a friend of mine was talking to me about what her one year old was eating, and she told me she buys the 0.99 tv dinners for her to eat at night. do ya'll think that's a bad idea to feed them that. it seems like it would be a balenced meal w/ veggies and everything but it kinda seems unhealthy. tell me what ya'll think

You can buy some pretty decent TV dinners these days, so I guess it depend on what kind. The ones that have mechanically deboned, cubed, meat "parts" with a lot of perservatives might not be so good.

I dunno, it depends.

I don't think the ones that they sell for .99 are all that nutrious but I could be wrong. I don't think I'd try it with me kid but I'm extremely picky about what he eats. I try to balance fruits and vegetables and protien sources properly. I don't allow sweets that often either. I guess there could be worse things than tv dinners to feed them though.

Something like that occassionally seems fine, but if it is her main source of food, then that seems bad to me. I wouldn't feel comfortable with my baby eating that stuff all the time. But then again, it's amazing to me what children can thrive on. My 4.5 year old autistic son is an extremely picky eater. (though he's been doing great for the past week!) He eats only cereal, junk food, frozen food, more junk and the occassional sandwich, burger or chicken. I took him to the dr to have blood work done because I was so scared he was deficiant in something or had an imbalance somewhere because of his poor eating and he is in perfect health. The ped. said he's obviously taking in eveything he needs. I give him a multivitamin daily and I always try so hard to get him to eat good food. So, I guess it's a toss up, but I really don't like the sound of that if it's the only thing the baby is eating. Like the PP said, the .99 meals aren't that healthy. Take care!

Brandy

Items like those 99 cent meals are loss leaders for the store, so forming an opinion based on the price isn't all you should do. Look at the ingredients. As parents, we should know how to read a food label and be able to make informed decisions about purchasing it or not. If the first several ingredients are corn syrup, hydrogentated anything, sugar, or enriched anything, then pass on it or only serve occassionally.

I also agree with the other poster about meat "parts" and processing.

Also look at the sodium and sugar percentages. If that one meal contains close to 100% of their daily allowance of salt and sugar, that's too high.

Trust me, my kids get probably more than their fare share of not so great for them foods, but I do my best to pass on these types of ingredients as well as high sugar and/or salt content.

I couldn't eat them every night and I feed my children better than I feed myself.

I watched this show on You the Owners Manual on Discovery health from Dr. Mehmet Oz... and it listed 5 ingredients that should not be in the top 5 on the ingredients chart for food. any of the following in the top 5.... sugar, salt, partially hydrogenated oil, enriched anything mostly flour etc., and gosh I can't remember the 5th thing.... anyway- I am going to try to switch my diet over to that - and also - "try" to do that for my daughter when she is ready to eat...

i should imagine it is cheap processed food full of sugar and fat if she doesn't have time to prepare food herself at least the jars or vegetables done fresh like she probably does for her own meals would be good. too much salt can kill a child.

When DS turned 6 months old, his doctor told us to skip baby food and feed him pretty much what we were eating. DS has cystic fibrosis and needs more salt and fat than normal people. Well, with all the stuff we're doing, plus both of us work full time, it's hard to fix a hot meal every night. So I ended up purchasing several tv dinners and grinding those up in the baby food grinder. Tuna casserole, pasta dishes, chicken -- these were higher end, healthier dinners -- not really the cheap ones, except for mac and cheese once in a while. He still got formula, yogurt, baby food fruits...

I am a stay at home mom and still sometimes bust out with the frozen dinners. I have a 4 and 7 year old and a 7 month old. I also watch another 4 year old and a 17 month old 3 days a week. I think its just all balance. My son went through a phase where all he would eat is chicken nuggets and pizza. Talk about driving me crazy. Ok maybe it was a little more than just 2 things but that what it felt like. Trust me you cannot force feed a child, but there are sneaky ways to get in their veggies and you can give them vitamins. The way I see it frozen dinners are just as bad as fast food and I'm sure the majority of us have been guilty of picking up a happy meal or ordering a pizza insted of cooking a well balanced dinner :) !

There is probably more nutrition for the poor kid if it ate the box instead. Most tv dinners have TWICE the RDA of sodium for ADULTS! Imagine what that poor one year old is getting. No, it's not good.

I just have to agree with most of the posters about reading the label. That being said there are some that I probably would give Ds in small amounts although not as a staple in his diet. Aside from fat and sodium, most of them are crappy as far as any vitamins are concerned. One thing though, don't assume the cheap ones are any worse than the more expensive ones. Dh has some cheapies in the freezer that he takes for lunch sometimes. They cost us about a buck each. I looked at his, and really they aren't that bad. More sodium than baby food obviously but not much worse than alot of other foods. I compared them to an expensive one we had that was mostly veggies with a little sauce. You'd think his would be worse huh? Nope. The expensive one actually had quite a bit more sodium than his cheap ones. It's a good thing to get into label reading anyway. It's surprising how many foods you'd think would be good for you actually are not so great. Oh and the daily percentages on things are most likely written for adults, not babies.

I have to go with pittbulllover on this one...This issue is a bit of a personal one for me, since a relative of mine just had her daughter diagnosed with severe obesity and now she is on a strict diet... I can't see how eating TV dinners is a good thing. You have no idea what is really going into those things...The perservatives are not good to comsume in high amounts. With the high obesity rate in the US, I think we as mothers should really step in and change what our kids eat. I mean, years ago when we didn't have options what to eat, when my family was poor, I ate what my mom gave me. If I didn't want it, I didn't eat that day....and trust me, one day of not eating a meal is not going to hurt a child. You can't always cater to them as if they are in charge. I think there are healthier solutions out there, and TV dinners are not it....plus it makes the child think that eating that way IS healthy. It isn't! My stepdaughters eat what we make for them...now we make adjustments, because the one does not eat beef, the other hates chicken...that is no big deal, plus they are old enough to decide how to eat on their own. But we try to have veggies, protein and fruit at every meal. Precanned stuff, like applesauce, or canned veggies are easy to pop in the microwave. Even adding yummy stuff like cheese, or margarine to asparagus or brussel sprouts can make them more appealing. I mean, I am a working mom too...but there are things we can do :D Go on the food network...there are a TON of cool ideas there. I am hoping my baby loves veggies as much as his mommy does, but if he doesn't I will have to work hard to see that he gets what he needs. He's my son....why woudn't I?

And believe me, there are times where I throw in a pizza and we pig out on ice cream. There were days we all had cereal for lunch because we were all lazy that day. Once in a while is ok....heck, twice a week isn't too bad. But every day? No. I'm sorry, but we gotta be real here...childhood diabetes is an issue as well..I'm not trying to say that it's easy, but we have to make an effort :)

Ok I'm off my soap box :p I'm sorry if I offended anyone :(

there are kids in this world who manage to live off of one bowl of rice a day. im not saying thats good, i know they're malnourished, but im just saying that a frozen dinner can't be that bad, assuming the child gets some other decent foods throughout the day. my ds will only eat chicken nuggets and fish sticks no matter how much healthy food i try to give him. so he eats his nuggets and takes a flintstone and he's perfectly healthy.