To never buy snacks/squash/sweets etc again

[Fiera]

Every single time there is somthing remotely snackly in the house it just gets taken and eaten. The large double concentrate bottles of squash gone within 24 hours, any kind of sugary cerial gone the same day they come through the door.
I dont like to use the word 'steal' but tonight its the only word i can use because my daughter actually STOLE my can of coke.
We never usually buy coke or Fizzy anything, nut it was my eldest sons birthday and all the children had a can as a very rare treat. My daughter actualli hid my can up her sleeve (after having drank hers earlier in the evening) and went and drank it in her bedroom.
Even my toddler daughters 'treats' like 'GoGo' biscuits and 'Goodies' puffs just disapear before she even knows theyre there.
We have a full fruit bowl, two actually, every day and even they get emptied. They have hot meals every day so theyre not 'hungry' just greedy.
I just dont understand why they do it and im seriously considering just not buying again.
My toddler will happily drink water (theres hardly ever any squash left for her anyway)

[BarbaraofSevillle]

Well I don't think lots of artificial sweetners are healthy. I know that they've been tested and not found to be dangerous, but for a long time people didn't worry about smoking or asbestos. It's also not good to expect everything we consume to be sweet.

The fact is that most people are overweight, consume too many calories and have a generally bad diet. An easy way to reduce calorie consumptio and save those calories for actual nutritious food, instead of low nutrition chemically sweetened water is to not drink calories, ie restrict most drinks to plain water, or unsweetened tea and coffee. Milk is OK because it is good nutritionally.

[Juells]

whereas some squashes have no sugar

No, they just have vile artificial sweeteners.

I just feel a bit sorry for all these kids with such limited choices.

So are you saying that those of us who didn't have squash and biscuits and crisps in the house had deprived children? 😂

[Member984815]

It's the same here with the disappearing treats and coke , it's my teenager too there's no shortage of food here either it's just a teenager thing to do

[colditz]

Strorm4Star, do you have ANY evidence to back up your notion that tapwater isn't a healthy choice?

[LemonysSnicket]

Lockable cupboard.

Or no more treats until you can ensure moderation.

[Ansumpasty]

I honestly think if you don’t buy any ‘crap’ then they will binge outside of the house and the sweets and chocolate will be seen as something forbidden and delicious etc.

My aunty had an eating disorder growing up and always made a fuss of snacking being bad and sweets and chocolate being ‘foul.’ My cousin was then obsessed with getting her hands on some and would sneak sweets as much as she could and eat entire sharing bags in one go, etc. She’d be given money to go and get new shoes etc and buy cheap ones on sale and spend the rest on sweets and pretend the shoes were full price.
I’ve never limited chocolate/cakes etc because my eldest has always been very skinny and I’ve just been happy that he’s eating. We have a ‘junky’ snack drawer and a more healthier snack drawer, with flapjacks and bread sticks, etc. They actually get food from the healthy drawer, by choice, more often. The ‘junk’ drawer is still full of Easter eggs that haven’t been eaten. As chocolate etc has never been seen as a ‘treat’ or ‘forbidden’, both kids aren’t bothered about eating it and could take it or leave it. They’re the kids getting pasta at a party while the other kids go crazy over the cake and haribo as they have a drawer full of it at home so it’s not special or exciting at all.
Saying that, I don’t allow fizzy drinks and when they’ve tried some while having a pub meal etc they say it’s gross and ‘spicy.’ I’m fully expecting teenagers who ‘discover’ coke and chug it.

We didn’t have much money growing up and cheese was precious. I literally binge on cheese now, because I can, and I’m my mind it is a ‘limited treat.’

[LemonysSnicket]

I also think it’s personality - I’m a greedy bugger but even at 22 I ask my mum if I can have something if it’s in her house ( only moved out last July) but my sister was a prolific snarfler sans asking.

[Gottagetmoving]

I appreciate and respect parents wanting their kids to be healthy. But....I think people take it too far

[Frosty66612]

Why not just buy 2 bottles squash, smaller multipacks of crisps and biscuits etc and tell them they have to make them last for the week. They will soon learn if they scoff everything in 24 hours that they will have to spend the rest of the week with no other snacks and drinks other than fruit and tap water (not that there should really be any issue with that)

[Gottagetmoving]

You really do not need 'treats' in the cupboard.
You buy them and then wonder why your kids become addicted to them?
People really do seem to believe that snacks and treats are necessary and that children are being deprived without them.

[Storm4star]

I guess the point i’m trying to make is yes there is an “obesity crisis” as some have said. But...all this campaigning has come about because there are parents in this country who think a kebab and a can of coke is a nutritious meal! Sadly, those people will ignore all the advice and carry on as they always have. But people who care about their kids health have taken it to heart and gone to the extreme of “sugar is the devil”. What i’m saying is there is a middle ground and no need for extremes.

