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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

to not want to feed my baby sugar?

60 replies

BabyLabyrinth · 28/02/2013 13:29

DD is nearly 10mo. She eats everything put in front of her (veg, fruit, bread, meat, dairy, eggs, etc.) and enjoys her food. But I have never given her biscuits, cake, fruit juice, squash, chocolate or other "treats", which is now being met with Hmm by seemingly all and sundry.

At lunch with my grandparents the other day, they raised an eyebrow when I stopped my father giving her a sugary, creamy dessert. With PIL, I was told I was being precious for not allowing her to have some of the apple and rum (!) cake. My next-door neighbour actually got cross with me yesterday when I told her I would prefer DD not to be given a biscuit, even though it had 30% less sugar in it. And my friends think it's weird I won't let DD have squash in her cup (she gets water or breastmilk ...).

I know sugar won't kill her. I know in small quantities it's perfectly ok as part of a balanced diet. I know that as she gets older I won't be able to stop her having sweets and stuff when out with friends or family. But I also know it's completely unnecessary, and until she's a bit older, I just don't want her to have it!

(Although I do bake things occasionally, we generally eat healthily: meals from scratch, no shop-bought cakes/biscuits, no fizzy drinks, etc. I try to eat very low-sugar because it helps keep my eczema under control.)

AIBU? Is this a PFB thing? For those of you who think I'm not being totally unreasonable please say there are some, what on earth do I say to my well-meaning relatives and friends?!

OP posts:
HeySoulSister · 28/02/2013 14:29

Look at all the sugar in fruit and bread tho....

HiggsBoson · 28/02/2013 14:31

3yo DD will only drink water and hates juice Confused

bbface · 28/02/2013 14:32

Yanbu and, as someone else sayes, you know it.

babiesinslingsgetcoveredinfood · 28/02/2013 14:33

Ok, soulsister so why give more? Also in terms of being addictive, refined sugar is the real problem.

I make my own bread so can eliminate refined sugar. I do, unless I'm making bread for bacon sarnies!

strawberrypenguin · 28/02/2013 14:37

YANBU it's your choice but personally I think a little bit doesn't hurt and can actually encourage a more more healthy relationship with sweets ie a few as part of a healthy diet rather than them ending up binging when they do get their hands on hen

strawberrypenguin · 28/02/2013 14:38

*them obviously!

ausgal · 28/02/2013 14:38

YANBU - my DS2 is the same age and the only sugar he's had is a mouthful of muffin he swooped in and gobbled up when I wasn't looking. DS 1, 2.7, is a different story, he has treats, probably too often.
At 10mths, I personally, don't think they need sugar.

GoldenGreen · 28/02/2013 14:42

yanbu - and as for the argument that they will "binge" on sugary foods later, you are still in control of what is offered to your child for a long time yet. You can think about relaxing restrictions later!

PenelopeChipShop · 28/02/2013 14:43

Definitely not unreasonable! My ds is 8 months but I have no plans at all to give him squash or chocolate/cake etc for quite a while. I don't get why people think this is odd when conversely there is so much advice to introduce veg and fruit a day at a time etc in case of allergies... Why be so careful about that and then give them a cake full of refined sugar and goodness knows what? Especially when they don't know any better anyway! Of course he will be allowed sugar eventually but at under a year they're still weaning! No need at all for anything nasty IMO.

Gingerbreadlatte · 28/02/2013 14:45

Yanbu. I did this with dd1 and got similar criticism. She didn't have sugary stuff and puddings especially at nursery until she noticed she wasn't getting the same as others.

She still won't take anything but water and milk. Which is a good thing at 4 IMO.

Wondering how it will go with my dd2 who is 4 months. Grin

countrykitten · 28/02/2013 14:48

Good for you. Other people have very skewed ideas about 'treats' and I share your outlook. Be prepared to be very unpopular at times and have people telling you that are 'mean' just because they fill themselves and their kids with crappy food.

countrykitten · 28/02/2013 14:49

And ignore the 'binge later' argument, I'd like to see the evidence!

