To ask for help in reducing the sugar intake of my child?

[Poppybella2015]

A bit of background, toddler is dairy free, hates water and gets constipated easily. This is her typical days diet, I think she eats too much sugar and I need ideas on how to reduce it!

Breakfast: full sugar blackcurrant high juice, wholemeal toast with dairy free spread and a teaspoon of jam
Snack; vanilla soya milk, banana, Apple, raisins
Lunch: ham sandwich on wholemeal bread with dairy free spread, cucumber, peppers, olives, innocent fruit tube, blackcurrant high juice
Snack: chocolate soya milk, rich tea biscuit
Dinner: sausage, mash, peas, satsuma, blackcurrant high juice

There's more calcium in green leafy veg btw than in milk. So if they will eat that you don't need to worry about lack of dairy so much. Things like spinach can be chopped small and mixed in bolgnese hidden if they aren't keen

I'd swap the blackcurrant for plain water if she'll accept it. if not, just gradually dilute it more and more over the next few months until it's half strength.

Replace biscuit and dried fruit snacks with rice cakes, cream crackers or water biscuits spread with a small amount of pate or peanut butter, Organics noughts and crosses, chunks of cucumber, baby corn, fingers of wholemeal toast.

Personally I am wary of artificial sweeteners. The big advantage of high juice cordials is that they have a high ratio of flavour to sweetness - so can be enjoyed very dilute. So as long as you dilute it well down it is probably a reasonable alternative to water in this setting. (Ready-made ribena boxes are shockingly sweet, so don't think the suggested dilutions on cordials are right, rather taste it and see then make it weaker. Children will to a fair extent drink what they are used to).

The soy milk choice is a tricky one. We still use sweetened soya with our 10 yr old because he really doesn't like unsweetened. I grew up on soy milk (on prescription till I was 12 when it started becoming available in the shops); I remember grumbling once when the formula was changed and my mother had no sympathy as she felt they'd merely reduced the sugar content ...

However, it seems plausible that "sweetened soya" may have less sugar than the additionally flavoured ones. Possibly experiment with mixing your own flavoured soya?

Good luck. (btw when mine were little I swore by pureed tinned prunes ... 1 or 2 spoonfuls with weetabix for breakfast ...)

what about very weakly flavoured ice cubes and add them to a cup of water with a straw. Might make it a bit more of a novelty, my toddler is obsessed with ice cubes. Or same for home made ice lollies - appreciate not ideal in this weather

Real orange juice (not from concentrate) will help with her constipation so you could try that watered down a lot - although still a lot of sugar if you cut the raisins, jam etc it would balance out.

claire I got a load of reusable pouches from Amazon, they were great, you could heat them up etc and then just wash and reuse

These were the ones I used

www.amazon.co.uk/KOKO-Baby-Pouches-Pre-Sterilised-Months/dp/B008USFXGU

Could you swap the jam for marmite on toast? Or mashed avocado? To be honest I think it's not too bad, although I'd avoid dried fruit and weaken the squash over time. Soups

With regards the milk you could also try colouring that. My 3yr old dd watches Charlie and Lola and they drink pink milk. I put a drop of red food colouring in and she guzzles the stuff, put uncoloured milk in front of her and she won't touch it.

Iced red bush tea & healthier/homemade cereal or oat bars? Cold chicken to snack on.

I used to give a syringe or so of puréed prunes as 'medicine' when my lo got constipated.

I think swapping to a savoury breakfast most days that is higher in protein and more filling, then you can cut back a bit on snacks. Diluting the drinks slowly so she gets used to the sweetness reducing gradually. Savoury snacks ideas could be simple things some cold meat, boiled eggs or little pieces of omelette. Dairy free soft cheese in a celery stick is fun or on an oatcake. Little kids often like simple things with not to many flavours mixed together.

We keep a lemon juice and a lime juice (like a jif lemon) in the table and the dc squirt a few drops in their water. They think it's great and I fill them up from bottles.

What about using unsweetened soya milk and adding nesquik powder instead buying the flavoured milk. That way you can gradually reduce the amount of nesquik you add to each drink and over time she should get used to a less sweet drink.

I never used squash, dilute fruit juice is much better.

Could you swap the raisins for chopped carrot? Still some sugar but much less than the raisins. I'm sure I've read that a handful of raisins has as much sugar as a bunch of grapes.

Why not just give a calcium supplement if that's what worries you?

The Osteocare liquid is nice, and hariborange do calcium rich chews which are acceptable to my v fussy cmpa 4yo twins

Raisins can dehydrate the gut I think, so not a good help for constipation or teeth as they stick like toffee. I'd try watering down prune juice instead of the sugary drinks, and I'd swap the biscuits for a rainbow array of carrot, red and yellow pepper, cucumber and celery all sliced into batons and arranged in a pretty fan on a plate. That oughta get her little guts moving along nicely.

Would your dad be happy to have home made flavoured water, ie water with a slice of lemon/orange/mint/whatever fruit she might like. It can give some nice flavour but wo the sugar.

Also have you tried to use a filter for the water?mi don't like water from the tap because of its flavour. It can be so chlorinated!

strawberries, raspberries and blackberries are good snacks and have less carbs/sugars than other fruits

try her with oat biscuits if you want a plain biscuit

I don't think that sounds a bad diet to be honest, and I can understand why she has the juice etc - and you know it's not ideal.

Have you tried her on dried apricots? Ds loves them (and prunes, the strange child) and we have to restrict how many in case of giving him loose poos! He's just started movicol treatment though so maybe we should let him go mad... Maybe less jam on the toast? Is it a teaspoon for one slice?

We weaned off high juice sugary squashes by going down the watering it down route. It didn't take the DCs long to accept that we have water most of the time.

We use oat milk. DS1 was dairy free and we both have tolerance issues with soya. The general taste is more pleasant. It might be worth comparing the sugar content of different brands of milks. Oatly do a good chocolate version which isn't too bad on sugars compared to other sweet drinks.

Number one for most chidlren in the UK is making them drink only water. It is the biggest thing we can do protect child health (once they are no longer breastfeeding)

All these fruit juices, dried fruit etc are sugar central. The breakfast for example could be eggs. She doesn't need bread, toast or any stuff like that.

I agree with the PP about colouring her milk, or alternatively use cocoa powder and honey to make your own as that's still way less sugar than in any processed milk flavour drink, and you can then be in charge of very slowly titrating down the amount of honey you use in it.

However your very best bet for the constipation with only a one off sugar hit is warmed prune juice. Literally what is says on the tin - prune juice in glass jug, microwave to desired temperature (obv do NOT microwave it in a plastic beaker or anything plasticy!), pour into drinking vessel and then drink!

I buy the bottled prune juice by the case via Amazon as it IS quality prune juice - as opposed to prune 'drink' which some of the supermarkets sell - and it works out pretty cheaply vs. buying it bottle by bottle.... is bloody delicious and has you uber regular within a couple of days

HTH.

I'm not surprised she gets constipated with all that wholemeal bread what on earth are you thinking ?

Wholemeal is to much fibre for a toddlers tummy. You are just clogging her up, poor little live.

Change to porridge, don't give her any squash, change to diluted fruit juice & change to 1 portion of bread & only white bread. When she's de-clog you could introduce 1/2 slice of 50/50 bread.

I didn't know children should eat white bread? I thought wholemeal is better?

Thank you for all the ideas everyone!

I'm going shopping tomorrow so will stock up on some new snacks etc