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?

‘Dangerous’ advice that has kept me filling-free and alive for 12 years…

Please look into this further. That thinking is VERY misguided. Have you found any scientific studies to back up your 'thinking'. Look into this further and you will find plenty to support that this is just not the case.

Desperation. If it meant him eating it was better than him not eating at all.

It isn't quite as bad now but there used to be days where he'd have chicken nuggets & chips for lunch and dinner because at least it meant he was eating.

I have heard of parent walking a child to school holding a screen in front of child so he can walk and watch!!!!!@

One of my early memories (nursery age) is getting a big bag of chocolate raisins to share with my Mum on the train on our weekly shopping trip. You would think in many decades of memories that would be forgotten but its not. It must have been such a lovely treat for us.

I feel so sorry for the kids of some people on here. Perhaps it was her weekly shopping trip treat with her Mum, perhaps the Mum was sensibly spreading the halloween sweets out (most kids have buckets full right now), perhaps she had done something brilliant and deserved a little treat! Her teeth wont suddenly all fall out from a bag of squashies 😂 If she ate 5 bags every day of the year, not so good. Im always amazed peoplr can be so judgemental knowing nothing about the day she had ahead.

Touched a nerve?

Ricecakes, I thought you had concerns about dental health and processed rubbish?

Yes because that’s exactly what we’ve said. No treats, ever.

🙄

But you literally have no idea why that girl was having a treat, how often she has treats, how active her days are and yet made a Mumsnet post saying you ‘despair’.

My kids throughly enjoyed their dairy milk after school and clubs today 😁

There is absolutely nothing inherently healthier about being hungry or ravenous for periods of the day.

It certainly doesn’t sound like the Sweden I live in!

I am sad for you that there were periods of your childhood when you were starving hungry. I usually had a snack coming in from school and was always a healthy weight, actually a little on the thin side. This was on the 90s. After school snacks are hardly new.

I’m very well educated on food. I cook almost everything from scratch and my child eats a range of cuisines and different flavours, including very hot curries. I do not give my child raisins very often, though, because I have a friend who is a dentist who has had to take out children’s rotten teeth, and as a result will never give raisins to her children.

Similarly, I wonder how many people defending the OP give their children meat literally every day.

My child did have some Halloween haribo on Saturday and an ice cream yesterday. It’s all about balance.

If the OP had seen a mum giving raisins on the bus, would she be equally judgmental, I wonder?

Actually there is. Fasting is really good for you. Your body isn’t supposed to be in a state of endless digestion.

Eating three meals a day plus snacks means we're in a "constantly fed state". As a result, our bodies continuously process new intakes of food instead of dealing with fat reserves.
"All the things we associate with poor metabolic health and disease risk – cardiovascular disease, insulin resistance, diabetes and low energy – are essentially a manifestation of fuel mismanagement," he says. "Eating in a grazing pattern means you're not able to store, liberate and utilise fuel in the right way."

https://www.bbc.co.uk/food/articles/clyw86591geo

It may be about balance

but if you see fat families eating every time you see them you are probably correct that their eating habits on balance are crap

there is no need to feel sad for people who feel hungry at times.

It’s ok, she clearly didn’t mean actually starving. She meant she built up a healthy appetite before being fed. Which is much better for you

I think you're being too judgmental to be honest but I do get where you're coming from.
I have 4 kids and have never thought to bring them a pack of crisps after school or anything but also we have always lived so near to school that they can eat when they're home. but when they're home it's honestly whatever they want which a lot of the time was/is fruit, breadsticks etc. HOWEVER they still have always plenty of sweet treats too and they're fine lol...no obesity whatsoever and they have great diets elsewhere and their teeth are also fine.

I will also say this obsession with sweets as kids goes down as they grow older. my two teen daughters enjoy it dont get me wrong but will have literally a few before getting bored because they now recognise it doesn't exactly fill their body with nutrition. I just think we need to let kids live tbh. ofc I am also against parents chucking their kids with crap but you dont know this from one moment. like for example how do u know that child wasn't having a tantrum before?

it's this restriction around sweet treats that causes issues in the future imo. if u dont let them try it they'll want even more of it when they're older when in reality it should be a small part of ur diet inc comparison to everything else healthy but it shouldn't be so small u basically never eat it

So would you? Judge a mum who is giving a child raisins on the bus? Do you give your children raisins? How much meat do you give your children? Do you cook everything from scratch? Do you leave your children hungry for periods of the day?

Do enlighten us about your fabulous mothering.

Can you explain what class has to do with this please and what made you think this person was middle class?

My kids 9 and hes never had a fizzy drink. Halloween has just been so maybe the kid is eating sweets from that. I think you are being snarky. I bet people look at your parenting and judge you too. The might not like how you speak, dress or feed your kid.

Dangerous, yes.
Your comments to me are full of incorrect information so please refrain from thinking you know what a tiny child needs and giving medical advice that’s woefully ignorant.

Sorry but you sound faintly ridiculous.

A lifetime of fizzy drinks and sweets are going to be very hard on a body that already has high blood sugar and a higher risk of cardiovascular problems.

There are perfectly safe ways of combatting hypos that are healthier. I know because I’ve been using oat bars, bananas, fruit juices etc for 12 years, literally thousands of hypos.

Nobody knows diabetes as well as somebody living it. Even my consultant says this and defers to me. My management is excellent and he’s always pleased with me.

And age 10 is not ‘tiny’.

Actually there is. There is a great deal of widely accepted research that supports this.

Yes, I would say 90% of my meals are cooked from scratch. 80% of their snacks are fruit, vegetable sticks, hummus, oat cakes, slices of cheese, and things like that. Of course they have the occasional treat - I would say 2 or 3 times a week they are allowed crisps (usually Pom bears), or chocolate (child size portion, not a double mars bar or whatever). In the summer they have an ice cream at the weekend.

I fully expect this to now be pulled apart on a minute level because everyone is so desperate to make out the above is the same, or worse, than feeding them haribo at 9am and living off beige freezer food. Knock yourselves out!

Don't feel sad. It was normal to get to a point of being hungry before meals. It's healthier that way. I would be ravenous because I was so physically active. My mother would also give me raw food - bits of chopped up carrot etc to munch on while she cooked tea. Nothing going wrong there.

It’s so worrying that these posters state such crap with such certainty. They truly don’t know that a Freddo is worse than a mars bar, or that you shouldn’t be constantly eating.

My 6 year old has come home from school telling me some children are taking Greggs pasties and packs of jam donuts in for 'healthy' snack time.