Giving babies junk food

[Roryrory]

Yeah I know Onyx - pretty soon I'll be sendin' her to the shops for me ciggies....

[turtleschell]

I just get really annoyed when people offer my DD bits of their junk food. Um hello, why are you filling her up on junk food when I have a lunch box full of healthy food waiting for her.

[Amaunet]

[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.

^^yeah that!

[fionas]

I can see where people are coming from when they call it abuse, although I agree that's a highly inflammatory and melodramatic term particularly compared to physical, emotional and sexual abuse.

My sister has two children. I stayed with them for two weeks. DP and I were beside ourselves at what she was feeding them. Cheese on toast or chips for lunch and dinner every night. The older boy had a myriad of health issues. Her excuse was that he wouldn't eat anything else. That's because she didn't offer anything and of course, when she made a token effort to offer something else, he rejected it because he wasn't used to it. She opened a can of soup one night, he wouldn't eat it and she responded, "see, I don't know why I bother." He hadn't had fruit in years.

Her youngest child now has insulin-dependent diabetes. Her eldest child has gone from being skinny because he didn't eat enough to now being overweight because he is eating normal portions but of fast food.

It's an issue close to my heart because those children have no choice as to what enters their body. Their mother is making bad choices for them and they are paying the price.

I have tried and tried, gently, to encourage her to give them a better diet but at the end of the day, she just can't be arsed. It's easier to give them junk and then claim they won't eat anything else.

Sure, she can blame her upbringing. My parents also have an extremely bad diet. The doctor has told my father he's officially malnourished. He's 5 foot 10 and weighs 70kg. Again, I've tried to get him to eat better. When they visit us, we can put a healthy meal on the table in ten minutes flat. They prefer to buy a frozen pie and put it in the oven for 25 minutes than eat a piece of salmon with two different salads.

[Gigi]

i can see both sides.

My first mother's group, i remember seeing (on a weekly basis), babies under six months old, like my bilby, having coke or choc milk, being put in their bottles. These weren't strangers at the food court, these were the mums in my mother's group. So i did know (by observation) that at least one day every week, this is what the babies were being given to drink. i had bad PND, was just trying to get my head around breastfeeding bilby, and living on two hours sleep each day. So i said nothing, just bit my tongue in many pieces, i had enough to battle with. The community workers running the mother's groups were torn between trying to educate the mums and not wanting to drive them away. So many things, like the mums smoking whilst holding their tiny nbs, were not addressed. I felt like i was on another planet. it made me toughen up, realise, the only baby i could help and be responsible for, was my own. i wasn't going to get anywhere, taking on half a dozen fullon smoking mums who believed that giving nbs coke to drink, was fine. They were pretty audibly aggressive about their rights. Which just made me think "what about the rights of your baby to develop healthy lungs"?

i was so unwell that first year, even standing in the kitchen to make up a lunchbox of healthy options, was beyond me. so i lent heavily on the Rafferty's Gardens tubes of puree. Once bilby started sleeping longer than two hours at a time (around two years old), i STARTED making healthy going out food boxes for her. I've gotten into a routine with that over last few years, but the rare time i'm caught out (out with her, and no healthy snacks on us) i get that awful feeling "whatever i do now, i will be watched and judged for it". Often it happens when we're in a shopping centre, so my cheat's way out of that, is to go into nearest supermarket and buy a tube of yogurt, a yogurt/apple slice, a slice of cheese from the deli, a banana from the fruit section. She drinks water 99% of the time but i give her a Prima apple juice (25% apple juice, 75% water) as a treat - maybe three times a week.

what goes into a babies system, is also important from a dental point of view (which is why i didn't let bilby have ANY chocolate until she was three years old).

what we give them, trains their tastebuds.
(so high salt, high fat, sugary foods, train their tastebuds to want more of the same).

[RainbowBrite]

I would hate to think of people when they saw my preparing my sons meals.
Since 6mths he has had butter and double cream added to his food, food cooked in olive oil (particularity potato chips), French toast, pancakes with lots of butter, ice cream anything with lots of calories in it...he also gets lots of fruit and vegies but due to weight issues he is on as many calories as possible.
He is on a high calorie formula and duocal which is a clear calorie and fat powder to add to food.
Sometimes it is a necessity.
All out our diets are healthy with a lot of fresh fruit and vegies...i would hate for someone to judge me for my sons diet.

[*Efjay*]

pffht these sort of threads are such a laugh. Everyone up there with such high morals & standards. Its amazing how highly we put ourselves when we have a computer screen in front of us.
I bet there are a lot of double standards going on here.

ps I didn't read the whole thread LOL just a few hand full of posts from each page. that was enough for me to roll my eyes & giggle.

[Nelle]

At the end of the day..

What good does all this do? All I do by judging is make myself cross. And if my expression shows on my face, I ruin someone's day.

If I have a friend/relation who regularly makes unhealthy choices for their child, and I can gently support and encourage to reconsider their choices, then I will. But if it's a stranger at a store and I can't think of a kind way to act, then a smile will help.

I'm not saying that as community members we don't have a responsibility to promote healthy care of children. We do. But like I said, rolling my eyes at other parents isn't achieving anything positive. You catch more flies with honey than vinegar, if it's not positive, I'll only make someone angry, sad or frustrated.


I have to say though, that being on the recieving end of judgement has helped me be this way. I know how distraught I've felt when my child tantrums in public and people cringe or comment. I've been crushed when someone's commented 'stay away from that nasty little boy' when he's hit or bumped someone. I was mortified when my baby fell off our bed...two days in a row. I've felt rubbish reading threads like this after realising that we'd had takeaway three times that busy difficult week.
I know that judgement never made me feel anything but crud. I still feel bad about it. What has helped me is when people are supportive and helpful. If someone says 'ahh yeah we had a takeaway week last year, it's bad hey - I try to buy Subway on those weeks, or buy frozen meals' - I mean, that's constructive and I feel encouraged and supported.

