In wondering why everything has so much sugar in it now?

[beebuzzer]

I have been trying to shop for all of us but I find it especially frustrating shopping for our little one (who is 13 months)because everything just seems to have so much sugar in it. Even a lot of baby biscuits and cereal bars. Otherwise it seems to be loads of salt.
I don't want her having fillings in her baby teeth. I only give her water to drink,but am wondering about breakfast and lunch. (Other than sandwiches ect) I just bought some cereal to try (we dont usually eat it) But is horribly sweet and covered in sugar.

Or am I just being a nittypicky mum?

yanbu!

Breakfast is easy, no sugar in porridge ready brek etc.
Snacks, well I used to buy them baby biscuits till I found out they have twice as much sugar as a digestive, which is what they have now.
I bake my own bread and biscuits and cakes, so I don't really care about whats in shop bought stuff so much as it balance out.

YANBU it's a pain. I don't ban sugary stuff altogether (counterproductive in the long run IMO, forbidden fruit etc) but I dont see why every friggin thing has so much crap in it. Not just sugar but sweeteners too.

I like the Organix range but it's bloomin pricy (even with the discount, DH works for boots)

YADNBU. Some supposedly healthy low fat/low salt baked beans have more sugar and therefore more calories than 'normal' baked beans. I guess your baby's not worrying about calories though. I do think too much sugar and sugar replacement products create a sweet tooth. IMO it's immoral to put excess sugar in baby foods.

I have bought the usual foods since DD2 was a baby, trying to avoid artificial sweeteners actually rather than sugar. We have simply made sure we brush her teeth regularly. her teeth have been praised by the dentist as 'perfect'. Sugar does not automatically ensure rubbish teeth; you just have to be sensible. :)

I think the amount of sugar has actually reduced.
TBH, by their very nature biscuits/ cereal bars ought to be sugary.

Just give her what you are having, except don't add sugar/salt.

A lot of products have taken fat out so that they can proclaim "low fat" and stuffed loads of sugar in instead, to make the product palatable.

That said, if you look at the "per 100g" bit on the labels it is easy to compare. Breakfast cereals porridge is obviously no additives, of the made up ones weetabix is about the least sugary. Be aware though that if eg you make some porridge and then sling in some raisins (yum) the sugar content will probably be pretty hefty.

It's just a matter of balance and awareness and varying diet and not buying too much ready made stuff and also not getting too hung up on it all. So straightforward really!

In general our diet has increasing sugar/salt in it because it is a cheap way to enhance the flavour of food. More profit for the manufacturer/retailer with less quality cheaper ingredients.

I hate to see small children drinking sugary drinks out of bottles while sat in their pushchairs.

Pure fresh squeezed/mashed fruit will surely not harm your child though.

The best way is to make your own. When my DD was a baby I used to make everything and before I seasoned I portioned up for her and froze.
It's quite easy to make old fashioned things like frozen fruit deserts too and jellies and portion for weeks in advance. That way you can add as much sugar as you need without extra for preservatives etc.

Thanks everyone, I don't know why but I thought I would get different responses. My mum made everything too when we were growing up -bread,cakes,jam - basically she didnt buy anything ready made, but I guess I just don't have the same enthusiasm as her. Maybe I should buy a bread mixer or something.
I am very proud of my teeth at 30 I have only ever had one tiny small filling! But back in my college days I worked as a dental nurse for a while and I always remember these young children still with their baby teeth having to have fillings etc - it was horrid.

I do always make dinner and often put some in the freezer for her for another day.
Maybe I should stop being so lazy and start making more of my own things. Afterall I don't work.

What amazes me is how much stuff has artificial sweetners in it, too. I hate that stuff.

I bake nearly everything - biscuits, cakes, bars, bread, etc.

When they were babies they often took Ready Brek that I stirred jam into (I make that as well). Or yoghurt (I make it) with jam in it.

Lots for breakfast! Scrambled egg cut into bits with toast spears, Ready Brek, any homemade bars or muffins, batch cook pancakes and whack them in a freezer, potato scones with raisins, even a banana thickie (handful of porridge oats blitzed with a banana, some yogurt and OJ if you need to loosen it up).

