To think under 5s should not have Diet Coke.

[MagicMary1]

I just think when parents give their children Diet Coke. They must have a lack of understanding regarding the awful ingredients like aspartame. Or they don't care.

I'm sorry who honestly thinks Diet Coke is healthier than fat coke.

I try and avoid cola and soft drinks for my children, but when they have them I make sure they have the sugar ones as I'd rather them have a bit of sugar then cancer causing chemicals.

I'm not even a food snob. I just hate diet drinks let alone dc having them.

[MistressMerryWeather]

DS1 got a bunch of those little 150ml tins of Dr Pepper as a treat for over the Christmas holidays.

3 yo DS2 must have gotten hold of one that was left open on Christmas day and we found him under the table drinking it.

I swear to God, it was like the last drink he was ever going to get. I have never seen someone try to down juice so quickly once he was caught, it ended up coming out of his nose.

We let him finish it (evil aspartame and all) for fear of him drowning. He was very pleased with himself once he knew he was allowed it and made it last all day.

Children are strange.

[Shurelyshomemistake]

A top OP. Patronising, scientifically illiterate, and clickbait-y in one fell swoop. My, you have the measure of the mumsnet crowd don't you?!?

[ChocoChou]

I know someone who gives their 4yo DS fizzy drinks all day. Every day. No exaggeration to say 4/5 cans a day. Also will give a twirl/twix/wispa if he doesn't want to eat a "normal" breakfast.
He is very hyper and yes, I judge.

[anothermalteserplease]

My kids will have the odd sip of fizzy juice including Diet Coke. I remember getting a look of absolute scorn from another mother when she saw my 4 year old sipping on my San Pelligrino. She properly stopped to look at my daughter, gave me the dirtiest look ever and walked on. I just smiled at her knowing my 4 year old is also the child who will ask me for a bowl of spinach as a snack and who insisted on leaving santa a healthy snack. Everything in moderation is my philosophy including fake sugars.

[ILoveDolly]

IMO fizzy drinks are not suitable for the under 5s. They don't have any nutritional benefits but plenty of bad qualities. I let my older children have a lemonade etc on special occasions and I expect when they are teens they'll drink coke if they like it. But it's just ROT for babies.

[formerbabe]

My dc are 6 and 8. I don't allow them fizzy drinks of any sort. They have milk, water or juice if we are eating out. I'm really strict about it but strangely easy going when it comes to food... I'm very chilled about sweet/chocolate consumption.

[Katy07]

I wouldn't give a child fizzy drinks or sugar-laden fruit drinks on a regular basis because they rot your teeth (I speak from experience!) but as an occasional drink I don't see the problem.
(But agree with PP that with some kids, especially ASD, anything you can get down them is fantastic)

[Shurelyshomemistake]

If someone is feeding their kids 5 cans of pop per day and twix on toast for breakfast there are probably wider issues at play, I'd guess. Food likely to be the least of the child's worries ...

[Everstrong]

YABVVVU

I'm one of those crap mothers who gives their 4 year old fizzy juice-Coke, Fanta, whatever had most sugar really.

Cause y'know, when she's having a hypo in public I'd rather be judged for my crappy diet choices than let her lose consciousness. Diabetes is such fun.

Fizzy juice or 100% fruit juice is the easiest thing for me to get in to her when she's hypo. Liquids also work faster and bring her out of the hypo quicker so feel free to judge away, she's generally also quite challenging whilst she's having a hypo so you can also berate my inability to control my child too!

[Kitkatandcake]

Anyone else now ridiculously thirsty after rtft?

[EstelleRoberts]

I really don't see the problem in under 5s having the occasional Coke or Diet Coke.

A healthy diet is a balanced one. A child really will not get instant cancer/obesity/tooth rot/whatever from the occasional treat, provided that their regular diet is healthy and varied. Just what are people worried about? Yes, it is a nutritional desert, but so what? What harm will it do if it is the odd one? Yes, it is sugary/aspartamey, but so what? What harm will it do if it's the odd one?

We do of course need to take care of our children's bodies and health, but we also need to take care of their psychological health. Modelling a black and white attitude towards 'good' food and 'bad' food, and never unclenching to relax enough to have a treat, is not a healthy attitude. Displaying perfectionist approaches to food such that meals and drinks have to be perfectly healthy and nutritious at all times is as bad for children as modelling other forms of perfectionism. Plus, those controlling their DC's intake of 'bad' food to the nth degree of perfection run the risk of their child growing into the one who cannot control their own intake of 'treats' once this is in their control.

Lighten up, people!

[GilMartin]

Aspartame is dodgy

Wow, thanks for that rigerous double-blind peer reviewed research. You've completely changed my opinion.