MrsTerryPratchett · 28/02/2013 14:51

Nothing but water and milk here at 2 yo. She had no refined sugar at all until 1. I don't see the issue. At six months old she was made entirely by me, my pregnant, my BM. A tiny little deposit in the genetic bank from DH and quite a lot of sand and carpet fluff was all the other stuff in her. I didn't then want to fill her with squash, sugar and salt. She eats broccoli now so something worked.

Goldmandra · 28/02/2013 14:53

And ignore the 'binge later' argument

Absolutely! Children are not tempted to binge on foods if they have not been aware that the foods existed and were withheld in the first place.

I can see that older children who are never allowed treats which they see their peers enjoying might make the most of an opportunity to get their hands on them but not a baby or toddler who didn't about them.

VisualiseAHorse · 28/02/2013 14:54

A friend said 'doesn't your baby get bored of water?'. Um, no. He's 10 months, and never had anything else.

I lie - he does have cold herbal/fruit teas from the fridge sometimes. As wee treat. Obviously, I don't add sugar.

HeySoulSister · 28/02/2013 14:59

But isn't that the problem? Marking certain food/drink out as 'treat' items?

MrsTerryPratchett · 28/02/2013 14:59

A friend said 'doesn't your baby get bored of water?' Didn't you know that babies must be constantly entertained by their beverages? Shocking parenting. Grin

olivo · 28/02/2013 15:01

My DD is 6.5 and only has water or milk, there are plenty of her friends who don't have juice.

Re the bingeing though, I have seen my niece, who was not allowed sweets, biscuits etc go totally overboard at parties, play dates etc as she has known her mum isn't looking and monitoring. I agree when they small though, they don't need it.

Onlymydogunderstandsme · 28/02/2013 15:04

YANBU my DS is 8 mo and has the same diet as your DD. It annoys me that others don't respect the decision to leave out sugary things.

When DS was 6 mo and had been eating solids for a week I caught MIL stuffing chocolate cake in to his mouth after I explicitly said he couldn't have any, when I said something she then tried to stuff some more in until SIL stepped in and told her firmly that she wasn't respecting my wishes!

I think because adults see cake and sugary things as a treat they think babies should have them too but if they haven't had them they don't know what they are missing. My DS gets so excited at the sight of fruit that I would rather he ate that than processed sugary items (I'm aware fruit contains natural sugars).

FrenchJunebug · 28/02/2013 15:17

for me those food are for special occasions, not treats.

Posterofapombear · 28/02/2013 15:19

I waited until DD was 12 months old before she had chocolate and people were aghast! She only has sweets once a week and we get them from a big old fashioned sweet shop and its a massive treat/ event.

I don't want to ban it but I think that humans just don't need to shovel sugar like they do.

poozlepants · 28/02/2013 15:25

Your DD is 10 mo and it is entirely reasonable not to have any refined sugar at that age without being a zealot. We got to 18 months and then relaxed a bit (and then a bit more later on).

MoreSnowPlease · 28/02/2013 15:42

This reply has been withdrawn

Withdrawn at poster's request

Pandemoniaa · 28/02/2013 15:50

YANBU but there will come a point when it won't be unreasonable to allow the occasional sugary treat. I tried to keep ds1 away from refined sugar and squash until he was nearly 15 months old. I also had to ask well meaning relatives not to give him sweets because I couldn't see the need for him to have them all the while he didn't even know they existed. I wasn't being PFB, it just seemed to make commonsense. But as he got a little older, I also didn't want him to view biscuits and the occasional sweet as something so forbidden that he longed for them. As did the dd of a friend who was so restricted in her intake of sweets and biscuits that she was a nightmare every time she came round because she positively begged for them.

paperclips · 28/02/2013 15:53

Not unreasonable at all. 10 months old, she's just a baby, babies shouldn't be having squash! As for people giving babies tea, thats just wrong.

If you were still not allowing sugar at 10 years old I'd be a bit Hmm

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