Children & Protein Powders

[user1498683185]

Repost - Unsure on Category

On a morning I tend to have porridge with a half scoop of flavoured protein powder mixed in as a frequent gym user / weight lifter.
My 8yo daughter likes to have a spoonful as she loves the smell and taste of the flavoured protein powders I use.
She tends to have porridge herself, I have tried mixing in honey, cinnamon, spread etc all which she likes however she is persistent in asking if she can have some like mine and I was wondering if a small amount of protein powder on the morning mixed in with the porridge would be acceptable or not for a child.
It adds approximately 10g of protein to the porridge, and she is an active swimmer who has a great appetite also trains four to five times a week so part of me thinks it may be beneficial for the slight protein increase as opposed to causing any harm but interested in hearing other peoples thoughts.

I don't see the issue, assuming you don't have an issue with dairy or processed foods more generally. For me it's not apart from other protein rich foods we wouldn't think twice about, it's just a very efficient form.

It’s not going to hurt unless you use it as a food substitute. Obviously I wouldn’t go hard and let her have any more than that. Too much protein can overload the kidneys. I wouldn’t allow a child to have a Keto diet unless very closely monitored by a medical specialist. (Neurologists sometimes prescribe keto diets for specific conditions.)

It’s the UPF flavourings (combined with added sugar or sweeteners by the manufacturers?) that she’s after.
Ask yourself if you were able to extract those artificially created chemicals from the protein element of the powder, and add those to her porridge (say in a brown liquid or a dried powder) would you?

If you think she needs more protein (unlikely if you are giving her a varied, healthy diet) then why not provide it in the form of real food (eggs or meat for example)?

I'd say no.

Have you read what is in it?

This is what's in mine.

When this comes up I genuinely don't know what it is people are referring to. Is it that some powders contain things that aren't in mine? Or that there are things on that list that are the problem?

I can see it's not as clean as a plate of veg, but I also can't see anything that rings alarm bells as anything outlandish compared to other things I eat. Is it coming from a place of wanting to avoid processed foods more generally? Or am I missing something specific to these ingredients?

She would only need around 20-25g of protein per day, easily achieved in a normal diet.

Just having toast with butter, a boiled egg and 200ml of milk will easily give her 15g already in one meal.

OP is not asking if her DD needs the protein, but rather if it would be bad for her.

I don't know the answer but the ingredients list above sounds pretty similar to most yogurty foods, just with a greater % whey.

By virtue of the fact that's she'd probably be consuming too much protein having this crappy powder, then yes it's bad for her

Plus the shit artificial sweeteners aren't great

Protein powder is basically milk so it’s fine.

My 10 year old has a banana and protein powder smoothie for breakfast sometimes because he doesn’t really like breakfast but if he doesn’t have anything he just wants to eat crisps and chocolate a couple of hours later.

unless you avoid confectionery and other types of ultra processed foods because of sweetners and flavourings etc then avoiding protein powder because of what’s in it is quite frankly ridiculous.