Parents who fed their child ONLY oatmeal need their faces ripped off.

[Uncommon_Sense]

Fuckin’ Jerkoffs.

On Discovery Health the other day I saw a show which documented the case of a five or six year old child who was in for severe anemia (and some other related issues). The Docs are banging their heads together (their own heads, not those of the parents, although that would have been more appropriate) and finally sit down to ask the parents some questions;

Doc: So what does little Johnny eat?

Dad: Um, oatmeal…?..(in a such a tone that a person would use who isn’t sure if he’s giving the right answer or not)

Doc to Mom: And, what else?

Mom: Ahhh, just oatmeal. Yep that’s pretty much it.

Doc with look of shock: What? No juice? fruits? veggies?

Parents: Nope, he wont eat anything else, just oatmeal. He really likes it.

Words escape me at this point. I look over to the wife, who is feeding our kids cream of wheat, and ask, “How in the hell can these parents just feed the kid the same thing all the time?” “They should be shot!”
Then I thought that shooting them would likely get them out of having to deal with the lifelone repercussions, med bills, and emotional baggage of practically killing their only child by basically malnurishing the poor guy.
So, I decided that merely ripping their faces off would be enough punishment, I’m sure you would agree.

The Doctors were shown in a lab talking about the case and one of them mentioned that he had heard about cases like this but assumed since he worked in the good ol US of A that he would never ever see such a case.

In this day and age, who in the fuck is soooo stupid that they can’t figure out that you have to feed your child a variety of food to maintain a balanced nutrition level for your child? You don’t even have to figure it out, it’s been drilled into our heads since we were young. WTF?
Granted some children are fussy eaters of only like a few different kinds of foods, but for the love of Og man, just Oatmeal?
It’s criminal. The hospital should have called social services on the parents at that point and had them hauled the fuck away.

They could better serve the community by possibly raising the horses the the mounted patrols use.

PS, the wife was not feeding our children cream of wheat.

What think Ye.

[FlyingRamenMonster]

A baby here died of kwashiorkor a while ago because his parents fed him rice milk instead of people milk. The doctor didn’t realise what was going on at first because nobody expects fucking kwashiorkor in a developed country.

Some people are just that dense.

[kaylasdad99]

If I’d been raised by two people whose faces were bloody grinning skulls, the trauma might leave me with a somewhat…twisted idea about what constitutes normality.

I mean, more twisted than it is now, of course.

[lissener]

I love parents who turn over all the decision making authority to their kids. They feed their pets better. Hell, the kid would be healthier if he’d eaten nothing but dogfood all his life; at least he’d have gotten as balanced a nutritional diet as your average dog.

[An_Arky]

OK, I’ll risk being burned at the stake and say hey, at least it was oatmeal, not Cheetos.

Sure these parents were total asshats, but you never can be too sure. My middle son, who’s almost 5, pretty much refuses to eat anything except sweets, despite our continuing best efforts to diversify his diet. Except for the occaisional cold, he is never sick; he’s above average in height/weight/head size, and can put together advanced Snap Circuit experiments as well as add double digit numbers in his head. He is a bit pale, though.

[Fir_na_tine]

@An Arky

OK, I’ll risk being burned at the stake and say hey, at least it was oatmeal, not Cheetos.

My son, who’s almost 5, pretty much refuses to eat anything except sweets, despite our continuing best efforts to diversify his diet… snip … He is a bit pale, though.

I wouldn’t burn you at the stake, but unless your almost 5 year old son buys the damn groceries you can solve this problem by not buying any damn sweets! Sure he’s large - he’s stuffed full of sugar. How’s his bone density? Will his bone structure be able to support his massive head with rickets?

Lay out some well balanced meals, give him a choice of this or that and when he’s hungry enough he’ll eat.

[Marienee]

@Uncommon Sense

In this day and age, who in the fuck is soooo stupid that they can’t figure out that you have to feed your child a variety of food to maintain a balanced nutrition level for your child?

Well, me I guess. Eldest dealt with his control issues by controlling his diet. Though he was never down to one food, he was at one point down to fewer than ten. And from birth to this day, he will not consume any dairy product.

What I actually want to know is, have they never heard of vitamins?