Go for it! If you make most of your own stuff, your DCs will be obv healthier for it with sparkly teeth and are far more likely to understand why and how they can feed themselves in later life - ie cooking well and eating well is normal and need not involve loads of prepacked, sugar-loaded crap!! (stuffing the cereals and biscuits out of sight)

Yes go for it.
I often cooked in the afternoon with my DD as an activity as it killed 2 birds with one stone. She could tell how to make simply things like mash potato and shepherds pie really early on about 26 months I think.
Nothing gourmet just simple cooking and biscuits too.
I also agree with others re sugar substitutes yuk!!

Yes go for it - you don't have to buy into the whole wholesome homebaked mummy idea to dish up pretty decent food for the DCs. Lots of simple stuff is fine. No point comparing to a different generation or your mum - you are not her - find your own way of doing things!

There is a section on MN with recipes for different age children if you take a look here. I do cook mostly from scratch but easy stuff - roasts & leftovers, one pot stew type things, sardines on toast, scrambled eggs, that sort of thing. It doesn't have to be complicated to be tasty and wholesome

I used to give DS shredded wheat mixed with natural yoghurt for breakfast.

Or French Toast.

We are a nation of sugar and sweetener addicts .

Thanks again. I think I need to try now because I need to lose weight myself (I put a lot on with my little one and have not been able to lose it since)More importantly I do want her growing up eating sensibly and I don't think kids should have to have choclate or crisps everyday. I think you have to lay the foundations as early as possible. I am sure it must have some effect on the way children act ad react too. ( I was going to put this in my OP but thought I might get slaughtered!) I just find it hard to see why some folks can't understand why children act in a certain way when they are given so much sugar and have little opportunity to use it up or get it out of their system (being the tv culture that we are...................ok shut up beebuzzer!

The thing that scares me is that a lot of products these days contain corn syrup, which is sweeter than traditional sugar. Also artifical sweeteners are sweeter than sugar.

So when people consume these products their pallettes become desensitised to "sweet" - things have to be much much sweeter to get the person's sweet taste centres activated.

This was illustrated really well the other day when DH made some muffins from a traditional cookery book. They were really nice, but they were hardly sweet at all, to my tastes. It just showed how much things have changed in what people want when they want something "sweet". Fizzy drinks, cakes and biscuits, sweeteners, and even fruit juice (something they didn't really have 50 years ago) have all acted to make everything sweeter and sweeter and sweeter in a sort of spiralling effect. Not good.

Sorry for the rant!

yanbu, no wonder we are getting fatter and fatter.

When I was a kid I definately didnt have sugar as much as now.

Thats really interesting ISNT well pointed out! so true.

No whoknows we only had sweets and chocolate on christmases,special occasions and birthdays or sometimes when we had been really good at school or something. And then it was only a little!

Just thought, my main gripe with things getting full of sugar is yoghurts. They are the classic thing where they have taken something really natural and delicious, taken the fat out ie made it unnatural, and then poured sugar into it so it's edible. Just so they can put "less than x% fat" on the label.

The ones I like are the yeo valley fruity favourite ones, they taste "proper" IYKWIM.

The one that really gets me is sugar in crisps - yes, I know they're junk food, but really!

We've had a crisps ban for sometime, but I tasted some the other day. Revolting. I'd become sensitive to the sugar again, so now it's easy to say no them, as they taste so vile.

And in bread grrrrrrrrr.

Oh yes I bought some prawns the other day from a different supermarket to my usual one, and they were gross, they tasted really salty and oddly sweet. i looked at the label and sure enough, added salt and sugar. Why? revolting.

I really like natural yoghurt actually, I often get fromage frais for my LO and again it is very sweet when actually proper fromage frais is not sweet at all.
Yes a lot of those crisps taste kind of sweet. :( ,be interesting to see how much sugar is in them.

Do your partners like sweet stuff though? Mine doesn't at all.

Mine has a shocking sweet tooth!