How much processed food to you give your LO? Be honest please!!!

[dom85]

It's difficult to actually say what your friends child is having though because although i wouldnt personally give Brady some of those things, if its just here and there over a month it wouldn't seem that bad to me.

We have a processed food type dinner at the end of the week when i just do not have the energy to stand and cook, but its not normally chicken nuggets or chips (i have a fear of deep fat fryers and hate oven chips so only have them if we're out occaisionly). Normally its things like the filled fresh pasta and a sauce, pizza (i buy the bases and them put toppings on) or I get one of those already chopped bags of stir fry veg and some fresh noodles and make a quick stir fry.

Brady has crisps at my Mums and goodness knows what else, I ask her to keep it in moderation but I don't mind him having the odd crisps or sweets etc.

I am guilty of using those sandwich pastes though, Brady won't eat any form of bread if he is able to take the filling out so occaisionly I put paste in a sandwich when the cupbaords running low or I've run out of ideas.

 

[Miss_Bump]

do you count breakfast cereal? that's processed, some types are obviously saltier/more sugary than others. or bread products - same. if you do, then Adam does have more processed foods than I'd ideally like. he has bread most days. cereal every day. baked beans once, maybe twice a week. frozen fish fingers or fish steaks once a week. fresh, good quality sausages once a week. potato waffles once a week, if that.

he rarely has sweets or crisps or chocolate. I don't even buy Organix snacks any more (he likes them but they're so expensive and he's just as happy with a plain ricecake or a dark rye ryvita - I swear I didn't give this to him, he found the packet and started eating, seems to love them). also I kind of think that a lot of the toddler/baby crisp type snacks make it so so easy to cross over the the adult ones, and I'd rather he didn't favour them.

he does like bought quiche. I have found one that's got a ridiculously low amount of salt, so I am happy for us to all have it once or twice a month, if I haven't been able to make my own. and flavoured fromage frais, which he has most days. and I don't mind him having decent quality organic ice cream once a week or so either. and bought malt loaf (which he loves and eats every day if I have it).

he won't eat pasta meals at the moment, so I'm not making them, but when I did it was never with jarred sauce as I prefer using tinned tomatoes and herbs.

fortunately he loves nearly all fruits and quite a lot of vegetables, and has some with every meal.

Please share where you buy this low salt quiche.

All the ones I find have ridiculously high amounts of salt

 

[Happy]

Phoebe will have fish fingers once every 2 weeks, beans once a week, she has rice krispies for breakfast, I use passata for sauces and she occasionally has a marks and spencer kids meal if I am pushed for time.

 

[mommy43]

all our meat comes from our butchers & is local meat, i love farm shops n local stuff
i make nuggets, burgers ect myself
she has a tiny bit of dolmio sause maybe once a month she prefers the pasta anyway occasionaly she has fish fingers but prefers fish pie again i make it
i dont use any salt in cooking veg ect
i dont really do it because of lo theres lots of us n its cheaper to cook from scratch ,if im having an off day n dont feel like it thats when they'll have fishfingers or a jar pasta sause

 

[Lucy22]

Oh and Lucy22 - definitely wouldn't count frozen veg as processed food. It's just as good as fresh. In fact sometimes it's better, as it tends to be frozen quickly after picking and not left to hang around

Thanks for clearing that up, I really wasn't sure!
I can't really afford to buy lots of fresh veg, half of it ends up spoiling before I get a chance to use it So now I won't feel guilty for using frozen veg anymore

 

[Buffy71]

As a rule I always think unless someone asks for advice, I dont offer it

She might choose those foods carefully and monitor his intake more meticulously than it seems from the outside.

 

[Windmills]

Daisy eats chicken nuggets very very occasionally- I think she's had them twice ever. She sometimes pinches a chip off someone or other.
I tend to make pasta sauces, chilli, potato wedges in the oven, soup, casserole etc myself. I don't make curry cow I don't know how but that's the only thing I really use out a jar, maybe once a week.
We eat white bread, and she eats frubes, maybe one a day. That's it really though, it's really important to ^me to teach her good eating habits

 

[Jchihuahua]

I cook most of Daisy's meals from scratch but after a long day at work I do sometimes give her processed stuff. She'll sometimes have fish fingers, beans, spaghetti shapes, dolmio type sauces, cheese spread, potato smiley faces. She also eats breakfast cereals.

 

[minichicky]

wow so many varied diets! When I look at all your replies it does make me feela bit bad for what I originally said as Isaac does also have weetabix, bread, cheese spread, peanut butter, baked beans and fromaige frae!!
Maybe Im just shocked she gives her child it as I wouldnt eat it myself. i guess if its normal to you and your daily diet then you wouldnt think twice to give it to them. Maybe she thinks Im wrong for feeding Isaac curry, stirfry, spanish tortilla etc!!!

 

[Mary Jo]

Please share where you buy this low salt quiche.

All the ones I find have ridiculously high amounts of salt

It's Co-op cheese & onion quiche, and it has, IIRC, 0.3g of salt per quarter. Adam usually has an eighth-size slice, so it's only 0.15g. Since he's over 1 and can have 2g max a day I think that's not too bad for his main meal (with veg and rice). I might have my figures muddled, it's a while since I looked at the box and I haven't got one in the freezer, and it's 0.3g for his slice, but it's still pretty low.

 

[Natasha2605]

Summer loves her food so I don't really worry about what's in it too much. Most meals are home made but with jarred sauces. Lots of fruit and veggies, at least five a day. As long as there's a balance I'm happy

 

[ellismum]

Most of Ellis' food is cooked from scratch although he will have Fish Fingers once a week. Sausages are the best quality ones with high meat contents. He will occastionally have crisps but never as much as half a bag. I never buy sauses, I make my own and they always taste better IMO.

