Why would you give your child unhealthy foods?

[RBBMummy]

At easter my son tried some unhealthy foods for the first time I don't like it but i thought he had come to a good age for his first taste. He didn't really care for it and much preferred the healthy treats. Now im struggling to see why i would offer unhealthy foods ever again. But i would hate to see him become an adult and make bad food choices because he hadnt had any exposure to bad foods. Why would you give your child unhealthy foods? Ive been overthinking this for days

@RBBMummy

Having had my daughter under a paediatric dietician ( she was prem and therefore had a struggling digestive system for a long time )

What i can tell you is that children need to enjoy the experience of food , treats are just as important as healthy food- children need to understand it as a pleasurable activity and also as a social activity.

The level headedness of my daughters dietician was a breath of fresh air and supported me to help my daughter to thrive - we get absolutely ridiculously obsessed with making sure our children eat at every meal and that they eat the right combination of healthy foods at every meal.

It just isnt neccessary - and what i have observed in my own career of mental health nursing over the past 20 years is that we are creating new and varied forms of eating disorders within our young people because of rigid parenting attitudes towards food.

Do you really think fruit leather is healthy? ffs it's sugar. Dried fruit is sugar. It's middle class sugar though so good for you.

What else do you feed him, quinoa and superiority complex flakes?

And FWIW there is a school of thought currently that todays vegan behaviours ( some not all ) are a form of eating disorder.

If you are serious about understanding good nutrition for your children, please go and look into the types of sugar! It makes not an awful lot of difference where the sugar derived from if your child is eating a piece of fruit leather made from 25 strawberries!
I don't have a problem with this at all as a treat, but don't hold it up as an example of wholesome snacking when it's not.

That one small fruit leather thing contains almost half a child's daily recommended sugar intake.

All the manufactured fruit leathers have only 'natural' sugar in them. Sugar is a natural, plant based product. When you take a whole piece of fruit, puree it, remove all the water and fibre from it and dry it into a strip it becomes processed, much the same as as squeezing a piece of sugar cane and drying it out to make table sugar.
OP do you think everyones child is crying out for an apple and their parents are forcing Haribo's on them instead? No. Most parents will try their best to give their children a balanced diet. That may include the occasional sweet from school or bit of chocolate at Easter or Hot Cross bun after school etc.

@RBBMummy
Fruits have a lot of sugar.

Also your fruit leather will only count as 1 of 5 a day.

caviar I hear you! I was a bit like OP with the pfb but three kids in I just want them to not be hungry.

It's not just fruit. It's processed. Very high in sugar. An apple is just fruit. Or a pear. You seem to have very skewed ideas about food.

Also - fruit leather at 4???

Why isnt he eating whole fruits cut up ?

Ok im not sure how i said this wrong or you misunderstood but there is no added sugar in fruit leather, its literally just fruit

It's not the rest of us that have misunderstood!

Quite often lots of fruits have high levels of sugar, especially when they aren’t eaten whole, but if my child liked them I would allow them to eat them in moderation. Likewise, if they liked chocolate, I would allow it in moderation. In terms of sugar content and concerns for teeth etc, chocolate is often better than some fruit.

I suppose I would always opt to give my child something that was enjoyed and was as healthy as possibly so if, like your son, they disliked something that was unhealthy, I wouldn’t keep giving it to them (not only because it would be a waste).

I get what you mean (though am glad I read on to see your explanation of ‘fruit leather’ because that lost me for a moment) op, I think however if you have a fussy child whose fussy phase last longer than you might hope, unhealthy food creeps in because dear god you just want them to eat something.

My daughter, when first weaned would eat anything. For the last year has apparently decided she simply doesn’t eat meat or fish and subsided mostly on a diet of falafel, peanut butter on toast, carrot battons, bananas, fruit leather as you call it...oh and chips and pizza. She was 1 before I even let her try chocolate or anything else unhealthy

8.7g of sugar in one of those bars
2.6g in a digestive
Just saying, it's worth looking beyond what 'appears healthy'

Those fruit bars are 15g each. Nearly 9 grams is sugar. That's 60%. By anyone's definition that's a very high sugar snack. Doesn't really matter if the sugar was in the fruit to begin with or added!

Fruit leathers are very sweet and terrible for children's teeth because they stick to the enamel. Far better to eat intact fruit.

Well this got taken over by trolls very quickly with people calling fruit unhealthy and not reading the post and going off saying ludicrous things. Shame. I guess i will try again tomorrow with a fresh thread, but please don't bother following me

Look at the link you have posted. The nutritional information says how much sugar it has in it. Carbohydrate ( of which sugars) is STILL sugar. 8.9g of sugar per 45g bar is nearly 2 teaspoons of sugar you are letting your 4 year old chew on. To make that bar, you would need a shitload of apple juice. Its pure sugar, added or not. If you know it's delicious, you must have tasted it, as have I. Your tastebuds will tell you how sweet they are.

You sound over tired.

Oh dear. You got fruit leathered by this thread OP

Well this got taken over by trolls very quickly with people calling fruit unhealthy and not reading the post and going off saying ludicrous things. Shame. I guess i will try again tomorrow with a fresh thread, but please don't bother following me

Are you drunk?

Trolls

You just don't want to listen, do you OP?

Nobody said fruit was unhealthy. Processed dried sugary shit is not the healthy choice you're making it out to be.

Hmm, I think you're having a laugh. No one is calling fruit unhealthy, they are saying that your example makes no sense as you compared a healthy snack (fruit leather) to an unhealthy snack (a biscuit). You're basically wrong in terms of nutrition. Go and get an understanding of basic nutrition before trashing other people's choices. You may just find that what you see as healthy isn't quite what it appears.