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[cecilia]

Dear pippa,

Your Babies in Bed Cannelloni recipe is Recips of the Day - well done!  Very cute.

http://www.recipecommunity.com.au/recipes/cannelloni-babies-bed/50623

[pippa]

Hahaha! Someone just posted a comment under my recipe about how unhealthy it is to be serving toddlers cheese all the time! 
Do you think I should bother making a reply comment?

I replied - don't know if it will help, but here is what I said:

Why does just about every toddler recipe contain cheese?  This is the flavour that the kids are tasting and then get used to eating.  Eating cheese is not a healthy option.  Toddler food can be made tasty, appealing and nutritious without having to resort to adding cheese to everything

 

You have a point there - cheese is not "good" for you, but it is also not "bad" for you either.  Research on toddlers and eating has shown firstly that toddlers are fussy and can be very difficult to feed causing stress for parents, which in turns makes toddlers even more fussy and even present with food refusal.  The research also indicates that the factor that limits a child's later food preferences is actually the fact that they are not exposed to many different foods consistently over the toddler years.  With that in mind, using cheese (or any other food for that matter) as a buffer to introducing foods that have been previously rejected means that you are keeping those food in the child's repertoire and can later offer them with less cheese, in a different form or with no cheese at all.  Feel free to PM me if you would like the references to those articles.  Thanks for making the point.  Pippa

[pippa]

Dear pippa,

Your Babies in Bed Cannelloni recipe is Recips of the Day - well done!  Very cute.

http://www.recipecommunity.com.au/recipes/cannelloni-babies-bed/50623

Thanks for letting me know Cecilia

[Wonder]

Well said Pippa.

[judydawn]

Ditto.  I am a bad, bad Grandma - my GS loves cheese and as it is his preferred snack that's what he gets

[AliRo]

I think that was a great reply Pippa! 

And congratulations on having your recipe as recipe of the day!  I reckon you were a close contender for winning the baby food competition

[Katiej]

Well done AliRo & Pippa!

I'm sorry but when did the fun police outlaw cheese? I have no kids & probably shouldn't comment, but it's cheese!! I could understand if it was coke, or sugar, or a lot of the crap that gets fed to kids these days, but surely a bit of cheese is ok?

Sorry Gert I seem to have borrowed your soap box!

[AliRo]

There are a lot of holier than thou parents around on the internet.  Apparently yoghurt and sultanas are a no-no too because they contain so much sugar 

Basically, if cheese and tomato sauce didn't exist, along with dessert bribery, my toddler DD wouldn't be eating a whole lot!

[disaster chef]

AllRo my Pre Schooler also refuses to eat anything without sauce.

[cookie1]

Well done pippa.

I can remember DD only ever wanted to eat peanut butter, toast and apples. I was frantic until the darling clinic sister said there was no way she would die living on that. Imagine no cheese, yoghurt or sultanas. These children won't eat these things as adults. I have proof. My DH grew up not knowing dried fruits existed. ( his parents came to Australia after the war)  it has taken me 40 years to have him eat sultanas and others dried fruits.

[Debbiebillg]

Is chocolate a nutritious food for kids ? I have a chocolate addicted husband and they take after their Dad in that respect ! Just a load of nonsense, everything in moderation.

Our family GP was telling me (he's about latish 50's) when he was a kid all he would eat was potatoes because he hated his Mum's cooking ! He said back then people lived on egg and chips for dinner and lots of greasy food ! When you know better, you do better. But he said, can't have done me any harm living on potatoes, I'm still here !! I'm sure kids these days eat healthier than generations past !

He is quite a character our GP. If you tell him your arm hurts when you put it in the air, his response, well don't put your arm in the air !

[pippa]

The thing is cheese actually has opiates in it and is mildly addictive.  I love cheese and have been dairy free twice in the last 3 years (due to intolerant babies) and both times have been grumpy and had headaches at about day 3.  I realised that it was withdrawal from the opiates in cheese!  There is also alot of dubious research/facts making us believe that dairy is a good source of calcium which is why we think we are "supposed" to feed our children yoghurt, cheese and make them drink milk.  Dairy is actually a really poor source of usable calcium and one we can actually do without!  This is not a fact that the dairy industry wants us to know, so they use the media to make sure we hear their voice louder.  In the US, the government is actually trying to rewrite the food pyramid, but they are being bombarded by all the industries wanting their foods on top.  They aren't using research at all, just who has the most money, but they can't redraw the pyramid because they are upsetting major funding bodies.  Despite this, it is actually all foods in moderation that we need to promote.  Again, there is an idea that by giving children control over their food choices (well within reason of course) actually improves their eating and also teaches them long term lessons about feeling full, knowing when to stop etc.  If we constantly tell our children when they have had enough lollies, they never learn for themselves, the same for always making them finish everything on their plate and (sorry AliRo) bribing with dessert only makes children learn to like dessert, not the food you made them eat to get the dessert.  Have loads of research and great books worth reading, but it is probably way off topic now from the competition.  Am happy to answer more on fussy eating if you want to PM me.  Cheers - Pippa

[teagg]

Congratulations AliRo on winning the second bowl and blade set... It's made my life much easier... hopefully it'll do the same for you too!!

Pippa - fascinating stuff... I'd love to hear more about this... separate thread perhaps... and should i open it by asking a question so you can reply??? alternatively happy to hear more via PM... my diet personally is poor and in too great a quantity (the visual evidence around my hips is overwhelming  )... but i'm hoping that i'm doing better by my children... and interestingly enough I talk constantly about food contents and choices (and always have, since they were tiny tots) such that now, despite really not liking/wanting something, they'll at least give it a go... (green gunge tonight - aka creamed spinach as per the UK cookbook)... and the sauteed beet leaves/stems that I posted on the recipe community site last month or Jun... again not interested but still tried a spoonful.

As a somewhat cheeky aside - the rather less than enthusing comment that was made about cheese sounds rather like a thread on here when someone asked for 'healthy' children's food and then was less than appreciative with the responses given... if i remember correctly it was a very 'specific' definition of 'healthy' - possibly not what the mainstream might use...

Gillian

[AliRo]

thanks Pippa, that was really interesting.  As a vegetarian I am only too aware of the multitude of food groups that offer calcium, iron etc etc that are not mainstream or not heavily promoted.  I hadn't done much reading about cheese though so that was interesting to read about the opiates.  Do all cheeses have them?  As in, is it an essential component in making cheese?  Would be interested to know if you bought a non mass produced cheese whether they would be the same.

Despite my claims earlier about cheese, tomato sauce and dessert, I do exaggerate a bit with that.  I know full well that none of these things are good long term as an everyday occurence to promote well rounded eating habits.  As far as toddlers go she's quite a good eater, but as we know with toddlers, there are those days, and on those days it's just not worth the battle! 

[pippa]

Pippa - fascinating stuff... I'd love to hear more about this... separate thread perhaps... and should i open it by asking a question so you can reply???
Gillian

Sure Gillian - open a thread if it fits here, but alternatively, if it is way too off topic (??mods??) I think I can group PM, so people would need to PM me first if interested.  Wait and see if there is much other interest or if a moderator ahs an opinion as to the best way to do this.  Talk soon
Pippa