Active discussions

Meet the Other Phone. A phone that grows with your child.

Meet the Other Phone.
A phone that grows with your child.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

Talk
AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

"Baby has never had sugar"

122 replies

itsascottishbaby · 29/07/2017 21:49

Was chatting to friends today, we all have nearly 1 year olds. One said "My DD has never had sugar", and the others all chimed in to say the same.

My DS has had quite a bit of sugar - only tiny bits like a tiny morsel off a croissant, a baby biscuit or a taste of cake.

AIBU to think they might be stretching the truth? Or am I the odd one out, and a bad parent to boot?

OP posts:
Maryz · 29/07/2017 23:46

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

timeisnotaline · 29/07/2017 23:51

I found a sugar free teething biscuit in Australia which was great ( for those who don't think this is a total wank Grin ) . Yoghurt bought the tubs of natural - ridiculous how much sugar is in baby yoghurt. Yes I know breast milk is full of sugar, so is fruit and that's fine, sugar levels in bread is not a problem either, that doesn't mean he needed to move on to cake.

FastWindow · 29/07/2017 23:53

MaryZ nice to see you. I've taken your advice many times.

I have a little hack to share, for parents whose dc like sugared tea - make them Earl Grey, not PG. My dc don't realise there's no sugar.
I realise I sound like Kate Middleton (Earl Grey, dahling!) . I'm not.

mollyfolk · 30/07/2017 00:03

The only baby buscuits I could find with no added sugar were an Ella's kitchen one - apple and ginger. They are sweetened with small amounts of apple purée. Some of them babe more sugar than a rich tea.

ElizabethShaw · 30/07/2017 00:15

Ella's biscuits are still 16+% sugar though - not sure really why sugar from concentrated fruit puree doesn't count!

Camomila · 30/07/2017 00:16

The organix mini gingerbreads don't have 'sugar sugar' either, they're sweetened with apple juice (and quite tasty)

I let my DS (15m) have the odd bite of croissant/blueberry muffin/rich tea but haven't let him have sweets or chocolate yet and only let him have plain yoghurts or the ones sweetened with fruit juice.

PoppyBucket · 30/07/2017 00:18

My DD suffered constipation from almost the day she was born.
HV told me to feed her sugar-water. A teaspoon of brown sugar in a 100ml bottle three times a day.

She's 30 now, slim and athletic, runs half marathons, but she has quite a big bum. I think she has inherited the big bum from her dad.
Nothing to do with the sugar. You need to ignore your friends.
They are either lying or kidding themselves.
Sounds like you are a really good on-the-ball mum who is aware that too much sugar isn't the best. Moderation in everything is the best way of going about it.

Five chocolate bars a day = bad.
A bit of croissant or a chocolate button, or a bit of cake is not going to tip the balance. I used to worry about it too. I admitted to my GP that I gave my baby fruit yogurt - which is apparently full of sugar- and she said "whatever, we all need a bit of sugar"

Which of course we don't. But it's almost unavoidable nowadays.
There is sugar in almost every bloody thing. So long as you are aware is all that's needed.

mollyfolk · 30/07/2017 00:23

Well It doesn't say concentrate it says fruit purée which doesn't count as a free sugar "the sugar you are told to avoid" Fruit concentrate would though. Not sure if that's Ella's kitchen just playing with words.

Regardless it has 1g of carbs that sugar per buscuit which is 1/4 of a teaspoon so it's definitely the best of them.

Flopjustwantscoffee · 30/07/2017 00:25

I had a (very good) friend who never drank alcohol.... except wine which doesn't count apparently . And Baileys and a few other drinks were classed as wine by her. She was a lovely person so it didn't bother me but I never worked out why it was so important for her to make the point that she didn't drink in the first place...

ElizabethShaw · 30/07/2017 00:25

Its still sugar - whether it is from fruit concentrate, honey, maple syrup or sugar cane.

DermotOLogical · 30/07/2017 00:25

Have any of you tried breast milk? It's the sweetest sugar fest going. Once I tried it I gave up on the no sugar rule.

MrsTerryPratchett · 30/07/2017 00:32

I was a sugar obsessive. DD didn't have any added sugar until one and I made my own baby food and avoided everything else.

My dad, who worships the ground DD walks on, visited when DD was about two and they went to the mall together. he came back and said, "they were giving out free cookies but I know how you feel so she didn't get one". I realised it was maybe a tiny bit weird and obsessive and he got to give her a cookie. I loosened up at that point.

mollyfolk · 30/07/2017 00:42

Added sugar is different. You are advised to reduce consumption of added sugar. It is not advised to avoid sugar that is naturally occurring in food. Sugar in fruit for example is absorbed very slowly because the fibre from the fruit slows it down. A product sweetened with fruit concentrate would contain the sugars from several pieces of fruit with none of the fibre or goodness from the fruit itself

FlandersRocks · 30/07/2017 00:44

Ds1 didn't have any refined sugar in treats for years. He had home cooked meals only, fruit and natural yoghurt as dessert. No refined cereals or white bread or biscuits at all. I think he was 3 before he had chocolate and well into reception before he had anything like haribo, until class parties made them impossible to avoid.

