Calling all parents: Please Help Me; Opinions on Childrens diets for research ass please!!!!with cherry on top!!!!

[foxd]

I have a research ass due in on mon so furiously typing away this weekend to get it completed.

My research question has been: What are the factors preventing children eating balanced diets? and What can be realistically acheived taking into consideration modern lifestyles?

Pleae could you spare a few minutes and give your opinion and points of view that anyone has about this topic.
Also have just read an article from the Daily mail archives stating that in a poll 80% of readers believed parents were responsible for the rising childhood obesity epidemic? does anyone have any points of view regarding this?

It would be much appreciated and I promise to buy every one a drink who posts a message, in the 'Come into my bar' thread tonite.

Yes, it came up in a 'and another reason I hate the Tories' type chat [grin}

HMB - they must surely be relsted as those cooking times mirror my mother's exactly. She also makes fantastic gravy (never a lump in sight). "Is beef meant to be grey Mam?" a familiar refrain.

So many intersting things going on! laugh out loud at the boiled to buggery vegetables. Roast thing sounds like mil. Great,cold beef with the texture of mdf. Never understood it...But by God yes!! The woman's pastry and puddings are brilliant!

Message withdrawn

Well, all the flavour from the meat and the veg was in the gravy! Damn little anywhere else!

(She's from your part of the world too yoyo!)

Welsh ladies - Must stop now. You have made my night!

FIMAC,just digesting (excuse the pun) your observation about these big companies having more people on the case than are employed in the entire planning department....

Pruni,great job but EU red tape is unbelievable.Do a lot of sympathetic nodding and smiling as he rants and raves.......

Nos Da yoyo

Right from a purely personal POV and haven't got time to read all the thread and in no particular order.

• DH can't/won't cook/plan meals so it falls down to me - I work part-time, have no help cleaning etc and two small children.
• for DD (1 tomorrow) its seeing what DS has and wanting it. I do hide some of what he has from her but she is becoming more aware. So she has a worse diet than he did at her age.
• for both of them they go to nursery 3 days a week and the food they give them there is not up to the standard I would provide at home. Eg not enough fruit. I do make up for that by making them both sit at the table while DH and I eat our meal and they have two pieces of fruit (DD 1 plum or banana and some stewed fruit, DS a banana and a kiwi/plum/strawberries). Also white bread and more puddings than I would give. Also things like fishfingers, spaghetti etc.
• children's menus being junk based. Thats for DS - DD is still at the stage where she will just have a bit of mine. At a younger age I was v. annoyed when Brewsters would not warm up my home made food but would have heated a jar. Another pressure to get away from the style of food I want to feed my children. Neither of them have ever had a jar.
• the huge number of parties that they go to. DS has 4 parties plus his sisters this month. And its all junk that is served.
• family members over doing the junk food. For example, DS went to his grandparents and she bought him a pack of 12 buns. Rather a lot for a 4yo. When it was Easter DD (10 months at the time) was bought about 6 Easter eggs. Plus more for DS and some for us. Actually those last two sentences should be about preventing parents eating a balanced diet.
• Peer pressure and advertising. DS is mostly kept away from advertising and it has little direct impact on him. However it gets to him through his friends. Eg he has never been to McDs and last autumn did not know what it was. DH and I have never told him. The other day we drove past one and he pointed it out. I asked him what you got at McDs and he said "toys". On further questioning he also knew it sold food but was a bit vague on what kind. This has obviously come from a friend.

TBH though I think my children have a reasonable diet although it goes in ups and downs to an extent. They eat good breakfasts (IMO) - ready brek/weetabix and wholemeal toast. For snack today DD had cheese, banana (chucked it around the kitchen) and yoghurt. DS had strawberries and banana. They had pasta and veg in a tomato sauce for lunch. Then DD had some stewed apple & strawberry. DS had choc buttons. This is his weekly treat if he behaves at swimming lesson (has been a battle). Then we went to my Grandad's for tea and they had half a large white teacake ham sandwich each, plus DS had a pkt of crisps, plus DS - a kitkat, small piece of parkin and bun (then he was bouncing off the walls). DD had small piece of parkin and a bite of my bun. We went for tea and my Grandad gave DS the kitkat as soon as we walked in at 5.15 so I had to take it off him until he had eaten his tea. Thats what I am up against.

Tomorrow he has a party 11 til 1 and then DDs later in the afternoon so before he goes to the first party I will give him a banana and some other fruit to fill his tummy with goodness first.

I want to thankyou for all your posts they have been extremely helpful[grin}.

I can see this is a topic that people feel strongly about and why not it has been negleted area for too long. I'm under the belief that there is no wrong or right opinion or point of view, what works for one may not work for another. One thing that attracted me to this topic is the diversity I saw as for me it isn't just about food but the way people are raised and supported.

Wickedwaterwitch - thankyou for the panorama story that to has been useful.
Pleasebehonest - thankyou for reminding me that there are other more pressing issues such as neglect. What a brave person you are working in that field of work. I agree with you when it comes to a child being left alone for days, simply surviving is the most important thing. Hope tommorrow is a nicer day for you as you said you've had a couple of bad ones.

On the whole I believe eating healthily with regards to children that are able to is revolutionising the healthcare industry. Its just such a shame that it has taken so long for people higher up to realise it, lets hope things change sooner rather than later.

Hope this works

Bozza,staggered at your comment about Brewsters.

I limit the number of parties we go too. (Am I a cow?) Too much crap, too many small children,and I'm sure most people don't care if we're there or not.)

