To ask at what age you let your DC regularly drink soft drinks?

[UnderTheAntenna]

i.e. not just water or milk (hot choc). How old were they when you let them drink soft drinks on non-special occasions?

[Stayawayfromitsmouth]

Nearly 5yo has it on special occasions only. Nearly 3yo has had a rare sip.
We don't have it in the house except as a mixer. I don't like them having concentrated squash either.
We drink water, milk or fresh fruit juice. Tea, milkshake or hotchoc.
It's generally the case with the mc liberal demographic where I'm from.
However, my nephews were raised on fizzy and McDonald's and my friends from my home town delight in being really, really laid back unhealthy and lazy with their kids in front of mine.

[Thesearmsofmine]

At home my dc (8, 6 &2)drink water or milk. Once a week or so they will have either a flavoured milk, hot chocolate or a glass of fruit juice.
DH drinks squash so we have it in but the DC have never asked to have any.

If we’re out having a meal they usually pick milk(sometimes flavoured if they sell it) or a fruit juice.

My older two 6&8 have only had fizzy drinks a couple of times one of those mini cans of lemonade on New Year’s Eve.

[TotalNoob]

@JaniceBattersby same here.

Don’t people buy soft drinks just because they taste nice? I mean yeah water quenches your thirst but it’s not exactly enjoyable is it. And I don’t mean sugar laden fizzy.

My dc drink fruit juice with sparkling water in at the weekends. Bite me.

[Babygrey7]

LOL, this thread is nothing like real life

[BiddyPop]

DD got a huge dispensation when she was 11 that she could have A (single) coke once a week. She doesn't have it every week, and most of the time it was a mini-can (not a 330ml, but the smaller cans as mixer size).

Realistically, she has the odd fizzy drink - mostly on special occasions or when out for a meal. But she will ask for a Britvic OJ more often than a fizzy drink, or look for an iced-tea based drink in the shops a lot. Or plain or sparkling water. She likes J2O's as well as more special occasion drinks.

Sometimes we make squash using sparkling water rather than tap water.

At home, it is mostly water, squash, milk or hot chocolate, with the odd cup of tea thrown in, and rare fizzy drinks. She likes some fruit smoothies - both homemade and shop bought - on occasion.

She has cut the amount of fizzy drinks herself in the past couple of years - particularly in 6th class before leaving primary, and markedly so this year in 1st year of Secondary school.

I echo others about like adults having wine - its not an everyday thing, and it does tend to be rationed even when available. But her teeth are good, and we are happy for her to have some, in moderation - and have discussed it with her in that context, having some in moderation. But we have various cans of fizzy drinks at times in the cupboards, and some J2Os, and some beer and wine etc - and they can sit there for quite a while.

Even when we do have them, we tend to just open a can, rather than a bottle, as that is plenty for 1 person. And a bottle usually either goes flat and gets wasted, or we all feel a bit ick after drinking it all. So a variety of cans works better for us.

[BiddyPop]

Sorry I meant to make it clear that DD's dispensation at age 11 was about Coca Cola (and caffeine), rather than fizzy drinks. We were not keen on her drinking coke.

She barely even wants it now, aged 13. It really is mostly iced tea drinks and smoothies and fruit juices and hot chocolates outside the house, and squash, milk, hot choc and tea at home. No coffee yet (although she loves coffee cake!) - but DH and I drink plenty of that so I foresee it coming at some stage.

We also have almost no sugar in the house - we have a bowl for DH's wheetabix in the mornings, so visitors can have it as needed, but none of us use it in any drinks.

[PinkieTuscadero]

LOL, this thread is nothing like real life

It's like when there's a 'at what age will you be mortgage free?' thread. It attracts all the people who've paid off or expect to pay off their mortgage by the time they're 45.

Or a 'how much alcohol do you drink?' thread seems to attract the teetotallers.

[jelliebelly]

We don't have it at home and mine are 13 and 10.

[Rachie1973]

Lol. I don’t think I ever didn’t ‘let’ my kids not have drinks. I didn’t really worry so long as they brushed their teeth and stayed hydrated. The youngest is 17 now and I still have 4 different flavour bottles of squash sat on the kitchen side.

