Giving babies junk food

[onthefly]

What's wrong with egg?
Sounds like a pretty good eater to handle a mcmuffin like that...

[helle]

The 6 or so month old was eating a sausage and egg McMuffin! Egg! At 6 months old! Can a baby that old logically be expected to chew the 20c sized pieces? Is be worried about choking.

Maybe mum does BLS?

DS had maccas for lunch today i think if their diet is balanced then sometimes is ok. I had an issue with it at first, and lots of mummy guilt when he had his first piece of junk but DH talked logic and pointed out that in the long scheme of things and with how often he has it it isn't going to hurt him. DS usually has chicken nuggets and i peel the batter off (the best part!) To get rid of most of the oil part.

I have more of an issue with cordial, cool drinks and juices put into bottles myself.

[Phteven]

I guess this isn't the place to admit that my second rejected teething rings but loved gnawing on cutlet and drumstick bones.....

[Indadhanu]

Heck I'll put my hand up and say that I'm judging! That is disgraceful, and the parents are being abusive in my book. They are babies FFS! If they were older and it's a treat then sure but a baby my mind boggles how anyone can think that it's ok to be feeding babies junk food.

GEEZ I think pulling the child abuse card is taking it a bit far isn't it...?

I personally wonder how a lot of people can think a lot of mainstream things are ok for babies... Baby food, baby yoghurts and juice are junk food in my books
In saying that, I'm certainly not saying I have never given Jazz baby food or juice in certain circumstances, so I can't judge those I see using these products...

Live and let live eh? Eyes out of the keyhole

[CinderToriella]

Baby led solids. So yes babies as young as 6 months can be given food in that form and size.. my LO has always eaten via bls... but besides that if they are doing it every day then yes I would worry but how can we know this unless we sit and see them everyday...my LO eats healthy food that we eat but she has had a few fries from our food etc.like cheezelmonster said they want what we have.. no matter wat they have they see us with something different they want to try it...

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[CinderToriella]

How can u say its abusive and it would be ok if they were older.how does anyone even know how old other peoples kids are.. its a bit hard to tell that

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[toomanyshoes]

I guess this isn't the place to admit that my second rejected teething rings but loved gnawing on cutlet and drumstick bones.....

DD LOVED giving bones a good ol' chew!

As with everything, moderation is the key. I definitely think pulling the child abuse card is taking things too far.

We hardly have take away and when we do its on the odd occasion where something else is going on or we're running late or I'm completely buggered.

[CinderToriella]

My LO chews on cutlet bones and chicken leg bones all the time she loves them


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[OceanPrincess]

PollyA, well said. If I could give rep points from my iPhone, I would.

I was exactly the same with my two. DD didn't have Maccas until ooo I don't know, after 12mths I think. I'd take a bread roll if we went to a shopping centre round lunch time, make sure we ate before going anywhere and avoid being on the road at dinner time.

Then we started going down to the beach house, leaving home at bedtime, she'd sleep. We'd stop at Maccas and grab a bite while she slept. Then she got older and when we drove through she'd wake up and cry. Then we had DS and her crying would wake him up. So now we leave when it's near sleep time, drive until they are both cracking it ( ) and stop at Maccas. Same reasons as above - clean, baby change, secure playground. I can get water for the kids but yes they do have chips.

And yes I said they - last night I gave my 7.5mth old Maccas chips. Seemed fair - everyone else was having chips, he kept crawling over to DD and grabbing at her chips so I slurped all the salt off a nice soft one and gave it to him. He loved it. Please don't call child protection on me

Having said all that, I am incredibly strict with DD's normal, everyday diet. We don't give her processed snacks, she only eats fruit, crackers, cheese or veggies as snacks. So I figure every now and then, Maccas is ok.

[Cherished]

GEEZ I think pulling the child abuse card is taking it a bit far isn't it...?

I don't think so, everyone knows that junk food is bad for you and giving it to an infant who's body can't handle such food is abusive to the wee little tackers body.

How can u say its abusive and it would be ok if they were older.how does anyone even know how old other peoples kids are.. its a bit hard to tell that

An infant such as a 6 month old child looks vastly different from a primary school kid or even a 2-3 year old. I don't have my head that far up my arss that I would make a blanket statement and say "no junk food ever". I think it IS ok for older children every now and again but a 6 month old or a 1 year old I still believe it's just wrong and there hasn't really been enough thought into what the babies body can handle.