[Bricker]

@Fir na tine

Lay out some well balanced meals, give him a choice of this or that and when he’s hungry enough he’ll eat.

Fortunately, Bricker Jr’s list of foods he’ll eat is, while small, enough to give him a balanced diet.

BUT.

When we went to the DR for my FIL’s funeral, he was suddenly cut off from his favorites. We decided to use this as a chance to get him to eat some variety.

He refused.

OK, we said. When you’re hungry enough, you’ll eat. We gave him nutrious offers of a variety of things at every meal. He didn’t scream, or yell, but he refused to eat.

For three days. Until he nearly fainted from hunger.

At which point I was unwilling to continue the experiment. I drove to the supermarket and bought him his familiar chicken nuggets, broccoli, and orange juice, which he consumed like a starving man.

I should add that this is the kid who, during potty training, did not poop for a week because he wanted to poop in his diaper and nowhere else. We were afraid of an impacted bowel.

This kid has willpower.

[John_Corrado]

@Bricker

This kid has willpower.

In the sense that Howard Hughes had germ issues.

[An_Arky]

@Fir na tine

I wouldn’t burn you at the stake, but unless your almost 5 year old son buys the damn groceries you can solve this problem by not buying any damn sweets! Sure he’s large - he’s stuffed full of sugar. How’s his bone density? Will his bone structure be able to support his massive head with rickets?

Lay out some well balanced meals, give him a choice of this or that and when he’s hungry enough he’ll eat.

That’s what we do for the most part; sorry about the bit of hyperbole…he eats things like cheese, yogurt, fruit and whole grain cereal without too much protest, but he’d rather just eat sweets (like most kids, probably). He is getting better since he developed an interest in the human body; through that he learned about nutrition and the food groups, etc.

[Caridwen]

@An Arky

OK, I’ll risk being burned at the stake and say hey, at least it was oatmeal, not Cheetos.

Sure these parents were total asshats, but you never can be too sure. My middle son, who’s almost 5, pretty much refuses to eat anything except sweets, despite our continuing best efforts to diversify his diet. Except for the occaisional cold, he is never sick; he’s above average in height/weight/head size, and can put together advanced Snap Circuit experiments as well as add double digit numbers in his head. He is a bit pale, though.

Be honest, what 5 year old wouldn’t prefer to eat just sweets if they were in charge of making food decisions? You have to know how wrong this is healthwise as well as long term parenting problems. I’m not going to burn you at the stake, I know how hard it is to deal with kids and food. Sometimes they just wear you out and it’s easier to give in. But you have to know your not doing him any favors in the long run.

I have a friend like the person in the article. They fed their daughter nothing but white rice because that’s what she liked.

[An_Arky]

@Bricker

Fortunately, Bricker Jr’s list of foods he’ll eat is, while small, enough to give him a balanced diet.

BUT.

When we went to the DR for my FIL’s funeral, he was suddenly cut off from his favorites. We decided to use this as a chance to get him to eat some variety.

He refused.

OK, we said. When you’re hungry enough, you’ll eat. We gave him nutrious offers of a variety of things at every meal. He didn’t scream, or yell, but he refused to eat.

For three days. Until he nearly fainted from hunger.

At which point I was unwilling to continue the experiment. I drove to the supermarket and bought him his familiar chicken nuggets, broccoli, and orange juice, which he consumed like a starving man.

I should add that this is the kid who, during potty training, did not poop for a week because he wanted to poop in his diaper and nowhere else. We were afraid of an impacted bowel.

This kid has willpower.

Dang! Were our sons separated at birth or something?

Some kids (like our little guys) have total balls-of-steel willpower practically unseen in adults.

We’ve of course had talks with his pediatrician about it, and he offered the usual “he’ll eat the right foods when he’s hungry enough” advice. All I can say is I pity the fool who has to sit across the negotiating table from him when he grows up!

[Diogenes_the_Cynic]

It’s a daily. epic battle to get my six year old to eat anything but macaroni and cheese. Like Bricker said, starving her doesn’t work. There are a few other things she’ll eat (broccoli, pizza, spaghetti) but it’s difficult to get her to eat really healthy things. She doesn’t much like meat either except for chicken nuggets and an occasional cheeseburger (which she’ll only eat from Macdonalds).

