Older teens and junk food

Absolutely nothing wrong with any of these things in moderation. If OP goes down this ridiculous forbidden fruit route then the younger ones will follow the older ones in terms of obesity and bingeing/sneaking junk when they’re old enough.

It's interesting that they only suddenly have issues with high blood pressure and need XXXXL clothing when the majority of comments disagreed with you.

I think it would be reasonable to have a rule that certain food items must not be brought into the house, for the sake of everyone's health.

I would suggest the list of banned items could be biscuits, cakes, ice-cream, sweets, crisps, cheap crappy milk chocolate (like Mars bars, Twix, Kitkat etc) and junk takeaways.

And the younger ones will end up the exact same if the OP continues with the same parenting style.

You should never make anything “the forbidden fruit.” Everything in moderation, food available in the house throughout their childhood, involving them in meal planning and shopping and making food a fun family activity. Instead, they’ve been controlled and food has become an issue of independence and rule breaking and defiance, and it’s become the desperately wanted forbidden thing so it’s exciting. It’s bad parenting.

You’re being unreasonable. Also, all that healthy stuff you mentioned turns to sugar in the body. All carbs do.

This is bizarre. Reading between the lines it seems that your older teens have been consuming so much junk for so long their BP is raised and they're over weight to the point of needing XXL/XXXL clothes? How has this gone on for so long?? It sounds like they have real issues with food.

Did you ever think that their binge eating is caused by the way you parented them? Making any “treat food” such a big no no and restricting them so much?

Your kid is obese, that’s not just some junk food. That’s their diet overall, including whatever you cook and portion size. And their attitude to treat food and junk food is a direct result of the way you raised them.

Your kids are going to think that you’re nuts, and you won’t have a great relationship with them once they get out from under your insane control.

Of course you can’t tell an adult how to spend their own money. That is bonkers. Do you actually take their likes/dislikes into account when cooking family meals? Ordering takeaway would be an absolute last resort for DD if there was absolutely nothing decent in the house - it’s expensive and she’d rather save her money for clothes/holidays/going out. Normally she comes shopping with me and we mutually plan meals for the week.

You’ve created a forbidden fruit environment OP. By restricting ‘junk’ of course the younger ones are desperate to get it. I’ve always had an everything in moderation attitude, chocolate, crisps etc are freely available in our house - as a result I have a 21yo who eats a healthy & balanced diet. She rarely touches junk and is conscious of UPFs, a packet of biscuits for example could lie in our cupboards for months.

In fairness, it wasn't obvious that there was more going on until the later posts.

There's clearly a lot more to this than some teenagers buying junk food from their part-time jobs.

What else is going on, OP? You might get some more helpful answers if people knew the backstory.

Why are they buying so much junk food? When me and DH started earning money, we would have a takeaway now and then but it wasn't a main focus of now earning.

I think this is a bigger issue than other commenters are acknowledging.

I’m with you OP ! It’s not fair on the small ones to be exposed to constant junk food.
Delicious family dinners every day and I’d say only one takeaway allowed per week in the house. Or less ! Your house your rules.

People will often listen to a doctor over their mum or a family member.

You could at least try, rather than not bothering at all.

If they are literally spending hundreds a month on takeaways then clearly this is a problem,

where are they getting the money from?

usually teens get pocket money and/or an allowance which is meant to cover phone/gym/clothes.

if they actually have a part time job then you should ask them to pay for clothes out of their own money.

if they are significantly overweight or you suspect an eating disorder (eg bulimia) then obviously that is different and you and they need to access support for that.

i do feel for you as my DD gained a load of weight at uni and mostly ate takeaways as far as I can tell but simply banning takeaways if they have the money for them won’t get you anywhere

Just seen your mention of BP- that is concerning in a teen and I'd be getting more involved, but that needs to be done as more support not confiscating their snacks.

There's a middle ground. My kids are both over 18 but still living at home and partially funded by us (as students). I don't tell them what to eat but I do encourage them to eat healthily. I also expect them not to fill up on snacks if I'm cooking a meal.

On MN, every teenager is completely independent from about 14 and doing their own cooking and laundry as well as making their own food choices. Meanwhile in the real world most people know that parenting doesn't have a hard stop- it's more gradual than that, as they adjust to more freedom and less support over time.

I also think that all those early years of healthy meals will have done their job- you've given them a baseline idea of what normal eating should be like- so a couple of years of Monster drinks and McDs will probably be all it is before they come back to eating normally.

This sounds like it’s a much bigger problem than teenagers buying a bit of junk food with their Saturday job money.

Are you saying that your older teenager(s) are clinically obese with high blood pressure and a food addiction?

If so, then I’d reach out to your GP for support.

The general consensus on here seems to be it's ok to let your DC have as much junk food as they want, so long as you are giving them healthy meals and they aren't overweight. Otherwise you risk them developing a terrible relationship with food, apparently. I really struggle with this so I hear you OP. My DC is 12 and if given say £5 will buy 3 share bags of Haribo and a can of fizz and consume the lot within one day. I don't see how that can be ok and I try very hard to limit it but that is not easy as they get older and have more freedom and a little bit of cash. It makes me sad that where in the past if hungry between meals they would go to the kitchen and come back with a couple of pieces of fruit and a yoghurt, now its just sweets all the way. I don't think confiscation is the answer but I don't know what is. I did go through a similar phase myself but not until I was late teens and I became quite overweight for a few years. I don't think this is uncommon at all - young people can easily burn all the extra calories but when they grow up that stops being the case. There is a reason so much of the population is overweight and expectations that it's ok to ea sweets and crisps every day set down in childhood can't possibly help. I know this won't be popular but it is what I believe and I wish there was an answer.

You haven't bothered to book them for an important follow up appointment because there's "no point"? I'm sorry, but that's not good enough.

You seem to be beating around the bush are they already overweight?

Anyway, I disagree with the majority here. I wouldn't have takeaways being eaten every night in my house. If they want to eat like that tell them they need to go out and do it because it's setting a really poor example for your younger children. Not to mention I couldn't sit there watching my children eat that way.