[thaegumathteth]

Ds is 12 and he does now because they sell them in the school canteen. Dd is 8 and doesn’t drink them at all.

[pinkhorse]

What are soft drinks? Squash or fizzy?

[thaegumathteth]

Oh hang on I only mean fizzy drinks though. They’re allowed squash etc and have been since they were about 3.

[BlackInk]

We're honestly not weird about sugar. We just don't tend to drink it. The squash we have is always full sugar squash... I'm weird about artificial sweeteners

[TarragonSauce]

My dc are now 24 and 17. I have always had a full range of drinks - milk, juice, squash, fizzy, water available to them. They naturally gravitated towards milk, I don't think either of them every tasted fizzy till they were about 7. I just never offered and they never asked.
They both still live at home, and both are teetotal (dunno where that came from, dh and I both love all sorts of alcohol). They set out water with their evening meal, they have juice with breakfast, but if we are having a takeaway at the weekend they have coke or lemonade. But only if it's takeaway. Both still love anything milk-based. Neither drink coffee. Dh and I live off coffee.
We have never discussed it with them.
I've raised oddbods.

[sailorsdelight]

Nothing but water or milk at ours and the eldest is 9. Occasional juice or Fanta on hols. Coke and caffeine drinks are a flat out no.

[Alsohuman]

Anyone normal reading this thread would think it was about crack cocaine.

[SmarmyMrMime]

I drink well diluted full sugar squash frequently as I don't like tea or coffee, and milk is a highly effective rapid laxitive to me.

The DCs mainly drink water, but squash is avaliable. They'll often have some warm blackcurrant on a chilly morning to warm them up for the walk to school. Out of the house, they can have fizzy, but I tend to steer them towards proper coke rather than the others with revolting artificial sweetners in. DS1 had CMPA and has never drunk cows milk although he is no longer allergic. There are some cans of fizzy in the house, but it's not routinely drink and can sit there half-forgotten for many months waiting for an occasion.

Their teeth are in good condition, and they are just about up into the low relms of healthy weight rather than being underweight, so I can't bring myself to get stressed over a few sugary drinks a week when they mainly drink water.

[SauvingnonBlanketyBlanc]

Coke etc special occasions,dilute pop buy rarely,fizzy water all the time

[Inferiorbeing]

I don't have DC but both me and DH are addicted to fizzy drinks (we both will only have diet and neither of us are obese before anyone jumps in) so i wouldn't allow my child to have any! We have both stopped for short periods of our life but i just had to run down to the shop because i had a massive headache from not having any for two days.

[Boysey45]

Fruit juice and fruit smoothies are just as bad as coke for teeth.In fact some smoothies have even higher sugar content than full sugar coke.
Tooth decay hit me in later life, when I was in my teens I thought that if you brushed a lot like 3 x per day you were o.k. I was deluded.

[UnderTheAntenna]

They're 7/9 and pestering me for ice tea. I bought some for a party and they've just finished the last of it. I wondered if I was BU not to replace it. Last year I forgot to get any drinks in for a birthday party and had to make and cool some herbal tea! I don't have squash, juice or fizzy drinks in the house otherwise.

They have a choice of water, milk with or without chocolate powder and herbal tea. They've started asking for fizzy water & apple juice when we eat out. I don't want to ban it outright but neither do I want them drinking caffeine regularly.

[RB68]

we have squash in the house and I get 2ltrs of Pop at Christmas..... shes 14. If we are out somewhere she has one or two but that's not that often prob once a month at the very most

[Dippypippy1980]

My daughter mainly drinks water and milk, but we have low sugar dilutable and low sugar apple juice in the house which she enjoys. She also has hit chocolate occassionally and strawberry milk.

She is obsessed by fizzy drinks and I will sometimes let her have a little of mine if we are out, but never a whole can.

She is nearly seven.

[Dippypippy1980]

It’s fruit shots for parties and play dates. If I cooled herbal tea they would be horrofied!!!!

[Sweetbabycheezits]

We have fizzy in occasionally on a weekend, but mainly DCs (11 and 12) drink water, milk, sometimes squash. Fizzy drinks if we're out for a meal, or for a party.
I try not to make too big a deal of it...I don't want it to become 'forbidden' and therefore more attractive!