Do you let your children have artificial sweeteners?

[SilkLabrador]

Do you let your children have artificial sweeteners? Since the sugar tax was introduced it's hard to find awash without them so we have cordial or diluted fruit juice.

I'm by no way strict about what they eat but for some reason I struggle to allow them drinks with artificial sweeteners.

Am I basing this on fact or am I just being silly?

Depends what age they are. At toddler age they drank high juice squashes. Now they're older I buy no added sugar ones.

Nope, you're not being ridiculous. Mine dri k water and milk. That's it.

Depends on how old they are. Nothing wrong with avoiding it in drinks at any age though really.

Mine only drink water or milk and as a treat if out they sometimes have a juice or fruit shoot. Maybe one a month?

Oh and Im not strict around food either. I just didn't want them to be constantly drinking squash or juice so just never introduced it as a main option.

Yes

I avoid as far as poss. I’d rather give sugared drinks than artificial sweeteners.

No and yes.

No: we do not buy any drink for them except milk. They drink milk and water at home and school.

Yes: If we go out, or if they attend a party we do not interrogate the drinks on offer - if there is squash or fruit shoots being served - the older one (6 yrs) drinks it there. The 1 year old does not.

As for squash: It has never been bought in our house so I dont even know what squash is on offer.

I new I was a liberal mother, they have a flavoured drink with dinner but otherwise it's water. I don't tend to let them have milk as I don't want to run out of milk for tea 😁

Unless they have PKU, or you have a family history of it, there's no good reason to restrict it any more than you choose to with fizzy drinks in general.

If you can get them to drink water, that's great, but the odd glass of pop is fine

You'll find that most people do, given how hard it is to find alternatives.

We don't have DC and don't really drink squash but we usually have a bottle or two of full sugar high juice over the summer and any time I offer it to visiting DC, I usually get complaints either from DC because it tastes different to the shite their parents buy what they're used to, or the parents because they've been brainwashed by the 'sugar bad, artificial sweeteners good' ideaology.

The sugar tax has completely backfired because, instead of encouraging people to cut down and drink mostly water, all it has done has taken away choice from those of us who drink very little squash and want the nicer tasting full sugar cordial.

I try to avoid it, especially in squash. I'd rather DS1 had juice with a meal.

It gives DS1 an upset stomach and it's a migraine trigger for me.

DS2 is a toddler so just has milk and water.

Yes I do actively avoid artificial sweeteners for all of us but especially for the children.

No. My toddler drinks milk or water only.

He had his first fruit shoot bought by DH the other day, but that was a treat while out and about.

I’ll keep it to milk and water for as long as I can, then it’ll be very watered down fruit juice or high juice.

I'm pretty relaxed about squash. DD drinks far more if it's very diluted squash v plain water and as a perma dehydrated kid who always had headaches, I am just happy she is drinking! But I prefer very diluted full sugar stuff it just diluted fruit juice to artificial sweeteners as I can't drink the artificial stuff.

I believe the horror stories about sweeteners have now been disproven

I avoid it. Probably comes from the fact I find it disgusting so I just don't buy it. They only drink milk or water unless it's a treat or something. I'm not very strict at all with sweets or cakes etc, again I think it's probably bc I only drink tea (or suck on some ice cubes) I just never have anything like that in the house.

I wish sweetners would fuck off though honestly. I used to drink certain squash occasionally. They're in so many things now and before you could just avoid the diet / low sugar stuff but now you buy a normal pack of ice lollies and it hits you like the taste of vomit the second you put it in your mouth 🤢

Yes I’ve always avoided them as much as possible, for me and the DCs. However it’s difficult to get away from them completely. It’s in pretty much all toothpaste for example, apart from the ‘natural’ toothpastes from health food shops, but I’m put off using those after dd1 used them for the first few years of her life and ended up with a lot of cavities needing fillings by the time she was about 6.

Mine are older now but I would much prefer them to have a glass of regular coke if we're out for dinner than diet or sugar free stuff.

Probably better for them to let them have milk

I don't purposefully avoid but we don't drink soft drinks and get through maybe a bottle of squash every couple of months between us all, so I don't feel like uts a big enough part of our diet to monitor. DS has a fruit shoot at parties or occasionally at a restaurant and at Christmas he gets to choose a fizzy drink, but other than that its water or milk.

@Polkadotties

I believe the horror stories about sweeteners have now been disproven

The main horror story about sweeteners is that they make drinks taste foul and over-sweet.

I've always avoided sweeteners with my kids and gave them diluted fruit juice or water when younger. Nowadays I only buy full-sugar Coca Cola, full-sugar Fevertree tonic or the full-sugar Polish fruit syrups (raspberry, cherry, cranberry, blackcurrant) you can get in most supermarkets. But still mostly drink water.

@Polkadotties

I believe the horror stories about sweeteners have now been disproven

Maybe that's so, but they still taste absolutely disgusting, which is the main reason why I don't drink anything with them in.

Mine are 15 and 18 so they can drink what they want tbh. When younger I policed it more. They still drink water alongside no added sugar squash, fizzy stuff and cider (dd only) and coffee (also dd).