Gravy help! Is 2 too young?

[joanneg]

I want to start making sunday dinners and stews and things. Is 2 too young for gravy? What gravy is best? thanks

No - why would it not be OK? Any gravy would be OK I'd have thought.

2 years? No.

I used to have the same worries 'cos Sunday dinner without gravy just isn;t the same is it? I know some brands are too salty so I suppose you should avoid those. Perhaps just try making your own using the meat juices and a bit of Bovril powder, keep it quite diluted for your child.

Message withdrawn

I can't see why not. DS is 2.5 and keen on stews, although he doesn't like gravy (or sauce as he calls it) on his roast. I usually make own gravy in the roasting tin or sometimes Bisto. I am intrigued as to why Kate has said no - am I missing something?

strawberry - I think Kate was responding to the 'is 2 too young?' question - so no its not too young.

My 2 year old has gravy about once every 2 weeks with Sunday lunch - however it is only a little to moisten the meat/ potato etc.
Suspect Kate has said 'no' because most gravy granules/ stocks etc wil contain high levels of salt, and possibly other stuff like monosodium glutamete , artificial colourings etc??

Right Zubb. I meant, no it's not too young. IMO 2 isn't too young for any food. My 2 year old was slurping oysters on the half shell when we were in France!

I think Kate was saying no it wasn't too young.

oops sorry -,posts with zubb crossed

crossed post, my ds has a little bit of gravy now and then and he's 10m.

When I do make gravy, which isn't very often, I make my own, so I didn't even think of that. I guess store-bought gravy probably isn't very good for you, but to be honest my kids eat a lot of rubbish when given the chance - snack foods and sweets, etc.

Oo sorry Kate my mistake! Must learn to read questions properly!

No need to apologise. I can see how my answer can easily have been taken to mean "no, a 2 year old can't have gravy"!

My 2 year old has been having gravy for months - in fact it took me a while to understand why you were asking the question! But now I get it - it's the salt issue. We always make our own gravy with the meat juices from the roasting tin, and some stock using a low-salt stock cube, which really does have virtually no salt in it. Even better if you're roasting a chicken and are lucky enough to get it with the giblets etc - just make a stock by boiling those up with some carrot, celery etc.

Dp yesterday told me he nearly bought some bouillon instead of our usual stock cubes and then looked at the salt content and it was 40% So then he looked at the 'reduced' salt variant and that was still 25% salt! Unbelievable. So then he went back to our virtually no salt stock cubes.

2 grams of salt a day is the recommended maximum amount for an under 5, if that's any help? Can't see how you can possibly keep track of that down to the last gram, but it's a good guide. I don't give gravy to my 2 year old and I still don't salt his veg/potatoes because I'm pretty sure he goes over the recommended amount easily elsewhere. A few people I know (without kids) no longer even keep table salt in the house, so it's horses for courses I guess.

Pidge - What make are they?

Furball - hmmm - good question, I will check tonight and let you know. We get them from our local Indian deli cum supermarket which stocks loads of health food type products.

I must say the stock cubes are not brilliant - which is why dp was looking at the bouillon. But they are ok and very very useful in soups, gravy etc. And actually they taste fine in that context.

Back tomorrow with some actual information!

Boots sell a cow and gate gravy in the baby section.

My 2yo DD has a little bit of gravy every so often. She actually prefers it in a little saucer on the side of her plate, to dip into, rather than all over.

BTW, the Cow & Gate gravy is bland and has no flavour!

god DS who's 17 months has some now with his sunday dinner!!

No

unless you make it with peanuts

a 2 year old isn't a baby ... why would you buy baby foods for a 2 year old

Oh gawd... my ds (now 3) has had gravy since ... about 15 months(?*) and loved it so much that he'll ask for extras and a teaspoon to scoop up every last drop

(*basically from the moment we decided he could eat exactly what we were having and didn't make him separate meals)

Sorry furball - haven't been online for a few days. The brand of stock cubes we use is Kallo Organic Veggie Reduced Salt. They do a non reduced salt one too, which didn't look that salty to me, but the reduced salt ones really do have virtually no salt. They do meat variants too. We get them in our local Indian supermarket / health food store. I notice our organic greengrocer stock them too.

Had a yumsome gravy the other day made after we bought a chicken complete with giblets. I get so frustrated that in these days of sanitised, overly packaged food they usually take those bits out!