[adaline]

Squash really isn't necessary at all. I've never really understood the obsession with it, to be honest. If it has sugar in, it just tastes really sweet, if it has sweeteners, it tastes artificial and leaves a funny aftertaste.

You don't need to buy several whole packets of biscuits or boxes of 30 bags of crisps. Nobody needs that everyday. What about fruit and natural yoghurt, cheese and crackers, veggie sticks with dips of some description, or toast. I remember as a teenager going through a stupid amount of toast - we only ever had wholemeal bread in the house but if I was hungry, I had cheese on toast and fruit. Bananas are really filing, or even nuts or a hardboiled egg - protein fills you up longer than carbs.

If they're teenagers, presumably they get pocket money? Just don't buy the junk and make them spend THEIR money on it. They probably won't be as keen when they realise how much their biscuit habit costs them!

[sauvignonblancplz]

Fruit may have the same value of sugar but he sugar type is very different. Fruit contains fructose sugar , the body knows how to break it down and use it for energy etc;some fruits are higher in this ban others so if you were being super health conscious then yeah you would need to monitor it. Chocolate etc contain sucrose; not easily broken down and completely empty calories.
Fruit is a perfectly acceptable snack as are raw carrots etc, to suggest it’s the same as a bar of chocolate is just ignorant.
Seriously baffled at the squash drinkers!!!!! My kids have water , they certainly aren’t deprived !

[extinctspecies]

Gobsmacked that a PP thinks too much tapwater isn't healthy!

As well as no squash or fizzy drinks, I gave up buying fruit juice a while ago. Also high in sugar and quite processed. Just eat the whole fruit, we get through huge amounts of clementines.

DS doesn't miss it at all.

[AlbertaSimmons]

Rofl at tap water not being a healthy choice .

[TawnyPort]

I just dont understand why they do it and im seriously considering just not buying again

What you need is discipline. I also have four children and they would not dream of helping themselves to crisps or sweets etc. I buy them now and again, they get them when I give them, they do not take them. They wouldn't dare.
Your children are badly behaved, that is the issue.

[Frosty66612]

Water is the healthiest thing a living being can put into their bodies. And tap water in the UK (or at least most areas of the UK) is completely healthy to drink. It’s tested regularly by the water boards to make sure of it

[CollyWombles]

OP, I bought a large jug and make up squash each morning. The bottles of concentrate are hidden away. Before I did this, a bottle of juice a day easily happened.

In terms of sweet stuff, I did it myself as a child. We had a biscuit tub and I used to sneak biscuits out of it. As did all my brothers. Kids like sweet stuff. Self control isn't a kids strong point either.

My kids, if they eat all their dinner, they get a sweet pudding of some sort. If they don't eat it all, that's fine, they can have a piece of fruit. It doesn't stop my DS in particular from helping himself sometimes but I am aware with him, it's a comfort thing, he's had a tough time of it. That doesn't make it okay, but it defuses my irritation over it, because I know it's like it's compulsive with him.

[BrashCandicoot]

I'd be alarmed if a whole bottle of squash going in 24 hours. If people think that's normal, even in a family of 4, they've got a problem. I've never been so glad that I didn't give the DC squash when they were tiny.

Sweeteners aren't good for you

[GuestWW]

@Fiera I cannot keep food in the cupboards here either, the most often used words in this house are 'I'm hungry'. No words of wisdom but sympathy.

[TOADfan]

Fruit is not aa healthy as everyone seems to think. My best friend has diabetes and was told to avoid fruit and any vegetable which grows under ground as they are very high in sugar and will raise insulin levels.

[AjasLipstick]

That'll be why my fave veg are potatoes and their friend the beetroot!

[TawnyPort]

Fruit is not aa healthy as everyone seems to think. My best friend has diabetes and was told to avoid fruit

So? I'm coeliac and can't eat gluten, that doesn't mean gluten is not good for other people.

[adaline]

Fruit is not aa healthy as everyone seems to think. My best friend has diabetes and was told to avoid fruit

Yes, because she has a medical condition! That doesn't apply to people without that medical condition...

[Justanotherzombie]

Goodness, this thread is a shocker! And for all the ‘healthy eating’ knowledge people spout on other threads it really goes to show where many people’s heads are really at. And those bottles of squash and ‘sugar obesity is overly dramatic’ attitudes is where all these overweight people and kids are coming from.

So many people now know how to talk the talk but if you look a bit closer you see the reality in their fridges and cupboards is quite different.