To let my kids have a fun size chocolate every day?

[AndThenInTheEnd]

Is there an issue with this?

DS9 and DD6, both have normal BMI (although DD6 is always on the cusp of overweight), both eat varied diets.
Every day after dinner they have a piece of fruit then a “sweet thing”. Might be a yogurt, a cake bar, piece of cake, moam sweet, lollipop etc. I’ve recently bought a bag of fun size chocolate bars and they’ve been having one of them.

This is fine yes?

Rest of day - porridge for breakfast with teaspoon of Nutella. School lunch or at weekend sandwich with piece of fruit and raisin or yoghurt. Snack after school normally carrots and hummus, cheese crackers etc. Normal dinner - spag Bol, stirfry. Fruit then “sweet thing” after dinner. Saturday night is a film and we don’t have sweet thing but have snacks with film. Drink water and 1 cup of Ribena a day.

TIA

These threads are always mad. When I was a little kid my grandparents owned a little general store/sweet shop, and every Sunday when we visited my grandad sent me home with a bag of sweets and chocolate bars, which I would eat with my parents throughout the week (it was the 70s!). I was a super skinny teenager and didn't put on weight until I discovered cider at uni. I'm in my fifties now and have little interest in sweets and still have all my own teeth. So don't obsess over a little sweet treat, a little of what you fancy does you good after all.

A shared fun size chocolate bar? Are you the Borrowers living in a burrow? Everyone knows Mars bars or Dairy Milk lead directly to heroine.

My understanding (but clarify with your kids dentist OP!) was that it is better for your teeth to have a larger amount once per week rather than a small amount each day.

Anecdotally, we were allowed a whole chocolate bar once per week and I have normal BMI and no fillings.

I think your 6year old is easting more rhan that

A 6 yo needs about 1600 calories a day. I dont think your child is eating more than that, unless yu are giving adult portions

Mumsnet would have you believe the only after dinner treat should be a sprig of raw cauliflower or a handful of seeds. The irony being that there are lots of threads about chocolate and cake for adults where people readily admit to scoffing whole packets of hob nobs or large family sized chocolate bars (I’m one of those people).

I don’t restrict what my kids eat. If it’s in the house they can eat it. This means sometimes my 9 year old will have a cornetto after dinner and then later on a couple of kinder sticks. Or he might choose to have fruit. Or a chunk of galaxy chocolate.

Both my dc are normal healthy weights. My 18 year old is now at university and the one thing she says she’s missing is fruit and veg -! She’s in catered halls and realises how nice the food is at home and how awful it is there.

I think if you just let dc eat what they want to eat (as well as giving them access to healthy meals and healthy choices) it creates healthy relationships with food and they learn to self regulate. All the adults I’ve known with food issues have come from families where “treats” were restricted.

I'd say if the diet is healthy and balanced then a fun sized treat is okay.

In my dds class one of the girls has a whole family pack of sweets and bottle of coke after school. Definitely too much!

@Ericaequites lol!!!!

You could also make the sweet treat smaller (eg smaller piece of dark chocolate). The pleasure would be the same.

I’m an adult and you can’t trick me into thinking a small piece of dark chocolate is as good as a fun size chocolate bar. You’d have no hope convincing a 6 year old!

@LowlandLucky

In the 90s when w were awful Mothers most packed lunches were sandwich, yoghurt, chocolate biscuit, crisps and SunnyD. All of mine had that at least 3 days a week. They has coco pops, frosties, sugar puffs and lucky charms. They had fizzy pop and Kia ora. Not one of mine has a filling, never had an eating disorder and all were outdoors for hours on end. They boys are all stick thin and the girls are slim. All are healthy and never( thankfully) have a need to visit a Doctor. I am so glad we didn't worry if eating 2 yoghurts in one day was too much. Yes we must look after our children but jeez oh don't make them survive on a diet of gruel or they will go off the rails and stuff their faces with everything you banned as soon as they have some freedom. Remember raisins will ruin their teeth just as quick as a packet of starburst

Yep. I can remember having a Triiiooooooo in my lunchbox and bloody nice it was too.

I ate SO much shit and I’m nearly 50 with no fillings. Not sure how I managed that.

It's absolutely fine!

My parents (mostly my dad) were very very strict with food when I was growing up and it gave me a lot of issues. I was never allowed fizzy drinks, crisps, sweets or chocolate and then he wondered why, as soon as I got my own pocket money, I spent it all on the things I was never allowed as a child

I'm 32 now and still want to have as much of all those foods as possible as I never had them growing up and I feel like I missed out.

