Child's food or how not to become obese

As parents, the learning curve is steep and it doesn't stop when you think you may start to have it sussed out, like 4 years in or something like that. Recently, food has been very much on the agenda, and three very different trains of thought seem to be converging.

There is an interesting contradiction in the whole business of feeding children. If you're a breastfeeding mum, all your parents' eyes are on weight gain and you are damning yourself (even if health professionals don't) if it doesn't follow a chart. Oh the worry I had with Cubling. So much so, that once we started solids, I made sure it was a very high calorie version and she went from skinny to very chubby in just 3 months.

Then there's the whole debate of increasing levels of childhood obesity, so much so that a recent topic on Call Kaye was a debate on whether gastric band operations should be offered to children as young as 14. An interesting point was made by a caller who deplored that weight gain in children was no longer checked regularly, so that obesity is often caught when severely bad eating habits are very strongly established and exercise is becoming less of an option to tackle the surplus energy the body is given.

There are many reasons for childhood obesity, and while some are known (we all know what foods are good and which ones aren't, don't we?), some others are more elusive.

Reason 1: This is one that I only found out about recently, due to taking part in the Optigrow Infant Feeding Study. Apparently, baby's metabolism is set in the first 10 days of life. If fed on formula, the risk of later obesity is much higher than if fed on breast milk. What annoys me is that nobody ever informed me about this. All the breastfeeding information I got from the NHS was summarised into benefits, which were all nice but not very convincing.

When you decide which way you would like to feed your baby, it's presented as a choice where you weigh up pros and cons. The thing is though that many reasons to breastfeed are not really explained in detail. I usually don't trust reasons that don't give me an explanation. The "why" is important to me and convinces me. I'm still finding out more about the benefits of breastfeeding, and realise more and more that there are two reasons why people do not breastfeed: New mothers often don't know enough about the benefits and make an uninformed choice, or they do not get enough support. Then there's the group who does get all the information and support and makes an informed choice - which is fine. It's just a shame if breastfeeding isn't happening for lack of information and/or support.

Now there's a new "urge" to breastfeed to reduce levels of obesity, which have long term health impact and also cost the NHS money. Low breastfeeding rates translate to health inequalities in later life. In principle, this is all good and well, surely there's room for higher levels of breastfeeding (in some parts of Glasgow less than 10% of mothers breastfeed at the 6-8 week appointment) - but it takes more than an "urge". I saw a request on Netmums for a young mum to be for baby stuff, including bottles. I responded and offered a few things (including bottles) but also said that breastfeeding would be cheaper. The response by the friend was, oh she's only 17, she doesn't have a clue. I understand that, I didn't have a clue really at more than twice the age and the NHS breastfeeding workshop at 38 weeks of pregnancy was much too late to really have an impact on feeding choices (and the support to tackle my breastfeeding problems was well meaning but didn't actually improve things). I just feel that nobody should feel they don't have a clue about what should be the normal way to feed a baby, and I'm still mad that even with all the information I did get, I didn't know enough when I first became a mum.

Then there's the issue that breastfeeding support workers and initiatives are getting their funding cut. Urging to breastfeed without the support is simply not enough. I won't happen. Without the support I had, I would have given in after 2 weeks. I didn't have great support, but it kept me going at least. Cut that, and your breastfeeding rates will plummet.


Reason 2: There is an ever growing availability of unhealthy and cheap fast food, particularly in the poorer areas. When I started weaning, everyone told me that making your own baby food was way cheaper than jars. I still doubt that. I also doubt that I can make a dinner for the price of a ready made meal. Convenience food, unhealthy snacks, fast food, are all over the place, ever in your face and it's hard to say "no" even if you are health conscious. My suggestion to tackle the problem: tax the nasty ingredients. There is currently no tax on sugar, making sugary foods very cheap. The only thing that keeps me from buying yet another chocolate bar (and eating it within seconds) is price. I know I wouldn't buy it if it doubled in price. Same goes for ready made meals and the like.

Reason 3: People have lost the skill to cook. When I was a child, my mother cooked most things from scratch. I was fortunate to learn some skills from her, though I didn't show much of an interest and could have learned so much more. Later I learned from my au pair families and thanks to a great hall of residence where we cooked together occasionally. Yet still I'm not particularly confident that I can cook from scratch. Which is why I'm all in favour of basic cooking skills being taught at school - not as an elective subject but for everyone. Because really, what better life skill can there be than being able to feed yourself?

