Wholemeal or white ?

[Sticki]

We normally eat wholemeal pasta/bread/brown rice etc and only have white bread occasionally. So this is what our DD of 16 months has. However, a friend said that you should only give young children white bread etc as there is too much fibre in wholemeal and not enough calories per portion.

I dont agree with this, and think that fibre is a good thing and wholemeal food has more vitamins. Also the slow release energy - GI thing.

Does anyone have any opinions on this? Perhaps she was getting confused with not giving semi/skimmed milk until they are 5.

I think that too much fibre is difficult for young children to digest and it can also fill them up too easily - I have been given advice on this before. I think there is no problem in using some wholemeal stuff as it is good for them but maybe you could do 50/50 with white pasta etc?

don't give white! If the fibre is too much I would cut down on the portion size of the carbs and include more fresh stuff.

I think the advice is not to add extra fibre to a child's diet (under 5) - it is difficult for them to digest, and the danger is that it makes everything they eat go through them too quickly, so their body doesn't get the chance to extract all the goodness it should from the food. Perhaps stick with the wholemeal bread and brown rice, but use white pasta - this is what I do. Besides, wholemeal pasta is ghastly stuff

Wholemeal is fine, as long as they are getting plenty of protein, dairy and other good fats in their diet. White bread is awful imo - pure stodge.

I gave mine almost exclusively wholemeal everything and they're fine, have grown okay, would do it again. We actually eat fairly little bread/rice/pasta, though.

Mine eat so little it barely matters but I tend to mix and match white and wholemeal. It's difficult as we eat lots of pasta but DP and I prefer brown. Quite like white bread toast tho.
DD1 is 2.5 and drinks over a pint of milk a day so has semi-skimmed BTW - I think current advice is OK after 2 years. Saves having 2 different types until DD1 goes onto cow's milk....

My DD has always had wholemeal bread and as toast actually prefers it to white. I always do mixed pasta servings, normally because I have run out of one type or the other, but she doesnt seem to notice. have never had any digestion problems etc.

I think the NHS 'Birth to Five' book tells you not to give them wholemeal, so maybe this is where she gets it from.

We give our dd mostly wholemeal bread and white pasta because that's what we eat, but to be honest I would imagine as long as they are getting enough calories (and if they are bursting with energy and growing I think it's safe to assume they are) I don't believe there's anything to worry about.

(She has the occasional bottle of semi-skimmed milk as well when we run out of wholemeal, but I'm not going to worry about that!)

I have had the same advice that wholemeal is too difficult for them to digest, they can have it when they are older but early on white is easier to digest. But then white is as good as cotton wool and you're not even meant to feed it to ducks. I've opted for gluten free for the time being and moderate bread. Usually go with potatoes and oats for carbs. Toast is a problem she loves it so i just get brown and give it now and again.

I think babys are ment to have a high in protein and low in fibre diet.
I use wholegrain because white carbs are refined foods. There low in nutrients and release sugar. They dont keep you goin for long. If your making dd pasta then use wholegrain its much better, but just dont use it loads. Try and give her eggs, chicken, chickpeas things like that for protein.