Who gives a 16 month old chocolate every day?

I am following scientific and health service given guidance. Feeding my toddler food which is not out of a packet or jar, no added salt and sugar until she is older(not never obviously) and we soothe upsets with non food stuffs and celebrate achievements with toys not food. All were doing is following the advice given by professionals who actually know what they're talking about.

The fact that you think that is extreme is an example of how much society has normalised shit diets. The fact that 2/3 adults are obese and childhood obesity is the highest it's ever been really doesn't suggest the laissez-faire approach you think we should all adopt is working. Why aren't you questioning yourself and why you think you know better than scientists,. dieticians and doctors?

nhs guidance on salt:

Salt
There's no need to add salt to your child's food. Most foods already contain enough salt.
Too much salt can give your child a taste for salty foods and contribute to high blood pressure in later life.
Your whole family will benefit if you gradually reduce the amount of salt in your cooking. Try to limit the amount of salty foods your child has, and always check food labels.

I agree. We’ve always been in the middle on food, not demonising anything but eating lots of fruit and veg, home cooked meals etc. My kids are not fussy and eat a really wide range of things, loads of different fruit and veg and meats and fish, but they also like chocolate and cake! Anecdotal only but the two fussiest eaters in my 9 year old’s class have parents who are obsessed with UPFs, lack of sugar etc…. But their kids barely eat anything other than processed stuff anyway!

How old is your daughter? I think most toddlers will happily eat fruit!

Damage to their mental health, obviously.

What damage?!!

My children ate virtually no sweet or ultra processed foods - and never missed it as they were clearly very happy children - until they started school nursery class at 4. At which point, sadly, they discovered chicken nuggets, cheap pizza and ‘pudding’. Luckily they still ate the healthy foods until I cooked at home and, as adults, their diets are mostly very healthy, with little or no ‘sweet treats’.

Children, especially nursery age children, do not need pudding. Certainly not every day.

The NHS tells you not to give any food containing ADDED salt or sugar to children under the age of two.

16 - 18 month olds are under two and chocolate has shit loads of sugar in it. HTH.

Your attitude is massively unhealthy, which is to be expected from your upbringing but I do think you could stop thinking you have all the answers and start thinking about learning from people with healthy attitudes to food, rather than doing the opposite to someone with an unhealthy attitude, which is just as unhealthy but the other way.

It is all about balance, but we seem to have lost the ability to use common sense and work to simple bad and good.
There is a thread running at the moment about this very thing and someone has just posted to complain about treats at birthday parties. I mean, how intense do you have to ge to do this, and why is it considered a good thing?

Our nursery (Canada) has a morning snack which often includes a treat like granola bar, cheerios, biscuit or fruit yogurt but no more than 6 or 7g added sugar. From about age 2 my younger kid has probably had the same on non nursery days because that’s my limit. A maria or social tea biscuit with 5g of sugar for 2 and simple ingredients is fine with me. It gives me convenience, processed but not UPF. The fruit yogurts are more processed but some months we have those daily.

Sometimes the guidelines are so strict parents give up. If nothing you do is right, might as well do the easy thing

I have a really bad relationship with food. I was raised on junk food, if I was upset I was given sweets. If I did well at school we celebrated with cake. As an adult I'm overweight and have been since I was 10, I'm stuck in a constant cycle of weight watchers, slimming world. I cannot tolerate healthy food, I really try because I want to enjoy healthy food but the textures turn my stomach because I was never exposed to them as a child and I have the palette of a five year old. I keep trying but because I can't make myself like the food I can't stick to it. Id I'm sad- food, if I'm celebrating - food, special occasion - more food!!! I was anorexic for three years because I couldn't stand it anymore and I watched my mum diet for thirty years whilst still eating crap because she couldn't cook. After I got better it was straight back to junk food because it's all I can enjoy eating. I literally cannot have a healthy relationship with food. My mum did that to me.

