To ask how often your toddlers get cake, chocolate etc?

[SinkGirl]

My twins are 2.5 - so there are no drip feeds, they are both autistic and non verbal. One has a medical condition affecting his blood sugar levels so that’s meant a high carb diet for his life so far.

I’ve tried to avoid junk food with them. Unfortunately they’re a bit too fond of processed foods like potato waffles and fish fingers for my liking, but they eat considerable amounts of fruit and veg every day so I pick my battles. One has a condition that means he must eat regularly so I have to give him what he will eat - fortunately they will eat some healthier options so I make sure they do, but they’d eat beans on toast every day if I let them. They normally only drink milk and water unless the one who’s unwell needs sugar quickly.

Anyway, I’ve avoided things like chocolate, crisps, cake, sweets, fruit juice / squash etc. Until this year they’d only had a piece of cake on their birthday and that was it. Tried to give them hot chocolate at Christmas and they threw it across the room in disgust. One had some dairy free chocolate at Easter and loved it, the other thought it was gross.

I haven’t avoided it because I think it’s bad, I’m very much a believer in everything in moderation. I’ve avoided these things for two reasons - they’re allergic to dairy, so it’s more difficult to find treat foods. Also, they don’t know these things exist and can’t ask for them, so it seemed silly to give them in case they then rejected healthier foods (a real possibility with their ASD).

One has become allergic to egg and I was advised to try him with eggs baked into something like cakes. So I bought some dairy free mini loaf cakes with jam in the middle (like the size of a cake bar). I only gave them a quarter at first in case of a reaction but they love them and no reaction.

Is a whole one of these too much sugar / calories for a toddler? How often do you give “treats” like this? I have no objection to it, I just don’t want their diet to be unhealthy and I have no frame of reference.

I thought by this age they’d be begging for this stuff and that would force my hand but as that’s not happening I’m not sure what to do. I’ve been advised to give something with baked egg in it “regularly” along with other allergens but I’m not sure what that means.

How often do you toddlers have stuff like this?

I’d love to bake them stuff myself but finding the time is not proving easy!

I think so long as it isnt everyday that size bar would be fine for a 2.5 y/o. I rarely give my DS (23 months) chocolate,cake,sweets etc. Partly as he is a poor eater and partly because my parents look after him a bit during the week and are less stricr than I am.

I think most things are ok if they are every now and then and not the norm.

My 2 year old would have a treat like that once every few months, for someone’s birthday or similar. I personally would only give a quarter or so, not a whole mini loaf.

Would you be able to find the time to bake a few things at once and then freeze them in portions? Rather than trying to bake every few days or whatever.

I will definitely try - it’s very tricky, they need constant supervision and by the evenings I’m exhausted.

That was my instinct too but I thought I’d be called controlling and weird. I think they’re supposed to have the allergen more often so maybe quarter of a cake a couple of times a week?

A quarter of a cake bar?! Am I misunderstanding what size this is?

My eldest would have things like that very rarely - maybe every few weeks. My youngest definitely had it earlier and more often just because she was aware of it from accompanying her elder sibling to birthday parties and seeing him with treats brought home from school etc. Still no more than once a week. I generally think it's better to have very little and often than feast or famine which makes kids more obsessed with treats in my opinion.

Is it possible to make dairy free pancakes? No sugar if they have a savoury topping.

It’s these - small mini loaf cakes individually wrapped
www.tesco.com/groceries/en-GB/products/303673160

This is just it, I’m really not sure what’s normal, I know they’re not healthy and I wouldn’t be giving it at all if I didn’t have to give them the cooked in egg. I’ll try to find some recipes for something healthier and find the time to actually make them!

The egg in pancakes aren’t cooked enough, he would react to that - lightly cooked egg causes a reaction, baked egg doesn’t (for him at least). Apparently this is common, I had no idea of this before he reacted.

It’s 9.9g sugar per cake which is a lot of sugar I think?

You might just shop around for something similar with less sugar. But on the whole the food they eat seems fine and a small cake bar every couple of days seems ok. As the idea is to get his body to accept egg you need to ask your doctor how often and how much - once a week may not be enough for example.

Do you mean these small cake bar things??

DS is 2 1/2. He eats chocolate. Sometimes cake, although we don't tend to have any at home. (That said, he managed 3 fairy cakes when we were out at an event last week.)
DS attends a sugar-free nursery, so doesn't tend to eat too much during the week. He does know where the ice lollies live in our house, though.

