MommyDearest

I work part-time in a large store and am horrified by the kind of food parents are buying their kids.

I can usually guess the contents of a family's trolley if I see overweight parents and children: enormous, family-sized packs of potato chips, dips of various flavors, sweets, puddings, cakes and fizzy drinks. The potato chips and cheese dips plus fizzy drinks appear to be for the school snack boxes.

Apart from the bad diet these kids are being fed the cost is huge!

A little 'treat' is fine, but too much salt, fat and sugar is very, very bad for children.

Are you guilty of feeding your kids too many bad foods and what would you like to do about it?

LoveMaGirl

No. Honestly I am a bit of a nazi over a few things; car seat, food and sleep. My daughter's favourite foods are broccoli and beans-she just loves red kidney, and black beans.

That doesn't mean she doesn't get snacks. Today we had home made crisps (potato chips) because I was craving them. So she had a handful too. But it's a really rare thing.

myboo

People have become brainwashed that processed food is just as healthy as a more natural diet, despite the additives or the fact that they require nutrition added after the fact to make them meet minimum standards. It is incredibly expensive. We just bought some of these at the grocery store for a sales promotion to get free movie tickets, but the food (chips, crackers, cookies, fruit snacks and breakfast bars-and condiments) will probably last us most of the summer.

Urbanmom

It is SOOO expensive to buy all those premade processed foods, isn't it?

My kids are guilty of getting a few too many lollipops, or I guess I'm guilty of allowing it, but they don't drink soda, they eat whole wheat bread and whole foods that I make and they prefer my homemade cookies to storebought, so we aren't doing too badly.

momx3angels

I admit, once a week or so we have a processed meal. Weather it's nuggets and fries, or frozen pizza, every now and then we are just too busy for a full fledged meal. But no matter what I make, it always has a side of veggies. Lately though, I've become a sodium nazi. I won't buy anything that has too much sodium, which pretty much rules out most processed foods.

Momof7

All of our meals are home-cooked from scratch and most of our snacks are fruit. On occassion I purchase chips to go with a meal, but they are considered something special in our home, not everyday fare. Overall our children eat in a very healthy manner.

Oliviajb9

I have made a commitment to always shop for the freshest ingredients available to my baby and also make it a practice to buy locally and seasonally as much as possible. I grew up on a small dairy and sheep farm where we milked and annually slaughtered our own grass fed..

Arial

My daughter is being raised vegetarian...healthy vegetarian. I say that because I have known some vegetarians in my time who have a very unhealthy non meat diet.

Anyway, I cook most things from scratch. The only prepared foods I buy are a good brand of organic frozen vegetarian meals I found. Other than that, I make everything - soups, sauces, salad dressings, even most condiments.

I know what you mean about looking at other people's shopping carts. it's frightening what some people feed their families. If I was that type of person I would feel very, very guilty.

I understand the occasional chicken nugget night and I may take things to an extreme, but it's a passion of mine and something I take extremely seriously for my husband and my daughter.

OliviaT

My girls do have sugary snacks but each night they have a well balanced home cooked meal and I encourage them to eat fresh fruits and veggies as well. They tend to eat more healthy food because they see me eating it.

alexis

We have removed all junk food from our house and we are doing well so far but even with our crazy work schedule we are not making as much progress (parents, kids are fine) as we would like. I do think that too many are over eaters though and many refuse to admit it.