Who gives a 16 month old chocolate every day?

[456FTMCoffeeDiet]

Just read a recent government statistic that HALF of toddlers in the UK between 16 and 18 months old get a treat daily (i.e. chocolate, ice cream, crisps, cake). WTF? Who does that? I have every sympathy re weaning and feeding toddlers, my toddler has dairy, egg and a few other random allergies so my head is about to explode trying to cook food and snacks for him every day. It's a gigantic pain and source of stress. And I have nothing against an ocasional treat. But cake and ice cream daily when they're under 2?

I get there will be a small number of very fussy eaters and you just need to give them some calories ? But that doesn't explain half of toddlers, no way. Anyone here who does this, why do you do it?

AIBU to be shocked?

Between 16 and 18 months is an utterly.l bizarre stat to collect!!?

sounds like the routine of a French goûter? Chocolate and baguette every day 😋 not sure if it makes much difference if they’re younger really as long as the portions are appropriate?

Considering how many adults eat a treat daily, that figure doesn’t surprise me.

My kids first ate daily chocolate when they were potty training but obviously not at age 16 to 18 months and it was obviously a temporary thing.

I didn’t give my daughter any chocolate, cake or crisps until she was 3 and had seen other children eating them in playgroup. I don’t understand why anyone would give sweets to a small child. They don’t miss what they’ve never had and it gives them a chance to develop a palette for actual food.

I’m sure I’ll be called a sanctimonious cow for that, but my child has never had a tooth cavity and has always eaten proper food. I admit I might have been lucky, but I would like to claim one parenting win because god knows I made mistakes elsewhere!

Loads of people do!
Early years settings recently had new nutrition guidance and lots of childminders got stricter on lunch box policies as a result.
The number of childminders I've heard from who have had parents complaining that they are requesting no sweets or chocolate in toddler's lunch boxes, or asking parents to restrict themselves to crisps OR cake but not both 😂

My child’s nursery does, unfortunately…

**palate, d’oh

I don’t really think this is true tbh. There doesn’t seem to be a link between what children eat as babies and their lifelong palates. Lots of children get fussy much older, 7,8,9 etc.

it’s like when people bang on about how sophisticated their baby is for loving humus when every baby loves humus 😂

Is that definitely correct? The study seems to say 38% of toddlers ate treat foods (not just chocolate, could include home-made cake with no icing for eg.) 2 - 4 times per week.
www.gov.uk/government/publications/eating-habits-of-children-aged-16-to-18-months/eating-habits-of-children-aged-16-to-18-months-report

Most young toddlers go to nursery and will get given a (hopefully homemade) pudding there so I imagine that’s the most likely explanation. I don’t get the issue really.

Yes, it says 49% said they gave a treat a day.

It's like the pouch debacle all over again.

The NHS weaning guidance, freely and easily available to all parents with babies and physically given to me as a leaflet on multiple occasions from health visitors states that babies under two.uears.old.shoulf not be given any food with added salt or sugar. Yet people are giving them chocolate, biscuits, cake etc. in my die date group they talk about how much their babies love McDonald's chicken nuggets!! How they haven't salt poisoned the poor buggers is beyond me!!! When the pouch debacle happened a few months ago many parents were genuinely upset because they thought they had been doing a good job by weaning their babies on processed puree mush because there was a picture of a vegetable on the front.

It's really sad how inadequate parenting is in the UK, it's why child outcomes are generally poor across the country apart from wealthy areas. It's like feeding a toddler real vegetables is an alien concept, the bar is.so.low.no.womder they grow up overweight and with a shit relationship with food which traps them in poor health for life. Children are being failed by their parents and it's so normal they don't even get judged for it. It really upsets me.

Interesting, mine doesn't go to nursery. I'd be pretty appalled to pay 30k a year to find out my toddler gets chocolate every day. And homemade pudding is still full of sugar. Completely unnecessary.

Do you know how rare salt poisoning is?

that’s why babies don’t have salt poisoning in the uk.

Let me have my win! 🥲

In seriousness, is it the only determinant - no. I do believe it is a contributing factor, though. I remember seeing my sister in law feeding her 1-year-old cake and the child didn’t want to eat anything else on that occasion. This seemed to be the way things went in their house. It is a highly fussy child now.

My child never had the opportunity to develop a preference for junk food over other food because it just wasn’t offered. There’s also research showing that tastes develop over repeated exposure, or the acceptance of new tastes. It stands to reason that if a caregiver feeds a child something nicer, they’ll want that and the child won’t have the opportunity to develop a liking for other flavours.

I don’t understand why someone would choose to feed a child junk food unless they had to, and the line for me was when they were exposed to these foods by others, because I didn’t want them to be the weird child who didn’t know what chocolate was!

i honestly think this demonisation of sweet and yummy food is massively unhealthy.

Poor mental health and othroexia / eating disorders are a big problem for young people.

Associating such emotion with food under the guise of health contributes to this. It’s over the top and uninformed, and you’re starting it from birth. I would really urge you to think about the damage this does.

Oh yes sorry - I can see that now. That doesn't seem to tally with the 38% 2 - 4 times per week above. They can't both be right!

It was sarcasm.

High levels of salt won't kill a weaning baby/toddler but their developing kidneys can't process it so it can lead to long-term health issues like high blood pressure, kidney problems, and it may create a preference for salty foods later in life.

Your attitude of "not sure why it's a problem as long as the portions are appropriate for small kids" showcases perfectly that this awful attitude to food is so ingrained in our culture parents don't think twice about feeding their kids shit the NHS literally tells them not to.

wow at nursery, I would not be happy with this!

Oh they sanctimony of those with toddlers who are absolutely convinced that banning treats means that (a) they are superior parents and (b) it is an insurance policy that their toddler will favour healthy foods forever.
Those of us with older children (like me) have learned that it basically doesn't matter what you do, your child will plough its own furrow when it comes to diet. I have three, 18-32, all weaned rhe same and fed the same in their early years and all have vastly different attitudes to healthy eating as adults.
In fact, I would go further and say by pushing a constant agenda of nothing unhealthy, you are creating a situation where your child will sell out the forbidden goodies when they are able. I have seen it so many times.

@MyDogHumpsThings How old is your child?

It isn't "chocolate every day" though is it? It's a 'treat' every day. So that could be anything, like an oatie bar or mashed banana and yoghurt.

Depends what you call a treat tbh. One of mine would genuinely have chosen fruit over biscuits at that age.

I eat a treat daily and so do my (older) kids. All healthy weights, as the rest of their diet is good. Balancing is the key plus appropriate portions.

But what does ”treat” mean? At that age my toddlers would have had strawberry yoghurt, or a homemade muffin with virtually no sugar, or even stewed fruit, as a treat. So if I was asked that survey question I would have said “yes of course they get treats” but that would NOT have meant chocolate or crisps.

No they don’t get chocolate at nursery. They get a small serving of a homemade fruit based, low sugar pudding after lunch e.g. banana loaf slice or apple and blackberry crumble with custard. Which is a desert/cake so for the purposes of this discussion counts as a ‘treat’. I imagine that’s most kids of that age are actually consuming as opposed to eating sweets, chocolate or ice cream on the regular.