Are you a muesli mum?

[pie]

I just read this and I'm genuniely shocked that people would 'put their babies on diets', as well as some of the other stuff.

But I was wondering, am I just lucky because I read up on this stuff whilst I was pregnant, do most people really not know. Am I just luckly having had HV that explained it.

I'm not for one moment doubting that the parents are doing what they think is best, just wanted to know other peoples experience of learning about baby nutrition.

pie must admit never knew this was going on. I thought that fats are full of certain enzymes that help growth and developement.

I knew about all the stuff in the artcle, but you're right Pie - it's a question of reading up rather than assuming you know what's right.
Since having ds I've been shocked at the number of mums who've weaned their babies early - one of my friends weaned her son at 8 weeks - "it hasn't done him any harm" being the classic retort.
ds is also a big boy for his age and several mums and a mums & tots I go to have asked if I'm going to put him on a diet - he's 10 months old!! ( and 91st centile for both height and weight - so no problem there)
If there was a jaw dropping emoticon I would use it here - thanks for that article Pie.

I eat Muesli & so do the kids... but we drown it in Greek yogurt which is wonderfully high in fat.

While back there was publicity about too much salt in kids' foods. The journos interviewed mother of a 2yo. Mother was saying that she read labels for sugar and fat, but never thought of sodium. It was clear from what the mother said that she was aiming for low fat foods for her & her child, sigh.... Journalist of course, completely didn't pick up on this error.

Thanks for the link pie. Is the implication that fat is the most important part of a babies diet? Must say I always fed mine as much as they wanted and ds is on 99th centile still

I was one of the naughty ones who put him on cows milk before he was one. He didn't like formula and I wanted to cut down the bf. A bf counsellor said it was OK as long as his diet was otherwise varied, plus he would be absorbing iron well from breastmilk.

Also my 3 year old and 1 year old are on semi-skimmed milk. I was told it was 2 years when you could switch to semi-skimmed. Plus as the 1 year old is on the 99th centile I didn't think it would do him any harm. Am I wrong?

zebra - that's quite funny because when I but a ready meal for my children the only column I do look at is the salt one

Jude I've always heard that its full fat until they are 5, that basically kids need loads of the full fat stuff all round, but talk to your HV, maybe if they are eating lots of cheese and yoghurt it may not matter so much.

But this says that semi-skimmed is fine over 2, so I guess maybe your 1 year old should go back to the hard stuff??? Have you got a nice HV to talk to?

Zebra, the muesli reference was because I remember reading something when I was pregnant the first time that there were mothers feeding under 1s the same way that they eat themselves, the article called them muesli mums

Jude, just thought it might get a bit confusing though with one on full and one on semi-skimmed though, you'd end up with some sort of colour coded meal times

The main reason for giving them a high fat diet is their growing brains need fat. Maybe you could turn the question around, is there any reason to not given them full fat milk between 2 & 5, given that their brains are still growing a lot during this age? Overall (and not discounting the anti-milk thread on here) I'd rate milk as a quite healthy source of calories compared to a lot of toddler foods. Rough rule of thumb, unless the child is veering towards obesity, I'd give them full fat.

In my house I'm the only one who takes semi -- the others are all full-fat-aholics. We go thru so much milk the milkman brings it in crates.

Zebra, plus they need a lot of calories to grow. They have small stomachs and if they are to get enough calories, they have to eat full fat foods. Fat has more calories per gram than protein or carbohydrate.

I must say I had the 2 bottles of milk in the fridge until my 2nd dd was 2, then on her 2nd birthday we went to ss milk (dd1 was 4). However they eat ff yoghurts, cheese etc. I am more worried about their sugar/salt intake, I never worry about low fat!

I routinely have three types of milk in the fridge - 'red' and 'green' for me and dp and blue for dd1 - occasionally goats milk for dd2's cooking too!

Perhaps mums that put their babies on diets are driven mad by their MIL constantly poking their dd's (8 month) chubby legs and saying 'ooh you are a little chubby thing arent you'

All mine (12- 17) still on full fat milk. They don't like the taste of semi skimmed & as we are all veggie I don't think they have "too much" fat in their diet.

Eldest had cows milk at 6 months for breakfast- bf until 15 months otherwise. Not done her any harm, she's a beautiful shape & 7.5 stone.

I dont have milk in tea and coffe so it s no point in buying skimmed really( or thats what I kid myself as I have luxuriously creamy bran flakes).

I always put my babies on to cows milk before one as I get hacked off with formula