Reason 4: And this is where I got caught in the act: Creating negative food associations. Call it the battle of the dinner table. For months, nay, years, we've been battling at dinner time. Cubling takes forever to eat, and only threats or promises of desert will make her finish her dinner. This is with food she likes and with food she doesn't. She's not a particularly fussy eater (apart from refusing to eat fruit), she just won't feed herself. We've tried it all. Or have we? I once read that the principle of feeding kids should be that the parent controls WHAT comes on the plate, and the child controls HOW MUCH they eat. On Call Kaye it was pointed out that children don't actually overeat on decent food, they only do so if sweat/fatty food is offered and also if the parents insist on the child finishing the plate. Oh I'm so guilty of the latter. I hate wasting food. I still have that growth chart worry from her breastfeeding days. The comment also firmly put me into Cubling's shoes: How did I feel when coerced into eating food? I had to finish my plate too, made to eat meat, and what good did it do? I'm an overweight, chocoholic vegetarian now! How did it happen that I just copied the food politics that I hated when I was a child?

By age 4 apparently, bad food habits are created. But we can change, can't we, after all, she's only just 4. So it's back to basics: I offer, she eats or leaves. All without coercion, with calm and fun. Hopefully we can still patch the bad start, and do it all so much better with Snowflake...

How about you? Is your dinner table a battlefield?
And what do you think is the best way to tackle rising levels of childhood obesity?

(Brownie Point if you spot the movie reference in the title ;) )

What's cooking? Courgettes!

One of the staple vegetables of my garden is the courgette. In previous years, I've had massive marrows from my courgette plants, and often didn't know how to use the plentiful harvest up without getting rather sick of eating courgettes. The problem with courgettes, especially when they grow to the size of a marrow, is that they have a high water content - which makes them unsuitable for freezing, so you kind of have to use them as you pick.

This year, my courgettes were pitiful, the size of gherkins if that. I had no problem using them up and hiding them amongst my general cooking. However, somehow I ended up this week with 3 courgettes from the supermarket plus a massive marrow-courgette grown by our neighbours in their allotment. I knew I had more than enough courgettes for this week's cooking, but could I say no to the offer of a home grown courgette? Surely not.

So it's courgette cooking time and I was determined to be a bit more creative this year. Thing is, cooking is not my greatest passion or skill (I wish it was, but let's be honest here) but somehow I felt motivated by being on maternity leave to put a bit more effort in providing home cooked and healthy meals. I'm also rather fed up with my stock of 10 quick recipes that I tend to draw on for cooking dinner after coming home from work.

I came across Maya Made's selection of courgette/zucchini recipes which gave me the idea that I could grate them. I know, that's a pretty basic thought, but not one that has ever occurred to me before. I then thought maybe I could make a courgette variation of Rhinish Reibekuchen (grated potato and onion cakes), looked up a recipe for that and started improvising. 15 minutes later and I had a yummy dinner on the plate which was gobbled up by hubby, Cubling and myself, which is quite an achievement (with one vegetarian, one carnivore cheese despiser and a toddler who is suspicious of anything green and red).

So I give you my own Zucchini Reibekuchen recipe:
(makes 6 - simply increase quantities for bigger families)
1 medium sized courgette, grated and drained (I drained just briefly, you can drain them for up to 20 minutes)
1 large potato, grated and drained
1 large onion, grated
4 large eggs
olive oil for frying
seasoning

mix grated and drained vegetables. Beat egg. Mix egg under the vegetables. Heat oil in frying pan and fry the mixture, pushing it slightly down to make it even. Fry until golden brown (3-5 mins), turn and fry on the other side.

You can season to taste and add other ingredients - but they taste good even without any seasoning. Cheese will go well with them, especially feta, you could add nuts or seeds, mint, sundried tomatoes - anything goes. Serve with a fresh salad.

I also asked my friends for more recipe ideas and here are some of their recommendations:

Chocolate Courgette Cake
Courgette Fritters (very simple and similar to my recipe, just with flour instead of all the eggs in my recipe)
Nigella's Courgette Fritters (a bit more adventurous and with both egg and flour)
Courgette Frittata
Courgette and Tomato Gratin (Delia)
And my friend S's idea to peel courgettes thinly with a potato peeler, fry with fresh garlic, add creme fraiche, season and pour over pasta.
Cookie Scotland (do check them out on Facebook!) contributed another professional recipe, much to my delight: Pasta, good olive oil, basil, lemon rind, courgettes, garlic, pecorino cheese. Slow cook finely chopped courgettes, with whole cloves of garlic with olive oil. Remove cloves.
That is your sauce, grate 1/2 of untreated lemon rind, tear some basil leaves, cook your pasta and mix with some pecorino cheese. Dress with a little more olive oil. 

And if you still have some courgettes - Maya made has some more ideas too.

Enjoy!