There's a balance to be had and I think the overly strict style of food restriction on MN will lead to a lot of problems when these kids are grown and able to make their own choices.

@LowlandLucky

In the 90s when w were awful Mothers most packed lunches were sandwich, yoghurt, chocolate biscuit, crisps and SunnyD. All of mine had that at least 3 days a week. They has coco pops, frosties, sugar puffs and lucky charms. They had fizzy pop and Kia ora. Not one of mine has a filling, never had an eating disorder and all were outdoors for hours on end. They boys are all stick thin and the girls are slim. All are healthy and never( thankfully) have a need to visit a Doctor. I am so glad we didn't worry if eating 2 yoghurts in one day was too much. Yes we must look after our children but jeez oh don't make them survive on a diet of gruel or they will go off the rails and stuff their faces with everything you banned as soon as they have some freedom. Remember raisins will ruin their teeth just as quick as a packet of starburst

Yes all of this ☝☝☝. @LowlandLucky I grew up in 80s and teen yrs in 90s and that was my packed lunch style too and I also must be a terrible mum cis my DDS now 21 and 23 both healthy went to school after a breakfast of rice krispies or coco pops had fizzy drinks with their friends I allowed mcdonalds and sweets and we lived on the coast so I think we're on 1st name terms at Ice cream van haha but as we lived in coast they were never in always playing out with either us or their friends and did brownies and clubs and dance but yeah wicked mum I was. Vegetables and fresh meals were all non negotiable before desserts and playing out tho

FreeBritnee I loved Triooooooooooooooooooos TBF any chocolate biscuit is my favourite.

*MacKemLass79 Thats the difference, our children ran around all day every day and weren't penned in

😂😂😂😂😂
What a place to ask this. You won't get normal answers here.

Most of the mumsnet offspring eat only vegetables whilst doing arts and crafts 24/7.

Chocolate and TV for one hour on birthdays only.

(A treat a day is fine imo)

When I was a kid we didn't have chocolate bars/sweets every day.

Nah we just had huge dense puddings with sugary pink custard every day at school, and often a fruit crumble/spotted dick/ bread and butter pudding after our tea in the evening.

Crack on OP.

@Siepie the trick with properly dark chocolate is to let it melt in your mouth rather than just chew it. You get an amazingly chocolatey flavour that way.

My brothers and I grew up eating chocolate/sweets daily.
We also grew up eating lots of veg/pulses/fruit and not a lot of meat.

We're all pushing/over 50 and very, very healthy. Much more exercise than the average person and a much healthier (largely veggie) diet.

I don't worry about the fun size choc dd has or the weekend treat pizza/burger. She eats lots of veg, pulses and fruit at home.

I worry about the mac cheese/lasagna/fish & chips school lunches she has though. All followed by cake.

I have never understood why they are called ‘fun sized’. What’s fun about getting chocolate half the size?

If you're worried about weight up the exercise. The more you restrict Chocolate and sweets the more kids want it.

OMG! 😱 Next you’ll be saying they wash it down with that well known toxin - a fruit shoot!!
Mumsnet is not the place for common sense.

2) Why are you giving daily chocolate if one child is on the cusp of being overweight?

Is it healthier for a thinner kid to eat chocolate every day then?

Ahh for crying out loud Op
This has to be one of the most ridiculous examples of over parenting!!
Stop reading stupid parenting books
Let your child eat a funsize Easter egg every day if they want after dinner or whatever
Christ, I'm sorry but you sound so irritating
As long as they eating 3 meals and snack on whatever,then tune out.
There is a lot more going on in your children's lives for you to be concerning yourself with
Get off mn and don't be asking advice of all the ridiculous homemade organic meal makers,
My kids know where to get treats, go to the shop every day to get whatever they want, brush their teeth before bed and guess what? They are alive and well and happy out as am I, seriously get a bloody grip rather than posting shite about whether or not they have raisins or yoghurt on the same day.
For Gods sake people,chill out and live a little,one life is all you have, stop with all the stupid new age parenting shite and let your kids live a little 🙄

I don't think literally every day, purely because sugar is so addictive and you're also making it a habit for them. Nutella also of full of sugar.

@seaandsandcastles

No I don’t think they should be having a sweet treat every day. Only occasionally.

In real life everyone I know gives their kids a sweet treat every day. So I'd say not unreasonable.