We don’t really eat lunch in our house. Winston eats a massive breakfast and prefers to snack all day until about 3pm when he’ll have something simple like soup, leftovers, topped pitta bread, rice or pesto pasta, then we eat our evening meal around 5:30pm. I naturally like to eat lunch around 12:30pm, but often we’re out and I can do without the extra food prep – so I eat when he does.
If you haven’t realised already I have huge, massive, no – enormous feelings of hostility towards most popular baby, toddler and children’s snacks (Dairylea Dunkers, Petit Filous or any flavoured yoghurt, Fruit Shoots, Rusks, Jammie Dodgers, Iced Gems, Cadbury’s Animals, Coco Pops, Nesquik, Barney Cake bars, Ambrosia Custards, Cheese strings, Mini Cheddars to name a few – I hate you all!) I’ve written about it here before. My honest opinion is that it should be illegal to market most of them towards children (because of their high sugar content), that they are such a waste of money and that they really don’t save much time.
Example:
Going in the fridge for a Petit Filous, putting it in a lunch box.
Vs
Going in the fridge, getting a handful of cherry tomatoes and putting them in a lunch box.
Know what I’m saying?
This is not to say that Winston hasn’t eaten any of these products before; because he has (in laws *cough*). I just think it is so dangerous to market such highly processed and sugar filled snacks towards children – luring parents into thinking they are making good dietary choices, or that it’s ok to give such popular snacks on a daily basis. Our children are growing up addicted to processed and sugary food – flavoured yoghurts are my most hated, because they pretend to be healthy. Sugar is the second ingredient in most of them.
It’s not easy to wean children off sugary snacks. Winston is terrible if we are at a party, outing or event. He goes on and on about chocolate and juice. It drives me crazy!
Here are some ideas for healthier toddler snacks:
- Houmous
- Oat cakes
- Rice cakes
- Pesto
- Blueberries
- Raisins
- Dates
- Apricots
- Tomatoes
- Apples
- Bananas
- Plain yoghurt
- Pitta bread
- Popcorn
- Grapes
- Carrots
- Cous cous
- Cucumber
- Savoury muffins
- Rye bread…& lots of water.
Eating food after dinner isn’t the norm, but when we (Winston and I) both fancy something else we go for plain yoghurt with various toppings. We like dessicated coconut, berries and honey at the mo – together or separately.
…what on earth is baby rice? I just don’t get it!
Rant over.
E xx
I so agree – I cannot bear the idea of food that is ‘processed’ for children!
I know. It’s awful isn’t it? I think about it far too much though!