to be surprised at how many people give crisps to their young toddlers?

[lowrib]

I'm not a food fascist by any means, but when DS is so small (21 months) he can only eat what we give him. And too much salt is bad, right? So why would you want to give your toddler crisps? I don't get it! They have no nutritional value, and they're bad for you, right?

This week I saw my mate and her DS (21 months) and he was munching a whole bag of whotsits. And my mate yesterday gave her DS (16 months) a bag of those teddy bear crisps.

DS has had chocolate as an occasional treat when bought for him by relatives, and I let him have the crisp that was offered to him yesterday, to join in. I expect he'll have crisps at parties etc when he's a little older.

But why would you buy them regularly for such young children? I don't get it

YANBU

I wouldn't give junk food to my kids - I wouldn't even eat it myself.

Packet of Pom-Bears contains 0.3g salt.

Packet of Wotsits contains 0.4g salt.

Serving of Rice Krispies contains 0.6g salt (so twice as much at the Pom-Bears).

One slice of wholemeal bread contains 0.4g salt (so more than the Pom-Bears and the same as the Wotsits). And a slice of white bread contains 0.5g salt (so more than either bag of crisps).

Obviously I wouldn't treat either Wotsits or Pom-Bears as a staple food. But as an occasional thing to eat the salt content wouldn't bother me.

Low salt crisps are far better for a snack than things like raisins (pure sugar) or fruit. That is what our dentist says.

I love Pom Bears

I bake my own salt-free bread for the little ones for that very reason, Wilf.

Then I don't feel so bad when they have crud for tea.

I don't give salty crisps at all. DD is four and has only ever had Salt'n'Shake with the salt bag taken out or those Organix things on the odd occasion (but they are v expensive and the packets are huge and likely to go off before we finish them since she only gets a few at a time and not every day). I can see that it's not a huge quantity of salt in the grand scheme of things, it just feels wrong somehow. And I've never given her flavoured crisps but that's partly because I think they're disgusting myself.

I've just given my 9 month old a couple of those Organix crisps.

It kept her quiet while I got the shopping delivery in - lots of lovely stuff for making wholesome, home-made breakfast, lunches and dinners with.

Reading this, wotsits might be making an appearance on the next shop too!

Judge away....

SaltnShake crisps without the salt bag??? Yuck.

Horton, you are cruel!!!

my DD always has a few from my packet even though I don't give her a packet to herself. Nothing wrong with that in the context of balanced diet.

I am blessed sadly afflicted with low blood pressure, and so was instructed by my GP to eat a bag of salt and vinegar crisps daily. The hardship .

TSC - they must have fantastic teeth! Do they eat the whole cheeseboard, or just have an occasional gnaw?
:o

SixtyFootDoll, crisps are full of fat, with all sorts of artificial flavourings. Also remember the scare when they told us about the carcinogens in crisps due to the fact that they are cooked at such high temperatures. Not sure if they changed their view in the end, but I think there may be something in that.

If I had to choose between unhealthy crisps etc.
I would go for Pom-Bears.
They melt in the mouth, therefore minimising choking risks.
All things in moderation!

Yabu try having a fussy eater.My dd was a night mare to get her to eat anything.she wouldnt touch fruit veg or any dinners i made i couldnt force her and couldn't let her starve.she only like pasta and strawberries now so getting somewhere slowly

Haha, yes I am really cruel, but honestly she loves them!

My DD didn't eat crips until around age 3 as they weren't an option, and even then they were only the organix ones and about 3 or 4 at a time. She never asked or missed them and while she was an excellent fruit n veg eater i thought i would keep up with them as snacks as long as I could get away with it. Even at parties she prefered breadsticks and rice cakes. She is now 6 and has a whole bag of non organic ones accasionally but that's only been in the last year or so and the same goes for chocolate and biscuits.
She suffered from eczema from a very early age very badly and sugar just overheats the system as i found out when i was little and a sufferer too. Sugar is found in so many things it is unreal. You can't go through life not giving your child treats but holding off as long as possible is definately good as they don't know any different. gnawing on a carrot is great and you can have competitions on who can do the noisiest crunch etc. LO's (under 2) try lots of things especially bright colourful things so experiment. My DD thinks apricots are a treat as i have always said they were and mango for dessert too.

If that's the most shocking/confusing bit of parenting you've seen OP then you must live in a lovely area!

i used to buy my son 5p puffs (shows age there) but i didn't know any better, i dont think i would do it now

Yanbu. The occasional crisp is fine, but why set up bad food habits that they won't thank you for later?

this was the scare about crisps. The carcinogen acrylamide was found. I think I remember them saying at the time that crisps had the highest levels, due to the temperatures used in making them. I'm not sure if thuis advice still stands. It may have subsequently been overturned, I'm not sure.

news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/1949413.stm

DD is 16 months and a fussy eater. At nursery this week she has eaten half a banana and a handful of raisins each day. She is there for two meals and two snack times each day. We were out yesterday at a friends sons birthday party. She ate a banana and a pack of teddy bear crisps and some raisins. Yes, crips are not good but she doesn't eat for me or nursery. I was happy with the banana and raisins and if she wanted crisps and would eat them, I'm not going to stop her.

It's a complete myth in my opinion, to think that if you don't eat these things as a child, you won't as an adult. I was brought up eating a wholefood diet, no white sugar, home-made wholemeal bricks bread, no crisps, no bought yoghurt only home-made solidified stuff, lots of salads with shoots in it. I thank my mum for caring enough to give me good food as a child, but once I had my dinner money in my hand aged eleven, I just bought two chocolate bars and a packet of crisps for lunch for about five years of secondary school. And, I have developed a very sweet tooth over the years.

I now appear to eat pretty much the same as most of my friends who did eat frozen desserts, crisps with their packed white-bread sandwich lunches. I do serve up healthy food with lots of fruit and veggies with every meal, but mine also have a packet of crisps if on the run, and ice-creams/chocolate too. It's just not that simple (as my MN name might suggest!)

dd too has saltless salt&shake

ingredients: potatoes, oil

much less crap than many of the snacks marketed for kids, inc organic biscuits etc

yabu
how do you get them round the shops with out a packet of crisps to munch on?

"They have no nutritional value"

Why has nobody ever told me crisps contain no calories thus allowing me to eat as many as I want without guilt?

More seriously, seem to remember that a bag of crisps has more Vitamin C than an apple, or is that one of those urban myths?