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?

The NHs doesn’t tell you not to eat salt or sugar. They ADVISE that parents don’t add them to a weaning babies food.

I have a really bad relationship with food. I was raised on junk food, if I was upset I was given sweets. If I did well at school we celebrated with cake. As an adult I'm overweight and have been since I was 10, I'm stuck in a constant cycle of weight watchers, slimming world. I cannot tolerate healthy food, I really try because I want to enjoy healthy food but the textures turn my stomach because I was never exposed to them as a child and I have the palette of a five year old. I keep trying but because I can't make myself like the food I can't stick to it. Id I'm sad- food, if I'm celebrating - food, special occasion - more food!!! I was anorexic for three years because I couldn't stand it anymore and I watched my mum diet for thirty years whilst still eating crap because she couldn't cook. After I got better it was straight back to junk food because it's all I can enjoy eating. I literally cannot have a healthy relationship with food. My mum did that to me.

I will not have it for my daughter. She was weaned on vegetables, snacks on fruit and berries. My mum thinks it's shocking she's never eaten a jar of baby food because that's all she fed me until I was 2. It shows. "Gosh I can't believe she eats all this variety of fresh fruit and vegetables! You would never eat that when you were a toddler!" Did you give it to me mum "no... Not until you were older and then you wouldn't eat it". No shit Sherlock!!! The "their kids just give them chicken nuggets" attitude is the unhealthy mind set that fucks them and their relationship with food for life. Not weaning them on vegetables and actually following the health guidance given by dieticians FFS.

Our nursery (Canada) has a morning snack which often includes a treat like granola bar, cheerios, biscuit or fruit yogurt but no more than 6 or 7g added sugar. From about age 2 my younger kid has probably had the same on non nursery days because that’s my limit. A maria or social tea biscuit with 5g of sugar for 2 and simple ingredients is fine with me. It gives me convenience, processed but not UPF. The fruit yogurts are more processed but some months we have those daily.

Sometimes the guidelines are so strict parents give up. If nothing you do is right, might as well do the easy thing

It is all about balance, but we seem to have lost the ability to use common sense and work to simple bad and good.
There is a thread running at the moment about this very thing and someone has just posted to complain about treats at birthday parties. I mean, how intense do you have to ge to do this, and why is it considered a good thing?

Your attitude is massively unhealthy, which is to be expected from your upbringing but I do think you could stop thinking you have all the answers and start thinking about learning from people with healthy attitudes to food, rather than doing the opposite to someone with an unhealthy attitude, which is just as unhealthy but the other way.

The NHS tells you not to give any food containing ADDED salt or sugar to children under the age of two.

16 - 18 month olds are under two and chocolate has shit loads of sugar in it. HTH.

What damage?!!

My children ate virtually no sweet or ultra processed foods - and never missed it as they were clearly very happy children - until they started school nursery class at 4. At which point, sadly, they discovered chicken nuggets, cheap pizza and ‘pudding’. Luckily they still ate the healthy foods until I cooked at home and, as adults, their diets are mostly very healthy, with little or no ‘sweet treats’.

Children, especially nursery age children, do not need pudding. Certainly not every day.

Damage to their mental health, obviously.

How old is your daughter? I think most toddlers will happily eat fruit!

I haven't banned anything. But it's never entered my mind to give him chocolate or cake. I'm sure if you have older siblings bringing cake from school or whatever and with age, it becomes harder to avoid them. But I feel 16-18 months (the age group of the survey) is very very young to be purposefully given treats.

I agree. We’ve always been in the middle on food, not demonising anything but eating lots of fruit and veg, home cooked meals etc. My kids are not fussy and eat a really wide range of things, loads of different fruit and veg and meats and fish, but they also like chocolate and cake! Anecdotal only but the two fussiest eaters in my 9 year old’s class have parents who are obsessed with UPFs, lack of sugar etc…. But their kids barely eat anything other than processed stuff anyway!

nhs guidance on salt:

Salt
There's no need to add salt to your child's food. Most foods already contain enough salt.
Too much salt can give your child a taste for salty foods and contribute to high blood pressure in later life.
Your whole family will benefit if you gradually reduce the amount of salt in your cooking. Try to limit the amount of salty foods your child has, and always check food labels.

I am following scientific and health service given guidance. Feeding my toddler food which is not out of a packet or jar, no added salt and sugar until she is older(not never obviously) and we soothe upsets with non food stuffs and celebrate achievements with toys not food. All were doing is following the advice given by professionals who actually know what they're talking about.

The fact that you think that is extreme is an example of how much society has normalised shit diets. The fact that 2/3 adults are obese and childhood obesity is the highest it's ever been really doesn't suggest the laissez-faire approach you think we should all adopt is working. Why aren't you questioning yourself and why you think you know better than scientists,. dieticians and doctors?

And here I was thinking that some poor sod out there had been getting 16 month out of date old chocolate given to them once a day by their mate.

See this depends on the wording of the question to my mind!! It doesn’t say they’re given chocolate everyday it says a ‘treat’ and I gave mine a treat everyday but things like a low sugar biscuit. Home made flapjack made with banana and peanut butter etc, as they got older incorporated things like yoghurt raisins. So I would have answered yes to the question but certainly wasn’t giving chocolate at all under 2 and not even close to daily lol

Really? I've got three teenagers and I would say out of their friends.The ones that are the most damaged mentally and physically are the ones that are also overweight.
I went to playgroups with loads of these kids, and their parents often gave them a little treat here and their and late teens, a lot of them are very overweight. Not all but all of the ones that are, are the same parents? The thought I was a knob for giving my kids blueberries rather than chocolate buttons.

As they got older they obviously ate more sweets and crap but at 16 months they can easily not have any.

You're proving my point for me.

I’m not! We can’t send in food either. I kicked up a big fuss about it when she started and it’s slightly better now, but still generally at least one food with added sugar (cake, cookie, yoghurt) a day.

@SummerInSun treat was described in the question as: chocolate, sweets, crisps or ice cream. So you would have said "no".

I follow the NHs guidence but of course, being a mentally healthy independent person,

I Don’t live by them ie if the guidances said never give my child a cake (they don’t), I would indeed ignore it on the occasion i felt they could have a bit of cake.

that’s normal, healthy behaviour and sets a normal, healthy example to your child.

Im guessing it’s a lot of younger siblings and tbh like others have said, most people in this country have daily treats and kids want exactly what we have.

Nice try 😂 we can all read your posts, you know.

The question given described treat as chocolate, crisps, ice cream or sweets!

With my first I was so strict but then nursery happened. They always gave cake for pudding when a child had a birthday which seemed to be every other day in autumn and now he’s hooked. He has very healthy meals although limited so we do allow one chocolate treat a day. Unfortunately my second child is a very picky toddler is already trying to copy. :(

I don’t really know what you’re saying. You obviously know nothing about the teenage mental health of some random fat kids at playgroup.