I'd give my 2 and 3 yr old a whole one if they were having it. They eat a varied healthy diet, and get something like cake or chocolate a few times a week after dinner. More than I'd like in all honesty, but we have just used up last year's Halloween chocolates, have a Christmas chocate left and 4 Easter eggs. None of which were bought by me!

Unfortunately options in our local supermarket that are dairy free are really limited which is why I really need to get on and make stuff myself! Just struggling with everything we have to do as it is - SALT, portage, etc etc. It’s not like I can get them involved in baking either which would be ideal.

Will try and get something done this week.

Ok thanks, slightly bigger than what I had in mind. I still thing a whole one, or one over a day every now and then is ok. I think if they are getting a lot of fruit and veg then a treat is ok sometimes too. When kids are never allowes things, I think they probably yearn for it more. DS actually has a small cake each week as its our ritual after our swimming lesson. Because of this I dont give him any during the week. I'm ok with that amount personally.

It doesn't seem any worse then what my 2yo would have for dessert at nursery. If it's not too expensive I would just give them one of those a day or every other day. You obviously have a lot on your plate without trying to add in baking as well.

I think id be tempted to make a large batch of fairy cakes and freeze them. They defrost really well and you can serve without icing as a pudding with fruit? It takes less than 30 minutes to mix and cook. You can use sunflower or olive or soya spread instead of butter to make them dairy free really easily.

I take youth groups on residential fairly often, and I have an excellent cook book called cooking for food allergies, which gives lots of recipes with options to swop out one or more ingredient in swop egg or nuts or dairy or soya or gluten. The recipes are sweets, cakes, soups, sauces, starters, mains and they all seem to work really well and freeze well. You might find some inspiration. Not sure if your twins would be able to help put batter in cupcake cases with spoons?

Ps sounds challenging so hope you find something that works. My niece is being weaned back on to dairy and we were told at least three times per week was ideal.

I’ve never restricted any food type with my toddler and I think this has meant that he doesn’t see sugary or junk foods as treats.

He loves fruit and will choose that more often than not so I’m quite happy with him having some chips and and dish fingers when he will to get some carbs into him

I don’t think they understand good and bad foods at that age

My DC are older now but when they were toddlers I was ultra strict. They didn’t have a McDonald’s until they were all 4/5, they’ve still only ever had the odd sip of fizzy drinks to this day and when they were toddlers I didn’t give them sweets at all. They had the odd bit of chocolate or homemade cake/muffins but it was very occasional.

I don’t think it did them any harm. Once they got to school I had to unclench somewhat because they came home once a week with sweets for someone’s birthday.

Hi OP

If you do manage to find the time for baking, you can slice things and freeze the slices individually, most cake type things freeze well

I think, as long as the rest of their daily diet is healthy and sugar free, a daily cake of that size would be absolutely fine OP.

A quarter of a mini loaf every few months? I'm laughing so hard my waters might break. DS, aged two, gets a treat every day. Yes, the entire thing! Not a quarter of it! If I gave him a quarter of a little cake every four months, there would be a bloody coup in our house.

We don't do food restriction - I believe this has the potential to cause eating issues later in life, he eats the healthy meals we as a family eat, and he is 94cm tall and weighs 13kg. Given your children have additional dietary and sensory requirements, I'd give them what they are comfortable with and enjoy eating.

Baked egg with other allergens is to desensitise them, as the high temperatures in cooking impacts the proteins sufficiently that allergens cannot recognise them. So other cakes, waffles etc. basically.

I have 5 dc so I am well past worrying about the number of g of sugar almost 2 year old dc5 gets in a cake

We do eat fairly healthily on average but I'd say she has a cake/biscuit/chocolate once or twice a week. To be honest she has something like a sweet yoghurt/fromage frais or malt loaf most days.

A quarter of a mini cake loaf every few months? Slow down there!

It sounds fine to me, OP! The kids I know who have the healthiest attitudes to food get everything in moderation.

Ours gets a home made cookie / cake one or twice a week. Other than that her sweet treats at home are always fruit.

I have made vegetable cakes with low or no added sugar in the past (e.g. courgette and parsnip). They aren't healthy but they aren't too bad either.

I don't think you should be too restrictive but if you can home bake that's always better. Appreciate you have a lot on your plate though.

By the way, beans on toast is a healthy meal/snack! Especially if you have low sugar and salt beans, wholemeal bread and follow up with vitamin C.