To not let DD taste sugary things until I have to?

[HopLittleFroggiesHopSkipJump]

DD is 13 months, and eats the same as me except anything unhealthy yummy is substituted with things like baby treats or fruit etc to distract her.

I just had a chocolate biscuit, and she's sat there munching away on sweetcorn hoops clueless to what she's missing out on, am I being a bit mean not even letting her taste things or does everyone else keep them oblivious to 'treats' as long as possible too?

[slightlysoupstained]

I saved chocolate for DS's first birthday party. Made a proper cake & everything. Was anticipating blissed out delight from him.

Ungrateful wee thing chucked it on the floor without even trying it! Arm straight out to the side, head turned away, nose in air, and drop. As if it was something particularly stinky and unpleasant instead of lovingly crafted food of the gods.

[Moche]

Wow, jan, I have no idea how you managed to get your child to 5 without knowing what chocolate is! In fact, I rarely eat chocolate - so ds isn't copying me. If he copied me he'd drink wheatgrass and eat quinoa (plus crisps & red wine ;). At 3 there are lots of parties & he mixes with a lot of children...

[HopLittleFroggiesHopSkipJump]

Maryann sweetcorn hoop contains corn, sunflower oil and thiamin(vit b1)

[2tiredtocare]

That sounds like my experience exactly

[loveandsmiles]

My first DC never got any sugary treats at all until she was about 5 and now, age 11 she would eat sweets and cake day and night if I let her. Second DC no sugary treats until he was about 3 and he is the same. Was much more relaxed with DC 3&4 and whilst they like a bit chocolate or cake, they can have just a bite or leave it for another day, they don't have to gorge as much as they can. DC 5 is just 7 months and so far has just had puréed fruit and veg but her older siblings are always trying to give her a lick of something

[2tiredtocare]

Well we dont do that!

[zatyaballerina]

yanbu, what's the point in giving them to a baby who doesn't know the supposed big deal about sugary crap? It has zero positive benefits. There'll be an entire future where you'll be fighting off junk food culture.

As for kids who can't 'moderate' themselves, some just can't, if you put it in front of them they'll gorge themselves into obesity, if you keep them away from crap they won't have the opportunity to destroy their health. It's very unfair to expect a young child to resist temptation or moderate addictive substances. Adults often can't do it, how the hell are they supposed to? Some children can grow up skinny in a sugar filled house and they'll be skinny in any environment because their brain doesn't have the same responses to food that most people have, all unnecessarily fat children (barring the very tiny minority with genuine medical disorders/illness or who are on medication) come from homes where they are given crap and allowed to fill up on as much of it as they like.

[ConfusedPixie]

YANBU! My 6yo charge calls yoghurt covered raisins and fruit "Chocolate fruit". Her mother is inclined to let her believe that and I'm happy to go along with it!

[2tiredtocare]

I have 2 DDs and the PfB who never got any 'treats' cant self moderate when around them now where as the 2nd one often leaves them unfinished, could be a coincidence though I dont know

[Jan49]

Jan that sounds admirable but what about when you were around other children? Did he not go to any play dates or parties? I agree with not eating what you don't want them to eat in terms of your own family setting but it must have been harder to control when out and about.

Well I'm talking about when he was under 5 so the times when he ate at other children's houses were with friends already known to us, so they knew we didn't give him chocolate etc. I don't think parties really started til he started school.

But also I found that by age 5 he understood why it wasn't good to have lots of sweet things so he knew to make sensible choices. I suppose part of it comes down to the child's personality and some kids would have wanted whatever other kids had. I don't suppose it would have worked for more than one child in a family but he's the only child. He's exactly the same now as an adult whereas I find it hard to resist chocolate and have no will power.

[Maryann1975]

As babies you can control their diet completely, but once they are preschoolers I have no idea why parents forbid certain foods. IME that leads to children craving what they can't have and then gorging on it when they get the chance. I try to teach the dc about a healthy diet and how sweets and chocolate can form part of that in small amounts. It's just about being sensible, not making things a complete no just because they aren't healthy.
Just out of interest, what is actually in a sweet corn hoop? I'm not convinced processed baby snacks are brilliant either.