Bozza - at your DH. Why on earth do you cook for him? I would refuse, I bet he'd soon learn how to cook.

I was more shocked at Bozza's dh rather than Brewsters. Brewsters arent married to Bozza or the father of her 2 kids.

Was really p'ed off with Brewsters at the time. What annoyed me was that its supposed to be health and safety that they can't warm up your food but they will warm up a bottle of formula - and therefore a bottle of EBM (they can't tell the difference) and whats more home made than that?

Is DH really that awful? I suppose if I put more into the battle I could get him to do more. He does breakfast, ie we all sit at the table and he makes DD ready brek, DS weetabix, me porridge and himself branflakes, gets DS a yoghurt and then grills the toast (we don't have a toaster) and all I do is feed DD. And I always insists he clears the kitchen up on the grounds that I cook. Actually if we ate junk food (eg pie and oven chips or pizza) he would cook, but I'm trying my best to keep those to a minimum.

Sorry, I just dont get men who dont do equal shares willingly.

Well my dh doesn't cook (does loads of other stuff though.)

Bozza, I would be tempted to do mad stuff to get their knickers in a twist,like put home made food into a baby food jar,and bought baby stuff into a plastic pot and then ask which they're 'allowed' to do.

I've got to much time on my hands,haven't I?

Also depends on which party is in overall control in the Council, if it is Tory, planning applications will not be top of their priority as in the previous Gov, when they relaxed Planning laws

Ha ha at moondog and doing mad stuff in Brewsters. It's toss isn't it, that rule? But they can serve minced bollocks and MRM and call it food! Outrageous. Whoever asked what I buy/cook in a week, this is what I have in my cupboards atm:

broccoli
carrots
red/yellow peppers
baby sweetcorn
green beans
mushrooms
pineapple
peas
avocados
cheese
satsumas
apples
bananas
strawberries
eggs
bread
olive oil/herbs/spices
pasta
noodles
potatoes
chicken
flour/sugar/baking stuff for making pizza bases/fairy cakes
tins of tomatoes/kidney beans/chickpeas/beans
lentils
cous cous
dried fruit
milk
wine
yoghurts
hummus
apple juice
onions/garlic
potatoes
smoked salmon
tuna steaks

From that lot I will prob make
omelettes with pepper and goats cheese
eggy bread
tomato onion and garlic pasta sauce
pizza with garlic and rosemary
avocado on its own, ditto most of the fruit
veg roasted with garlic and rosemary
potato wedges cooked with skins on
mushroom curry
rare tuna cooked with garlic and soy with veg
smoked salmon sandwiches
rice with peas
stir fried chinese chicken and veg
pitta and hummus
lentil hotpot
tomato, goats cheese and basil salad
beans on toast + veg
green beans with garlic and soy sauce

and none of it (well, apart from pizza as the dough has to rise but that's not hard) takes more than 10-15 minutes. The waiting for it to cook might take a bit longer but all you're doing is waiting.

Haven't read all this thread but here goes.
Parents play a large role. I know that many full time working mums find time short but you can do it. I do. I cook up things like pasties and spag bol that I can freeze and re heat when nec. I work as a welfare officer in a school and therefore see school dinners and packed lunches. school dinners do offer junk but also healthy options too. The children opt for the junk, burgers, sausage etc. Packed lunches are not much better. One girl on Friday had no sandwich just a fruit shoot, a mars bar and a fruit winder! and that is quite typical. Some will have fruit but the majority have cakes, crisps, chocolate etc. The problem IMO starts from babies. If you try them on a variety of different foods and encourage them to eat fresh fruit and veg then hopefully they will learn to choose the healthy option. I have drummed into my boys that McDonalds etc is a treat. They all eat healthy balanced diets and I try to explain to them why they eat what they eat, what it does for them etc. Informed choices are IMO better made.

I agree about varied diet from the start. Ds (now 9) eats anything yet when he has friends round they often turn their nose up at anything other than chips and nuggets. I was also lucky that his childminder served healthy stuff only and his nursery when he was little did a good range of health food too.
Dd (18 months) eats curries, smoked fish, etc with no problems.

Smoked fish makes a great, very cheap ie £1.50 for a family and takes 2 minutes in the microwave.

I changed ds over to packed lunches as I wasnt happy with what he was getting for school lunches this included turkey twizzlers.

I haven't followed all this, but I tend to think there's the equation crp food = crp behaviour is a bit too simple. FWIW, I feel that some children are more susceptable to the effects of junk food.

Take my 11 year old's best friend at school: he is a very faddy, fussy eater and will go without food for a day rather than eat something he doesn't like. He has chocolate spread sanwiches, biscuits and squash and nothing else every day in his packed lunch. Until last year, he would only eat a certain sort of chicken bite or crips when he came round here - I had to buy them specially or not feed him. No fruit, no vegetables, ever. I have talked to his mother about it.

He is very well behaved at school - hardly every gets a minus mark, eager to learn, passes exams with high marks - a model pupil.

Tigermoth of course there is more to behaviour than food, speaking as a mother of a well fed child who has frequent tantrums! However she is worse if someone gives her something like a fizzy drink.

Also I don't think we feed our children healthily to make them behave, something a bit Orwellian about that! But just beacause we want them to be heathy and many of us enjoy cooking and serving a healthy varied diet.

Agree with ionesmum about the ridiculous suggestions such as sugary cereals 'with added iron'. They forget to mention that milk severely restricts the absorption of iron.