I will not have it for my daughter. She was weaned on vegetables, snacks on fruit and berries. My mum thinks it's shocking she's never eaten a jar of baby food because that's all she fed me until I was 2. It shows. "Gosh I can't believe she eats all this variety of fresh fruit and vegetables! You would never eat that when you were a toddler!" Did you give it to me mum "no... Not until you were older and then you wouldn't eat it". No shit Sherlock!!! The "their kids just give them chicken nuggets" attitude is the unhealthy mind set that fucks them and their relationship with food for life. Not weaning them on vegetables and actually following the health guidance given by dieticians FFS.

The NHs doesn’t tell you not to eat salt or sugar. They ADVISE that parents don’t add them to a weaning babies food.

No they don’t get chocolate at nursery. They get a small serving of a homemade fruit based, low sugar pudding after lunch e.g. banana loaf slice or apple and blackberry crumble with custard. Which is a desert/cake so for the purposes of this discussion counts as a ‘treat’. I imagine that’s most kids of that age are actually consuming as opposed to eating sweets, chocolate or ice cream on the regular.

But what does ”treat” mean? At that age my toddlers would have had strawberry yoghurt, or a homemade muffin with virtually no sugar, or even stewed fruit, as a treat. So if I was asked that survey question I would have said “yes of course they get treats” but that would NOT have meant chocolate or crisps.

I eat a treat daily and so do my (older) kids. All healthy weights, as the rest of their diet is good. Balancing is the key plus appropriate portions.

It isn't "chocolate every day" though is it? It's a 'treat' every day. So that could be anything, like an oatie bar or mashed banana and yoghurt.

Depends what you call a treat tbh. One of mine would genuinely have chosen fruit over biscuits at that age.

@MyDogHumpsThings How old is your child?

Oh they sanctimony of those with toddlers who are absolutely convinced that banning treats means that (a) they are superior parents and (b) it is an insurance policy that their toddler will favour healthy foods forever.
Those of us with older children (like me) have learned that it basically doesn't matter what you do, your child will plough its own furrow when it comes to diet. I have three, 18-32, all weaned rhe same and fed the same in their early years and all have vastly different attitudes to healthy eating as adults.
In fact, I would go further and say by pushing a constant agenda of nothing unhealthy, you are creating a situation where your child will sell out the forbidden goodies when they are able. I have seen it so many times.

wow at nursery, I would not be happy with this!

It was sarcasm.

High levels of salt won't kill a weaning baby/toddler but their developing kidneys can't process it so it can lead to long-term health issues like high blood pressure, kidney problems, and it may create a preference for salty foods later in life.

Your attitude of "not sure why it's a problem as long as the portions are appropriate for small kids" showcases perfectly that this awful attitude to food is so ingrained in our culture parents don't think twice about feeding their kids shit the NHS literally tells them not to.

Oh yes sorry - I can see that now. That doesn't seem to tally with the 38% 2 - 4 times per week above. They can't both be right!

i honestly think this demonisation of sweet and yummy food is massively unhealthy.

Poor mental health and othroexia / eating disorders are a big problem for young people.

Associating such emotion with food under the guise of health contributes to this. It’s over the top and uninformed, and you’re starting it from birth. I would really urge you to think about the damage this does.

Let me have my win! 🥲

In seriousness, is it the only determinant - no. I do believe it is a contributing factor, though. I remember seeing my sister in law feeding her 1-year-old cake and the child didn’t want to eat anything else on that occasion. This seemed to be the way things went in their house. It is a highly fussy child now.

My child never had the opportunity to develop a preference for junk food over other food because it just wasn’t offered. There’s also research showing that tastes develop over repeated exposure, or the acceptance of new tastes. It stands to reason that if a caregiver feeds a child something nicer, they’ll want that and the child won’t have the opportunity to develop a liking for other flavours.

I don’t understand why someone would choose to feed a child junk food unless they had to, and the line for me was when they were exposed to these foods by others, because I didn’t want them to be the weird child who didn’t know what chocolate was!

Do you know how rare salt poisoning is?

that’s why babies don’t have salt poisoning in the uk.