[MrsMook]

I was never in a rush to let DS1 have sweet empty calories, but it was taken out of my hands by his allergies. He's nearly 3 and has never had chocolate - he would have otherwise. He had a cocoa Nakd bar today and said "chocolate". He points out "sweets" even though he rarely has them because few are suitable for him. He's begining to understand that some foods make him "poorly". It is hard when out in an environment of foods he can't eat, but some people seem to think it's a terrible thing that he can't eat sweet "treats". It was easier that he wasn't used to them before he had an exclusion diet, and he's more inclined to savoury foods anyway.

Had I have had a free choice in the matter, he would have had occasional treats from the age of 1.

[mumofweeboys]

Wait until you have more children, you nip to the toilet during dinner to come back and find your eldest letting your 6 month old lick his chocolate biscuit :o

Which he only got as a treat (bribe) of being good in church

[heartshape]

they all end up stuffing chocolate , energy drinks and mc donalds in the end , no matter what healthy start they had in life :)

[slightlysoupstained]

I wasn't allowed sweets as a small child and I didn't go into any sugar deprived rampages.

I did eat a mint once, offered to me by another child's dad. I was too polite to say no, so I took it, sucked it for a bit & then disposed of it. As soon as my mother picked me up, she asked "have you been eating sweeties?" She wasn't particularly bothered about it but I concluded that she must have some motherly superpower and be able to read my mind.

Wasn't till years later that I figured out she'd just smelt the mint on my breath!

[2tiredtocare]

Whilst I agree that sweets are not for babies I would say don't restrict too much as it always seems to be the children that aren't allowed any chocolate etc that go crazy on it when left to their own devices at parties etc but whilst your DD is so young YANBU

[Xmasbaby11]

YANBU, for now. DD is 21 mo and we just try to cut out/limit the processed food she has, sweet or savoury. Most food is homemade or bought toddler snacks, but she has things like adult cereal and yoghurt which all contain sugar. And she does have ice cream a couple of times a week, and if I order cake in a cafe, I always let her try some. She's not usually interested though.

There is a bit of a fear with our generation that as soon as our babies taste sugar, they will be hooked and demand nothing else, but as others have said, sugar is everywhere and they will need to get used to controlling their own urges. DD only eats when she is hungry though, IYSWIM, so I think she is regulating her own eating and will leave/ignore ice cream if not hungry.

[happydaze77]

One of MIL's doom and gloom stories: ''I knew someone who wouldn't let their kids have sweets - they ended up stealing others kids' sweets and chocolate a school'' . .

[minipie]

Processed sugar is actually really bad for you. Far far worse than fat. Not all sugars are equal in terms of how bad for you they are. Fruit sugar is a lot better than processed sugar. And breastmilk sugar is not bad at all - it's designed for us after all.

That said I don't think the odd sugary thing is going to do any harm - but it may be hard keep it to the odd occasion once they've had a taste.

OP, yanbu. I wasn't given sweets and chocolate growing up. I don't have a sweet tooth, in fact I don't like things that are very sweet (sticky toffee pudding tastes grim to me). It makes it much easier to stay thin! apart from the cheese addiction

[FredFredGeorge]

"The first couple of years are the only time you have total control of their diet, might as well make the most of it."

But surely the point of raising children is not to want to control them ever, but to raise them such that they control themselves? Why start down the path of believing they need to be controlled, rather than raised?

[LittleBearPad]

Baby sized cappuccino now that would be bad. Loving the baby sized pannacotta.

[LittleBearPad]

DD loves raisins but I don't kid myself they're that healthy especially after something I ready day said a smallpox has as much sugar as 100 grapes. Happily (or maybe not, probably just as bad) the raisin love is reducing in favour of satsumas.

[LittleBearPad]

Froken that was very sweet of her. Loving the baby sized cappuccino.

A little sugar here and there won't hurt.

[Madamecastafiore]

Cracks me up how so many parents think raisins are healthier than a small square of chocolate.

Raisins have more sugar in them and stuck like buggary to teeth!

I seriously think all these kids who are not allowed stuff when small will develop an unhealthy craving for 'bad' food.