to let dd have chocolate every day?

[missmoopy]

dd is 5. She loves chocolate and would eat it all day if allowed!
She has healthy diet and is a healthy weight, and she is very active.
I let her have a chocolate treat every day. Am I a terrible human being?

I don't think yabu, but it might not be a bad idea to drop the odd day here and there so there's not so much of an expectation. I only say this cos my dd is just 6, has always eaten a healthy and varied diet & like you I felt that in the context of the rest of her diet a treat each day was fine. However she has started to get a bit chunky recently and trying to cut the treats out is v. hard as they have become such a habit.

If I dietician said it was OK then I don't know why you are asking us if YABU. I said "quite a chunk" rather than a "large chunk" of her diet. Meaning that she is only 5 and 70-100 calories out of her diet everyday of sugar is a chunk. If the dietician says go for it, go for it!

I agree MarineIguana, I think people do over react to chocolate. I also think there are some parents who feel they are better parents because they do not allow their children to eat anything other than lentils! Before I am flailed, I am not referring to any of posters here!

I don't think YABU. I think it's far more unreasonable to restrict certain foods and make them "treats" and only available at certain times, as I am convinced that makes them more attractive. I have struggled with my weight all my adult life, and now have two 4-year-old daughters. I try very very hard not to make food any kind of an "issue". We don't have "treats", we have meals and snacks. If the girls choose their own snack (sometimes they have free choice, sometimes they get to choose between 2 things, sometimes I just say what's available) they are no more likely to choose sweets or chocolates than an apple or grapes - it depends entirely what they feel like. If they wanted chocolate every time, they could have chocolate, assuming we had some in the cupboard. So far, I think their relationship with food is far healthier than mine - they are beautiful, active, of healthy weight, and, last time we went to the dentist (2 weeks ago) have "perfect" teeth

I don't think you're a terrible person, but I do think you are giving her excessive amounts of food that isn't good for her.

EvilTwins, my point exactly - but so much better written! We don't use treats as a description for any foods either.

hairytriangle, excessive amounts? have you read this? she has a small milky way OR a small bag of buttons!!
Are you seriously telling me that it is an excessive amount?

Perhaps we should all start refering to celery or apples as a treat. Could it work?

Worth a try Katey!

Well I don't see anything wrong with it. She's healthy. It is only a bit of chocolate. Fruit juice, lollipops and raisins damage teeth too. But I am very laissez-faire and wi probably be burned in mummy hell fir my sins.

In mitigation I will say:
My Dds do not get juice, fizzy pop, boiled sweets or ketchup very often. But mine are slim, healthy, active etc.

A friend of mine is very strict about sweets etc and very proud of this (son 7) . I met her husband in the cinema who had bought her son a huge bag of sweets and he drank a thing of coke, finished his dads and was then bought another half way through the film. DD (Aged 6) just had some water with her and wasnt offered any of the offending stuff and they sat together.

When this friend came round next I had some coke here which had been bought for 14 year old ds and his friends (house full of teenagers). DD asked for some and I gave her a little. Her ds went on to have a huge tantrum as he wanted some coke as well but his parents wouldnt let him. I think my friend was a bit peed off that I let my dd have some in front of her son.

I havent told my friend what her dh did (none of my business).

Milky bar and buttons are not actually chocolate though are they?

Get her something decent for goodness sake.

Morloth, its what she likes. she also likes 80% content chocolate but i refuse to be a food nazi. She is a child.

I don't let them have chocolate every day because of the potential damge to teeth.

mismoopy yes - it's every day!!!! That's a lot for a small child!

I am a chocolate nazi, everything under 64% is a sweet. I only go that low because of the munjabi orange bar that valrhona do.

You clearly don't think it is a problem so why do you care what we think?

I'm with the laid back brigade on this one - a few sweets/chocolate/ice cream as part of an overall balanced diet + regular activity + good dental routines is not a big deal.

and the child is only 5 years old!

Perhaps I grew up in a parallel universe to everyone else. We didn't have biscuits or cake in the house (only special occasions) and we had a chocolate bar or small bag of sweets once a week.

My step-daughter would be allowed (not at my house) two or three chocolate bars a day and ended up with a real food issue (ie: will eat no fruit and very limited veg) as she was allowed chocolate/crips/treats.

At my house, I would allow one per day (grudgingly) as long as she'd had some 'proper' food, because I knew I couldn't in one or two days a week, change what was allowed the rest of the time.

YANBU.

But..... you might ruin the magic of chocolate for DD. Treats remain special, magical, not only because of their deliciousness but also as a result of their scarcity.

This rule does not apply to red wine, BTW.

ohh this is the second thread where there has been fisty cuffs on AIBU tonight.

Full moon fever?

DD eats chocolate, sometimes several days in a row, sometimes not for a few days. We let her have it whenever we feel like it/are eating it ourselves and share a bit etc. She eats very healthily, cleans her teeth, sees the dentist regularly and has no teeth issues.

We will not be prescriptive in her upbringing to limit it to once/week/month etc or that she will eat it daily.

Do you know, I just don't think about it? Sometimes there are sweets sometime there is not. Same for ice cream/chocolate.

So proud it took my years to get to this point and DS1 seems so relaxed about it all. Success!

We always have cakes and biscuits around, the older kids help themselves but DD is not allowed to do that. None of the kids are overweight and none of them have fillings. 'Treats' are no big deal, they eat a good diet and are active. There is also fruit/fruit bars on offer too.

you not want to see dd and ds2 diet then they consume a large amount of calories ds2 is on 6000 a day and dd on 3500 and yes lot of that needs come from choclate and cake he would actually prefer fruit as a snack but not enough calorie content but i do get given the catbum face when people see him eating away and dd but ds is tall very thin , 5,11 and 6 stone but has chrons so in and out and dd is other way 117cm and 34lbs but is medical for calories

roundthebend4 I honestly didn't understand a word of that, and I've re-read it a couple of times?