[BananaFrittersForTea]

I've just switched them onto to Meth Very. Much cheaper, goes a lot further. And I only ever get the fair trade stuff as I like to think we're helping the third world orphans who cook it!

Does anyone know where I can source organic?

[GilMartin]

That's the thing about the Crystal Meth, very moreish.

[Oblomov16]

Helps others hoist up their judgy pants.
Ds2 prefers water. But an occasional fruit shoot isn't going to kill him.

[ScarletForYa]

Yanbu OP, diet Seven-Up is much better! No caffeine!

[MrsBGharai]

My ex-H drank 3 litres of Diet Coke per day. He developed an eye condition, which could have been onset MS, or aspartame poisoning. He is as given steroids to slow it down, and advised to give up diet drinks.
He liked it enough to go blind.

Nobody in my house has diet ANYTHING.

[SantaPleaseBringMeEwanMcGregor]

Aspartame is just fine for most people, for the record. I say this as someone who loathes it due to me and some friends having allergies to it. But I don't think under fives need much in the way of soda. Maybe a little bit as a treat every great now and then, but if you raise them on it, guess what they'll grow up to drink!

[GilMartin]

Santa

Or by the same token, if you constantly deny them something, it becomes the 'forbidden fruit' and deeply attractive to them when they start making their own decisions over what to eat and drink.

All things in moderation and whatnot.

[boomshakkala]

I've found the judginess in reverse over this one.
My SIL gave her kids all sorts of fizzy drinks before they were even 1. She also done things like feed her 8 week old chocolate and give her 7 month old sausage rolls and pot noodles.
I never judged, never said a word but internally it felt instinctively wrong to me. I wouldn't give my kids those things because a) they don't need them and b) there is not a lot of nutritional value.
Let me stress again I never passed judgement outwardly, just knew it didn't sit well with me.

Anyway SIL x2 and mil have all made judgey comments to me and my attitude to my kids food. They think I'm being mean by denying them fizzy drinks. They think I've derived them of treats for no good reason. My kids will snack on very healthy foods like nuts, raw veg and fruit. Her youngest has never eaten a vegetable and is constantly drinking Fanta and lucozade...
But you know what? Each to their own. Her kid, her choice. Just like my 3 kids' nutrition is my choice!

[bibbitybobbityyhat]

Yanbu op. Little kids do not need fizzy drinks, diet or otherwise.

[Clandestino]

My daughter only drinks filtered water from Nepal, which has been bottled and blesed by Buddhist monks. She only gets organic milk from Swiss organic cows as a special treat for Christmas but on those days I reduce her calory food intake to include the energy from the milk.
She knows that fizzy drinks are dangerous and Coke would dissolve her stomach lining and make her bones brittle. She was offered one by one of the Mongolian nomads when we were crossing Gobi last summer on our annual trek to Tibet to be able to meditate close to the Dalai Lama but she kindly refused. She was dehydrated and on the verge of dying but fortunately they found a Buddhist monk who blessed her salina IV. She asked him to pray for the nomads who let the demon of consumerism corrupt their souls too.
She loves broccoli and brussel sprouts and would eat them whole day but we had to reduce them when her halo turned slightly green. She loves organic red beet and quinoa though so she can vary her food. She wants a vegan raw cake for her 7th birthday but we are still stalling the order as nobody responded to the invite to her party yet. They are going to an organic farm nearby and they will plant different veggies and sample their raw food and juices and learn how dangerous eating meat and cooked food in general is. The price isn't steep, only £250 for whole 4 hours and each child gets their own pet hen so I don't understand why they don't want to let their children come. Obviously, each parent will have to pay for their own child but it's all about learning to be responsible for themselves, isn't it?
Sorry, I digress. Diet Coke is bad for everybody.

[HermioneWoozle]

Tell that to a diabetic.

Artifical sweeteners can also raise blood sugar.

[Basicbrown]

What is the significance of five OP? Now don't get me wrong, Coke in baby bottles would get me hoiking up my judgy pants, but I have never ever seen anyone put Coke in a baby bottle. Fizzy drinks if we're out meh, not a massive deal. My 4yo loves a glass of lemonade and it takes longer for her to drink than still juice. It's a massive advantage in a restaurant.

The Aspartame thing makes me , we know sugar is harmful, a few internet trolls say Aspartame is and suddenly it's worse than sugar. Totally and utterly irrational and based on no evidence at all.

I am also about caffeine, do the people who are frightened of a tiny bit of caffeine never give their DC chocolate? (Which the fat and sugar is the harmful part of not the Caffeine).

[LunaLoveg00d]

I'd rather them have a bit of sugar then cancer causing chemicals

Can you link to scientifically credible, peer reviewed studies which show that diet drinks cause cancer? Thanks.

Very rarely give the kids fizzy drinks as they're not fans, but I am firmly in the "everything in moderation" camp.