Chocolate/sweets for a baby??

[mom2babygirl]

AIBU to try to prevent my baby (9months old) to try or have chocolate or any kind of sweets or any artificial juice?? DH is always asking if our baby can have a little bit of chocolate or a bit of biscuits etc.
Other members of family keep saying that they will buy/bring lots of chocolate for Xmas or Easter for her to eat! I know they say it as a joke but to say it all the time is getting on my nerves. I want to prevent my baby from having any ripe of sweets for as long as I can! So surely they have to respect my decision of not getting her any sweets of Easter egg?
Thank you!

I think people are often against this as they see it as a criticism of their parenting. I know I asked the same question on here when my eldest was a baby and that she would end up eating all the sweets at parties.

We said we wouldn't give chocolate or sweets until our DC knew what it was and actively wanted it. DC1 got to three until she ever had chocolate and was about 6 before she had fizzy drinks. After that, we did chocolate as part of a meal, but avoided doing sweet treats until she was older.

Our aim was to try and set her up with the right food habits from the start and then to be much more relaxed as she got older.

We did have a problem in school when she was 6/7. DD was giving away any sweet snacks she was given and swapping them for other children's carrots. So we had to stop that.

To this day, she still loves carrots and snacks on them. She's 17 now, is not a massive sweet fan. She prefers to have a small box of hotel chocolat and she'll treat herself to one a day, rather than scoffing bars of the cheap stuff. She'll still snack on carrots, and doesn't like fizzy drinks. If we go out for a meal, she'll choose fruit juice or a J2O as her drink.

Only downside - it's much harder to do with DC2, and indeed DD2 was given sweets and chocolate much younger and fizzy drinks too. She loves all of that stuff now. Couldn't keep her away from it, unfortunately.

DS has never had chocolate, he's two, he's also never had ice cream/lollies etc (he thinks he has but it's frozen Greek yoghurt with banana/other fruit blitzed in that I make myself) or sweets, he has had the odd rich tea finger at nursery. I bake him cheese biscuits at home and make what he calls flapjacks most weeks (mashed banana, oats, splash of milk, handful of blueberries/whatever other fruit we have knocking around, and bake in the oven, some and cinnamon this week because they smell a bit festive).
There's plenty of time for sweets etc in moderation but he's only 2 and can't miss what he doesn't have, my DNs have had all of that from a very young age and their eating habits and variety are appalling, 2 year old nephew eats haribo, only drinks full sugar squash, has chocolate most days, bags of crisps and won't eat fruit or veg, older nephew eats like a sparrow and is very tiny for his age, but eats well at my house or my parents', my DB and SIL rarely eat a balanced meal and eat a lot of takeaways or beige oven food. DS eats pretty much anything other than sprouts and a takeaway for DH and I used to be a real rarity but had increased during lockdown etc to one every couple of months, maybe six weeks.

When it's been DS's birthday we've offered him a small piece of his cake but both years now he's tasted it and left it. DH is on board with waiting until he actively asks and then only in moderation and grandparents both sides respect our wishes.