinks water and won’t even attempt to eat sweets! I have to find ways to get small amounts of glucose into her as she won’t eat anything even remotely sweet!

Ffs not this nonsense! Of course foods are good/bad/inbetween. Broccoli? Good. Haribo? Bad. And sweets every day is not a healthy diet regardless of the rest of it. They’re still part of the diet, not just an add on!

Exactly. I have a small piece of chocolate once per day and I look forward to it. Life is miserable enough, I’m not removing one of the few joys from each day!

You've completely misunderstood ( or deliberately distorted) what that poster said.