We can’t force feed her, so the best we can do is buy her the organic mac and cheese. We tried fooling her with Boca chicken nuggets but she’s too smart for that.

[kaylasdad99]

Eeeww. Dio, I USED to think you had a sense of decency.

[Anaamika]

I am another child that flat out refused to eat anything except for what I wanted to. I would run from food. I know exactly why; I went from spicy delicious Indian foods in India until I was four to my [adoptive] mother’s very bland cooking - or American food. I starved, too, the few times they dared to put it to the test. At one point my parents out of desperation were packing nothing but snack food and junk food in my lunchbox so I would eat something. And I was skinny as a rail, with ribs showing - they just couldn’t solve it. I just sort of grew out of the phase.

[Caridwen]

@Diogenes the Cynic

It’s a daily. epic battle to get my six year old to eat anything but macaroni and cheese. Like Bricker said, starving her doesn’t work. There are a few other things she’ll eat (broccoli, pizza, spaghetti) but it’s difficult to get her to eat really healthy things. She doesn’t much like meat either except for chicken nuggets and an occasional cheeseburger (which she’ll only eat from Macdonalds).

We can’t force feed her, so the best we can do is buy her the organic mac and cheese. We tried fooling her with Boca chicken nuggets but she’s too smart for that.

She’ll grow out of it. That’s not the worst diet in the world. I took An Arky’s sugar comment to mean candy, and maybe that’s not what she meant.

I pretty much grew up on a diet of peanut butter, and ate it every single day until probably H.S. I had a lot of food issues and eventually developted an eating disorder. I don’t know if it was related to the weird food thing I had or not.

[Count_Blucher]

"You kids will eat your Mush and like it too! Maaaaaa…!!!"

[kaylasdad99]

“If you don’t eat your meat, you can’t have any pudding!
How can you have any pudding if you don’t eat your meat?”

[DrDeth]

@Bricker

At which point I was unwilling to continue the experiment. I drove to the supermarket and bought him his familiar chicken nuggets, broccoli, and orange juice, which he consumed like a starving man.
.

“chicken nuggets, broccoli, and orange juice”- damn, that’s almost a balanced diet. You are feeding him a kids multi-vit, also, right? If you get OJ with calcium, you could do worse.

Not enough fiber, though. Hmm, is there an OJ with calcium and pulp? Would he drink it?

If a kid was eating oatmeal with milk, fruits and all that, he’d be Ok for a while.

DtC- Kraft now makes a whole wheat Mac & Cheese. Try that. I used to live on the “blue box” when I was young- still like the stuff. You could do worse, that diet is close to being balanced- many kids eat far worse. So don’t beat yourself up.

Parents- kids multi-vits come in a large variety of flavors and types- not only the “Flintstones chewables” we were used to, but also Gummi vites and even gumballs. I am not pushing vitamins mind you- if you eat a balanced diet you likely don’t need 'em. But these kids don’t eat a balanced diet- few kids do eat a balanced diet. So a kids vite is often a good idea. Watch the Iron!

Consult your Pediatrician also, please!

[Sweet_Mercury]

@Bricker

Fortunately, Bricker Jr’s list of foods he’ll eat is, while small, enough to give him a balanced diet.

BUT.

When we went to the DR for my FIL’s funeral, he was suddenly cut off from his favorites. We decided to use this as a chance to get him to eat some variety.

He refused.

OK, we said. When you’re hungry enough, you’ll eat. We gave him nutrious offers of a variety of things at every meal. He didn’t scream, or yell, but he refused to eat.

For three days. Until he nearly fainted from hunger.

At which point I was unwilling to continue the experiment. I drove to the supermarket and bought him his familiar chicken nuggets, broccoli, and orange juice, which he consumed like a starving man.

I should add that this is the kid who, during potty training, did not poop for a week because he wanted to poop in his diaper and nowhere else. We were afraid of an impacted bowel.

This kid has willpower.

Hmmm, when I was young my parents’ tests of my willpower would only go so far. At some point of not eating and running away, I would have eventually gotten spanked.