Who gives a 16 month old chocolate every day?

It’s not pure chocolate though. Often homemade cakes and biscuits. I’d they’re just having pure fruit and veg, how do you fill them up?

homemade cakes and biscuits are at least healthier than processed. I know my nursery used to use carrot and beetroot in cakes.

they also have custard and yogurt too. Shock!

That’s funny. Mine was the same but she was about 2 months and apparently I was unreasonable as she ‘wanted a photo’.

I think weight is extremely complex and you can’t just focus on individual things. We have friends in Italy and they would give their children pastries for breakfast or Nutella on toast. I’ve seen adults eating ice cream at breakfast. None of them were overweight. But the overall quality of their diet is better and they are more active.

I did. ASD and ARFID dc. Food isn’t good or bad to us just units of energy (advice from the dietician to view it this way )

Done this since mine were babies. They got pudding on their dinner plate and it was never called unhealthy or demonised. I could leave a whole cake out for them and only 1 slice each would get touched lol. They are 6/7 now and barely ask for chocolate etc but if they do I allow them. They just know to eat it in moderation and that they've gotta brush their teeth extra if they have sugar, maybe it's why they don't ask for it much 😂

I don't have orthorexia. If I did I wouldn't be overweight and only find junk food enjoyable.

She will grow up with a balanced view, what she won't be doing is having chocolate cake or crisps before she is 2, because that is what will undermine a balanced diet.

That ridiculous! But there were new nursery/early years guidelines from this September that means they’re all supposed to be on the same page re healthy eating now. So hopefully the sweets from the co op as a school trip is now a thing of the past. And nurseries really should all be doing low sugar puddings now. DS was in the school nursery last year, currently in reception and his mid morning biscuit has gone and has been replaced with fruit.

Most yoghurts are UPF and sweetened with sugar or artificial sweetener so not that great

People in general absolutely shouldn’t be eating processed sugary food everyday. My two year old is offered cake most days but it’s home made and low sugar (using a bit of honey or some dates to sweeten) I always add fruit or veg to my cakes too. This week is pumpkin cake and it’s delicious, I’m happy for her to eat it everyday. I hope the nurseries are serving something like this rather than a processed shop bought “treat”.

I’m amazed that 34% consider it acceptable.

As others have said, it’s to do with interpretation. The study even points this out and how the data is inconsistent:

”Nearly half (49%) of caregivers said they gave their child a treat once a day. This appears to be inconsistent with responses to an earlier question where caregivers said 13% of children had ‘biscuits, sweets, chocolate or cakes’ every day, and 14% had ‘crisps and corn snacks’ every day. This may be due to:

• differences in the way these questions were asked in the survey
• limited answer options in the ‘treat’ question
• differences in the interpretation of ‘treats’ by caregivers”

Does it include biscuits - as that would have been toddler groups for mine - a small biscuit and a drink- though honestly the raisns that sure start centers favoured were not really better - and some or their other snacks were very heavy in salt.

It's all very well saying don't let your child have then but then your risk them becoming forbidden food - and that's often worse.

Rest of their diet that age wasn't treat laden at all and I was very hot on as salt free as possible even when it annoyed wider family. They're all teens/adults - and none are overweight and eat okay diets even when I'm not around to enforce that.

I am not really that shocked, given some of the behaviour I have seen. Ex-MIL was horrified and unreasonably offended when I refused to let her give my newborn (yes, you read that right, NEWBORN) chocolate.

@Bitzee Not all nurseries are equal. The first, which I pulled DS out of for other reasons, took him to the co-op and bought him the dessert of his choice every day. They were delighted they were combining an 'educational outing' with buying 'supplies'. I would think it was too ludicrous to be true if it hadn't actually happened to me.

MN is a funny place.

Anything about toddler and children's food that is not 100% "healthy" is met with screams of shock and horror (and in this context, even tomato are seen as unhealthy because of their sugar content, that's MN for you)

but anyone who is happy with a soup and a yogurt for lunch or diner is laughed at for being a "performance under-eater".

Some crisps along the lines of melty sticks, veggie straws or wafers are a daily occurrence for both my 3.5 year old and 11 month old and I don’t feel bad about it at all, it’s just food and a part of a much wider diet.

My youngest has never had chocolate, cake or ice cream and is unlikely to any time soon/before 2, that’s complicated by him being dairy and soy free. They’re probably weekly treats for his brother that have started over the last year or so and I don’t see a problem with that either.

We usually enjoy a treat together when we go out or a hot chocolate a film of a weekend.

I also don’t see Greek yoghurt/coconut yoghurt and fruit as treats, just regular healthy food and I’m surprised others do! (And no, my children don’t have a problem with their weight and neither do we!)

Plenty of children eat a wide range of vegetables and enjoy them. It’s actually not unusual.

If you have a child then you are of an age to take responsibility for your relationship with food and change it. It will be increasingly unhealthy for your child to have a parent with orthorexia and as the adult, you need to be the one to take responsibility for changing that perception so they grow up with a balance food view.

I think birth order has an impact though. My first had no sugar at all apart from naturally occurring until three. My youngest is 20 months and has been having a rich tea biscuit or similar 3/4 times a week when his brother has one after his bath. It’s very difficult with a younger sibling!

You’re not overreacting daily chocolate for a toddler sounds excessive. Occasional treats are fine, but under-2s really don’t need sugar every day, so your shock is completely understandable.

Correct - first and only. I can see how much more difficult it would be with more than one. I would have tried not to introduce junk food for as long as possible, but as you say, who knows how long it would last?

Once we did start to introduce sweets, it wasn’t often. Probably not even weekly. I reckon we would have lasted a while 🤷🏻‍♀️

Lots of things aren’t necessary but doesn’t make them harmful. I would agree if you are giving toddlers crap all day but I don’t think a little treat is so damaging if the majority of what they eat is good. I’m a big believer in each to their own but my issue is you come across as judgy and the post is designed to make others feel shitty.

You’re missing cake, which was included according to the gov survey linked upthread and that’s pretty significant because nurseries do not usually serve sweets, crisps or chocolate but will serve (low sugar homemade) cake and that will be skewing the data. Also lots of people make these things at home but technically they are cake so according to that survey would potentially count as a treat even if they’re a low/no sugar recipe. There’s a BIG distinction to doing a weekly batch of Annabel Karmel’s carrot and apple muffins and dishing out skittles at snack time IMO.

Having frequent treats doesnt mean they are having a generally unhealthy diet though - for some kids it does, sure, but you can have treats within a healthy diet.

My 3 and 1 year old probably have a 'treat' most days but also eat homemade rissoto/bolognase/fajitas/vegetable curries ect. I dont think e.g one little biscuit will override all the other healthy food they have

I get the concern, and I'm sure there are many kids that eat umbalanced diets, but I think its hard to judge on just that statistic

(Edited to add - mine definately don't have chocolate/crisps/icecream every day, I agree that really isn't good)

Ok, then agree that’s awful. For adults too, frankly, not just toddlers!

All I have done is present scientific evidence to you which you choose to ignore because you're going to give your kids cake and custard everyday because you think it's normal.

You don't seem to understand what a lot of people are saying, it's not just limited to me. Please do feel free to.stop insulting me and calling me weird. Declaring I have an eating disorder because I think you're feeding you kids crap is also shitty behaviour. Please feel free to move on and leave me alone. You jumped on me remember?

My eldest was weaned almost entirely on home cooked healthy meals, from the age of about 2.5 -5 he refused everything except cold baked beans then started eating eating a bit more of a variety but still not much. Only veg he would touch was peas. Now as an adult he eats everything.