Anyway. Don't mean to preach, but we just turn ourselves into cranks when we do this to ourselves, and we don't do anyone else any favours either - least of all ourselves when we make the same mistakes. xo

[loulabelle]

Firstly,I haven't read the whole thread, just a couple of posts.

I am a terrible mother. My kids have eaten maccas, quite a few times. Ds loves it, he gets so excited. It's pretty much the only takeaway food he'll eat. He's extremely picky.
My kids have eaten ice cream, cake, chocolate and the other day when I had to bring them to my doctors appointment, I gave them each a lollipop *gasp!* dd is only 19 months *double gasp *.

Seriously, why do you care? Most parents, I imagine, give it on a special occasion or on days when they are absolutely exhausted (guilty!). You don't know what the reason is so, get over it, it's not hurting you.

Yeah, I get that we have an obesity epidemic on our hands but, sitting on the high horse isn't going to change it.

Your kids might never have had maccas, mine have. It's just another parenting choice that isn't any of your business. It's hardly abuse. ( please, feel free to call DoCS if I'm mistaken.)

Mmm... Could really go maccas
breakfast right now.

Just want to add, in case anyone is worried, I actually do cook home cooked meals the majority of the time!

Eta- I'm not actually referring to any poster, just putting it out there that perhaps it's just not that big of a deal,especially when looking at everything else we have to deal with as parents. Well...IMO anyway

[shaza12345]

These Days People Just JUdge people way to much you dont know why they might be feeding that child mc's, they might of been having a really bad day and just need to get out of the house, or maybe that was the last $5 they had so they thought they would get the child something different to eat or treat because they have been living on toast, crackers and fruit for the last week or so becasue thats all they can afford.,maybe they wanted to get away from everyday life just to sit down and have a meal together. As a mother we all try to do our best and sometimes our best to someone esle isnt good enough or its wrong. People should stop judging other people mothering skills really we all live different lives and have different ways of doing things,and have different thigns happening to us at different times, Sometimes there's more going on in people lives then whats shown on the serfice, and its really had to try and do your best when you got people judging you all the time saying no thats wrong what your doing it should be done that way When your trying the best you can just to get through everyday as it comes, and trying to make sure your feeding the right things, doing the right things.

[Phteven]

Aren't we lucky that we live in a country where all our children have enough to eat - what a luxury, to be able to debate the merits of our children's diets like this

[loulabelle]

Aren't we lucky that we live in a country where all our children have enough to eat - what a luxury, to be able to debate the merits of our children's diets like this

Very true! We are very lucky.

[Doing my best]

Before I had children, I was never going to give them junk food. Before my DD started eating solids, I was still never going to give her junk food..

But being a real parent got in the way. I have had bad days, days when on the road for longer than planned and run out of food, and sometimes, I just needed to feed my child after the supermarket shuts.

So I will await the visit for docs also.

[Catastrophic]

*puts hands up*
Im a bad parent that some speak off :-D My children have had maccas and chocolate and lollies and softdrink, But when your not looking and judging they also eat fruit and vegies and home cooked healthy meals. Just because you see someone for ten mins whilst their children eats macca's don't judge because you dont know what they are eating 99% of the time!

[Rouge]

Aren't we lucky that we live in a country where all our children have enough to eat - what a luxury, to be able to debate the merits of our children's diets like this

First World Problems.

[Cherished]

Why does a line need to be drawn as to when it’s ok and not ok to feed a child junk food. If you insist that one be made then yes I will confidently place it at feeding an INFANT junk food, whether that be fatty food like maccas, KFC or the like, juices, lollies, chocolate etc. I did not state that it’s something to call child services about. It’s funny that it’s suggested that I am taking things to the extreme yet others can take one word of mine and joke about things like abuse. The word abuse is used widely throughout the community and in BB and physical abuse comes in many different shades. I am amazed at how many of you think it’s ok to feed a baby of 6 months junk food and that I somehow need to justify the use of the word abuse. Then again maybe I shouldn’t be so surprised, there are millions of adults who have somehow convinced themselves that junk food is OK for them to eat and as such ‘abuse’ their bodies regularly so why would those people think it’s a bad thing to give to their kids Again, when kids are older there will be years worth of birthday parties and other treat times, why on Earth parents would choose to start feeding their kids crap from such a young age is still beyond my comprehension. As the OP said it’s no wonder there is an obesity crisis in Australia and I can add to that loads of other health problems including behavioural which are diet related. Why not give their little bodies a chance hey? Who’s really looking through a keyhole on this topic?

[PumpkinZulu]

Aren't we lucky that we live in a country where all our children have enough to eat - what a luxury, to be able to debate the merits of our children's diets like this

Oh, how I wish I could give rep points on Tapatalk

[Miss.September]

I guess it's a little bit each to their own. We eat well at home, hardly ever have takeaway. But we have given DD Maccas. The first time was around 12 months - she'd just had an appointment at the RCH, it was 5.30pm and we had at least at 40 minute drive home.

On the rare occasion that she does have it, the stares we get is unbelievable. I try to ignore it, because she rarely gets it, and she is never given an entire meal. She gets the nuggets and has water. And this is a child that doesn't eat ice cream, rarely has cake (like maybe three times a year), the odd biscuit and only drinks water or milk. Does that make me a bad parent? Or does it make me a parent that is allowing DD to have it occasionally so she doesn't gorge on it when she's older because she wasn't allowed to have it? Each to their own.