 

[karlilay]

ALOT.

Im not going to lie. Madi had a really bed virus when she was younger and didnt eat for days, then when she started eating again she would only eat very specific things.
She used to love shepards pie, veg, meat. And would always try new things.

But she now wont eat anything with any type of sauce on it. The only veg i cant get down her is sweetcorn which she started eating last week!
I have tried making carbonara sauce but she hated it, but loves the Dolmio one. So she has a pasta bake with that once a week.

When OH and i have meat like pork chops/beef casserole etc, she is encouraged to try, and i put whatever were having on her plate. But she never eats it, 9/10 i cook her something else because i hate to see her go hungry. She likes sausages though, so we tend to have a lot of sausage based meals just adapted to how she likes. She likes chicken dippers and fish fingers occasionally. She will also happily eat chilli and spag bol as long as i use Dolmio sauce.

Its so hard because i dont really want her to eat processed crap but thats all she will eat, and i dont want her no have anything. I make chips from scratch, and mash and if i didnt give her processed stuff with them, thats all she would eat.

She also loves jelly, yogurt, quavers & skips.. i draw the line at wotsits though because they stink!
And eats babybells and cheesestrings like they're going out of fashion, but again, she hasnt had milk since 11 months and if she will eat cheese and yogurt its one way of getting some calcuim into her.

Sorry that was long.

 

[leelee]

We have just been on holiday in Ireland so Max had way more processed and junk than he usually has.

Generally though his snack foods are organix crisps, grapes, oranges, raisins, little yeo yoghurts etc.

He has beans/boiled egg about 2 times a week. I make some of his dinners from organic passata (99p) and mix it in with frozen veg/meat. All his meat is unprocessed. I also make home made brown bread about 3-4 times a week so most of his bread is home made and I usually make home made soup once a week and that does him for 2 lunches.

He does get the odd naughty thing though, and I will have a packet of chocolate buttons in reserve for when we fly to Portugal next week!

 

[polaris]

Thomas has baked beans about twice a week, fishfingers or other breaded fish occasionally, bread every day, breakfast cereals most days (only low salt/sugar ones though), and very occasionally potato waffles. He also sometimes has bought scones or fruit loaf. I think that's about all that he has regularly, most of his other food is homemade. We don't use jarred sauces as I don't like them and I cook without salt or stock cubes. However we have relaxed a bit since he turned one and he has had tastes of various other processed foods.

 

[TennisGal]

Not too much - from age frais (but she has the Plum ones), bread from bakers, generally cereal is organic porridge...but she will have others from time to time. If we've been out/rushing around, she may have a jarred pasta sauce with us....but I try and have a stash always in the freezer.

Tbh, a bit here and there doesn't bother me - but generally we try and avoid it on a daily basis!

 

[TennisGal]

Oh, Waitrose quiches are ok for salt, too-we sometimes pack one on the run, so to speak,

 

[hattiehippo]

Tom is quite a fussy eater and I'm not a keen cook so he probably has more than other LOs on here.

He has cereals like cheerios and shreddies, baked beans 1x a week, cream crackers and cheddars as he loves these, cheese spread or philidelphia, fish fingers 1x a week, peanut butter (no sugar version) and eats our food which generally has a jar sauce.

But he eats such tiny quantities of most things (except fish fingers and smiley faces) that I can't see he's getting that much rubbish in him. To balance it out he is obsessed with eating apples at the moment and would eat dried fruit like raisins and apricot until it came out of his ears if he could. Unfortuantly the only veg he will eat is peas.

I do worry about what he eats (or rather doesn't!) alot so try hard to balance out the processed things he does eat. I also only rarely give him chocolate and would never give him adult crisps.

 

[LankyDoodle]

The processed foods Isabella has are:

Fish fingers - very occasionally (probably not even every 8 weeks tbh)
Bread - most days
Cereals - most days
Cheese - most days
Toast toppings like marmite etc sometimes (she has peanut butter a couple of times a week, naturally sweetened jam a couple of times a week)
Baby cereal bars - sometimes (a couple of days a week she has one as a snack, or some organix carrot puffs)
Quorn occasionally - say every few months!!
Baby pasta sauce for when we are in a rush and I only have time to make a scummy tea for her...
Low sugar/salt beans - sometimes
Sausages - usually only when she is at childcare really, and it is very occasional

Most babies will eat some kind of processed food, even if it is generally considered healthy (bread). I think in moderation things are OK, but I never give my LO things like chicken dippers, and I think we have to take responsibility for checking sugar and salt content on foods regardless of whether we consider them to be unhealthy or not. Some surprising foods are laden with salt.

 

[mandarhino]

Regular processed foods include
Oragnix snacks on occasion - 1-3 packs a week on average
fish fingers - once every 1-2 weeks
jarred pasta sauce - once a week
Low child sugar biscuits - couple of times a week
Plain rice cakes - couple of times a week
Toast & jam - 1-3 times a week - but usually it is a bite of Daddy's
Toddler meals - once every 1-2 weeks
Cereal - but it is all very low / no sugar or salt (shredded wheat, puffed wheat or oats or porridge)
Very occasionally she'll have ready made soup like Amy's lentil or Sainsbury's tomato and lentil.

She occasionally has some of our ready meals if we're being lazy which is typically Indian - rice plus dahl / spinach dishes or fish curry.

We give her Rachel's yoghurt which has no added sugar.

We could do better but sometimes it is hard on the nights we're working to get a good supper on the table quickly. She does eat loads of veg and fruit though and is generally good at trying new things. She doesn't eat meat.