Giving babies junk food

[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.

[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.

[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"....

[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.

[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.

[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.

[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

[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?

[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!

[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