[Indadhanu]

So cherished, where's the line? Is it one? Two? Three? Primary school age?

[Traveller]

There's no doubt that maccas is not the ideal choice of food for a 6 month old, but I wouldn't say it is the worst thing a mother could do and certainly not child abuse unless it is all a child is being fed. As established on this thread, BLS (which this mother was almost certainly doing otherwise her baby would have been fed puree at that age) means solid food is safe at this age. My children have had maccas, and the worst thing about it for me is the guilt of what others think of me as a mum, despite it not being a regular thing and usually only when we are hungry and miles from home plus too skint to go somewhere healthier.

[Shades]

From my perspective, suffering from depression bad enough that I would not be showering, dressing or preparing food for myself, let alone doing anything other than sitting on my ass trying not to cry and/or lose my schmidt with my child, who is crying and screaming from hunger... Yes I went somewhere fast and convenient to get food for him, and did it every day, sometimes more than once, for the weeks that it took to find a better, saner mental place, since that was better than some very scary alternatives.

Life must be real nice on the other side of the keyhole.

[Just Me]

My children have had maccas, and the worst thing about it for me is the guilt of what others think of me as a mum, despite it not being a regular thing and usually only when we are hungry and miles from home plus too skint to go somewhere healthier.

I feel the same way!

My kids think Maccas is the greatest treat on earth - DH and I think it is awful and we usually don't eat when we take our kids there.

We actually go to Maccas often (once every 2 - 3 weeks) mainly for the indoor airconditioned playground. We also go fortnightly to the museum, the library, the indoor playcentre and the aquarium (thank goodness for year passes) for the airconditioned indoor playgrounds. We live in a very hot place where outdoor playgrounds are too hot to use for 6 months of the year - they burn themselves just by touching it and DS1 has ezcema triggered by the humidity. We do buy them HP (even my 15 month old get her own - we used to have them share but it causes so many fights) - with chips and a cheeseburger and we throw most of it away because they don't eat it. The lure of the playground is too great

I worry about other people thinking I am a terrible parent for taking them to Maccas but then I feel like a terrible parent when my kids don't get a chance to climb and run and we keep them cooped up inside all day because going out with extreme UV indexes is also incredibly dangerous. We also keep them up late, well past the time they should be in bed, just because we are desperate to let them run and kick a ball and the only time we can do that here is after dark. Finding that balance is really difficult and no matter how we do it, someone will think we are doing it wrong.

I think each to their own. Those families giving their kids maccas and HJ probably have their own reasons for doing it.

[fionas]

Some people go to Maccas occasionally, some people go a lot. How are we to know which ones are which? We can't.

But a lot of people go there a lot and there are a lot of obese children and adults and I think that sucks. What sucks more is people throwing up their hands and saying they don't know what to do about the 'obesity crisis'. Simple, feed you and your kids healthy food and move your butt. Here's a radical thought, how about cooking things from scratch. So sick of the let's blame nasty big companies who make us buy junk food instead of people taking responsibility for their choices.

Yep, I'm the Queen of Tangents tonight.

More seriously, I wouldn't begrudge anyone the odd Maccas. Hey, I sometimes get down from my pedestal and go there myself and give DD chips. What I do object to is parents filling their kids diets with lots of crap EVERY day. Cordial, fizzy drinks, chocolate, biscuits, blah blah blah. My friends take around bags of Tiny Teddies and chips for their kids to eat. Why? Is it really that hard to take fruit and crackers instead? Why fill them with totally unnecessary sugar. No objection to giving kids treats but a lot of times these days, crap is not given as treats, it's given regularly throughout the day.

[Roryrory]

(Hiding under a chair) I gave nearly five-month old Rose a crumb of chocolate cake today. As my SIL said "she is so your third child"....

[Phteven]

OMG Rory!! The shame

[Rouge]

[sarcasm]I know when I think child abuse I think sexual abuse, physical and emotional abuse and then McDonalds.[/sarcasm]

Whilst I wouldn't give my child at that age that type of food, I would hardly go around calling it abuse. I am sure that there are plenty of things going on in everyone's homes that at one point or another one would not agree with. But calling it abuse is a bit full on and slightly melodramatic. But I guess if you've never experienced "child abuse" as such then perhaps it's hard for you to comprehend. Or even understand how highly offensive that would be to those that have.