He didn't miss it because he didn't know the difference.

Ds2 however is 2 years younger and as tends to happen with number 2 had everything much earlier. They had a lot of their first treats around the same age - so 3 and 1 for chocolate, 4 and 2 for haribo, 5 and 3 when they had their first McDonald's together.

They're both slim and healthy now and both great eaters with a healthy diet. BUT there's a marked difference in how they view treats. Ds1 can take or leave them - he'd choose a punnet of blueberries over sweets any day. Ds2 however would chew his own arm off for a bag of haribo Hmm.

I do wonder if the difference is just chance or if introducing sweets that much earlier to ds2 made him more of a sweet fiend.

Ds3 is my experiment to see which way he goes...he's 10 weeks and the other 2 are much older so it will be easier to hide their treats from him than it was with Ds2. I intend to do the same with him as ds1 and not give him any refined sugar as long as possible to see if he'll then be similarly indifferent to it as ds1 is.

FlandersRocks · 30/07/2017 00:47

Have any of you tried breast milk? It's the sweetest sugar fest going. Once I tried it I gave up on the no sugar rule

I can't work out if that's tongue in cheek or not. I hope so because if not that's such a ridiculous mindset I don't know where to start.

Sashkin · 30/07/2017 00:51

I was a January baby, and at my first Easter (ie about two months old) my mum found me bouncing like a maniac in my bouncy chair, covered in the easter egg that my three year old cousin had kindly shared with me. Apparently I had really enjoyed it and scoffed most of the egg. My mum burst into tears because I had health problems as a baby and was her PFB, and she thought I'd get chocolate poisoning.

Aged 38 I have a normal BMI and perfect teeth, so I clearly wasn't too damaged by it. I'm not even particularly into chocolate.

BuzzKillington · 30/07/2017 01:24

Mine never had sugar, or refined sugar at least.

I wasn't precious about it, but it just never occurred to me to give them biscuits or chocolate or juice or yoghurt.

I had plenty of people tell me, as they got older, that they would be mainlining sugary stuff because we had 'restricted' it.

But they're teens now and have no interest in sugary stuff.

Paws4thort · 30/07/2017 01:46

If their babies have lived beyond 3 days, they will have had sugar. We can't live without sugar (I tried to combine significantly reducing my sugar intake with breastfeeding - ended up in a and e with a massive hypoglycemic episode, attached to two drips to avoid a coma). So they can try and be as smug as they like, but you know that the mere fact that their babies are alive at a year old is because of sugar.

MommaGee · 30/07/2017 01:50

Another one who's NICU baby got raised on sugur water!! Even when it was bog kids ward at 10 months there was sugur water treats

lazycrazyhazy · 30/07/2017 02:03

My DIL removed squash I'd put on the table
at 3 year birthday party (it was a v hot day) I was actually thinking of adults and put out water for children. She replaced it with cartons with straws of apple juice. I said nothing but thought that might be even worse? She also doesn't let her DC have processed sugar but does allow honey which I think is so sweet albeit naturally so.

I'm a good Granny and say nothing... we all have our inconsistencies.

Heatherjayne1972 · 30/07/2017 09:12

You can't avoid sugar!
It's controlling the intake that's the key
As long as they have a good healthy diet otherwise it's fine
(And make sure you clean those teeth)

Original poster
itsascottishbaby · 30/07/2017 09:25

Thanks everyone! I was just a bit confused as as you say it's not possible to avoid sugar completely. Granted you can be very careful, which admittedly I'm not. If I'm having a muffin I'll let him have a tiny nibble - keeps him happy for a few minutes and the rest of his diet is really good, so I have no concerns.

Yes to breast milk being super sweet, it's lovely!

OP posts:
BellyBean · 30/07/2017 09:36

With my pfb I tended to see refined sugar as bad, and avoided where possible until I went to a nutrition talk (told you pfb!!) when DD was nearly 1.

The HV said sugar was important for energy and should be encorporated within other nutritional foods, e.g. Scones, fruit cake etc rather than haribo or chocolate.

Rhubarbtart9 · 30/07/2017 09:45

Lazy - fruit juice and honey are nutritionally better then squash and cane sugar. Still sweet though

ElizabethShaw · 30/07/2017 09:55

*Rhubarb" - surely any small nutritional benefit of fruit juice over squash is hugely outweighed by the damage caused by sugar and acid?

Please create an account

To comment on this thread you need to create a Mumsnet account.

Join Mumsnet Log In

This thread is closed and is no longer accepting replies. Click here to start a new thread.