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?

[Moche]

Jan49 - did your son ever ask (whine?) for chocolate - and were you just firm about saying 'no'? In other words: how did you do it!?
FWIW my son had zero sweet stuff (nothing whatsoever) until just before his second birthday (and even then just a crumb of cake) . Once he turned 2 the sweet opportunities (whether at others' houses or just in the supermarket) just started piling up and my resolve crumbled.
He's now three and a bit and would live of chocolate and sweets if I let him. And sometimes, hmm, actually quite often, I find chocolate gives me sweet relief (I mean, keeps him quiet). I know it's evil. I need feedback from Jan!

[Moche]

zero artificial processed sweet stuff I mean...

[IsleOfRight]

I did this for pfb. Dc2 however gets whatever is going.

[nocarsgo]

I really don't understand this modern attitude that sugar is up there with heroin on the list of "Things Not To Give A Baby".

[JenaiMorris]

Arf @ the lolly stick wand trick, slightlysoupstained

[wonkylegs]

I've never overly restricted sweets or sugary stuff. DS is now 5 and has anything but a sweet tooth. At the party we went to today, of his own volition avoided cakes and piled up the ham sandwiches & carrot sticks. His favourite food is proper cheese and fruit. He does eat sweets sometimes but doesn't really like cake and ice cream is really hated strange child, more for me though
Sweets/sweet things aren't bad as long as you can get a relatively balanced diet in them as well.

[froken]

I was the child not allowed sweets. I actually thought carrob was chocolate until I started school and my friends turned their noses up at my carrob birthday cake :( we were also given bits of wood to chew on, they tasted like anaseed.

It didn't work, I was obsessed with sweets as an older child/young adult.

I now have better control over my sweet, we hardly ever have them but I still want them often!

My ds is 9mo, I do let him have tastes of sweet things if other people want to give him a taste of something. We had told my dp's grandma about the concept of baby led weaning, we went over for dinner with some chopped up pepper and advocado for ds ( he was only 6.5 months old) she had made mini versions of all the dishes including a little mini panocota in a cappuccino cup for ds. I let him have a tiny taste.

I don't think a tiny bit of sugar occasionally is going to make any difference at all, I don't want to be the sort of mum who gets grumpy because grandma gave the dc an icecream.

[Jan49]

Jan49 - did your son ever ask (whine?) for chocolate - and were you just firm about saying 'no'? In other words: how did you do it!?

We simply gave him what we wanted him to have. He had no reason to whine for chocolate because he'd never had any and didn't know what it was. If he saw us (his parents) eating something, he'd want it too, so obviously we made sure we were not eating unsuitable foods in front of him.

I know it sounds a bit weird but it worked for us.

[dietcokeandwine]

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.

[MomentForLife]

YANBU because she's so young. Maybe when she's a bit bigger let her have a biscuit or something but nothing wrong with what you're doing.

My DD has a sweet tooth for stuff like biscuits but she's not fussed by sweets. I remember being allowed everything as a kid but Friday was designated sweet night. We were allowed fizzy pop at bdays, christmas, just not every week.

[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.

[LittleBearPad]

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

A little sugar here and there won't hurt.

[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]

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

[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?

[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

[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'' . .

[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.

[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

[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!

[heartshape]

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

[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

[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.

[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.

[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.