Comments on: Why letting children choose what they eat is a recipe for disaster

By: helen

helen — Sun, 04 Mar 2007 21:07:03 +0000

with all the idiotic dietry advice going around about low fat high carb diets it is no wonder people throw their hands up in despair & let the kids pick what they want to eat. It is inevitable that our society will go into some type of decline especially with the attitude that no one is wrong & it is someone elses fault that you made the wrong choice. Time to grow up mums & dads you are not meant to be your kid’s best friends, at least until they can grow up & appreciate you & your efforts at trying to raise good responsible for their own actions adults. So you might be unpopular for a few minutes of their lives you are the ones who took on the responsibility to raise the next generation of adults so stop giving them everything they think they want & start giving them what they need.

By: ninja

ninja — Fri, 02 Mar 2007 23:02:07 +0000

My son is 15 months old and is a very good eater, enjoying most vegetables and fruit, along with pasta, rice, mixed beans, lentil, quinoa, and a passion for cakes. Whilst at home it is fairly easy to ensure he has a good diet, obviously there are good and bad days. However, my concern is being back at work, previously I used to prepare his meals, but with age he has become more aware of the children around him especially during meal times. Recently I have stop provding lunch and left this to the childcarers. The food provided is the standard food given to little ones - sandwiches, pizza, cheese and tomato based foods. Which he enjoys. He is still eating the meals at home, and I only hope this continues to be the case!

Children will always push the boundaries testing there parents, and unless you guide how will they know. Increasing children rule the roost, making life increasing difficult for both parties - sorry but I think discipline is required, something I had not agreed with before my son (I had a very Victrorian upbringing).

By: Deirdre Brown

Deirdre Brown — Fri, 02 Mar 2007 20:38:19 +0000

I am very worried about my 9 year-old granddaughter. She is very small and thin for her age and very pale. She, like her mother before her, is not really interested in food and likes very few things. She has recently become lacking in energy, especially for her schoolwork, which is a source of worry to us.
She was taken to the doctor last autumn because we thought she might have been anaemic but this was not confirmed. Her mother has been reduced to taking her around the supermarket to see what she would like to eat but even this arouses no interest. Any suggestions would be welcome.

By: Neil

Neil — Thu, 01 Mar 2007 18:20:24 +0000

My eldest and youngest sons (4.5 years difference) have very different diets. Oldest likes most veg, especially salad and fruitYoungest does not eat veg apart from a few chips occasionally), and rarely fruit (grapes perhaps)
Both brought up fairly similarly when young though i accept there will have been some differences. I presume they have the same genes and characteristics as they are very alike in looks.

I can only guess that their tastes were formed by the variation in their early diets, small though they seemed to be.

The youngest who is nearly 20 does not get constipation despite a diet that has next to no roughage. You may think he deserves to, however. We did try to get him to eat veg, but once he learned to say no, neither threats nor rewards had any effect.