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?

My mother did only I was a year old. Unforgivable.

That’s rubbish. I still vividly remember the look of horror on a set of parents face at DDs 3rd birthday party when they saw the party food, their kid was the first at the chocolate fingers and was hoarding food like she’d never see it again, they were ulling it out of every pocket and anywhere she could stash it as they left.

Moderation is the key, occasional chocolate/ice cream/biscuits aren’t bad, it’s when the balance is wrong that there are problems.

Years ago when I was living on the family farm, they hired a new ranch hand - they moved in to the house close to mine.
So to be neighbourly, I bought them a beautiful strawberry pie as a homecoming gift and walked it over.
The lady invited me in…… and there at their table sat the cutest little girl. Except she weighed 10 stone, easy. She was 4 or 5 years old.
I had to gather myself - and I felt stupid for taking such a thoughtless gift.
It was 4pm - and the woman was fixing “a snack” for this young lady — she pulled an entire cookie sheet of chicken nuggets out of the oven.
There must’ve been 20 nuggets on that pan.
”Just something to tide her over until supper,” the woman said.”
That little girl looked like she was about to burst.
And I think that woman showed she loved her by feeding her. All the time. Non-stop.
I don’t know, but that little girl was huge.
I was shocked.
Looking back, it’s heartbreaking.
And me with that stupid, f**kng pie.

your daughter was 3, verbal and this was a party. You weren't shovelling it into her mouth when she was still spoon fed infant.

I think this is where people will just fundamentally differ, because I’ve never eaten daily treats and it seems totally weird to me to do so. Surely if you have it every day it’s hardly a treat!!

I was a child who was raised never eating junk food - if I had it at a party or a restaurant or whatever else no comment was passed, but my mum would certainly never feed it to me. I’m so glad she raised me this way.

I’m now a healthy adult and I have a great relationship with food, in so much as I really do LOVE food - but the food I love is healthy and nutritious.

Absolutely this👆I have a friend who was so obsessed about healthy eating two of her adult children are clinically obese !
Orhorexia is a huge problem with the younger generation as well .

There is banning treats and turning treats into a daily thing when they are no longer treats but part of the normal diet

treats - something perhaps at the weekend / a Friday trip to the sweatshop for one thing and a home made cake for Sunday.

I don't really remember what DD ate at that age, she was still heavily reliant on breastmilk. But she's 5 now and I guess she does have some sort of treat every day, either strawberries and ice cream, apple crumble and custard, or some other pudding after her dinner most days. Sometimes she'll talk DH into getting her a gingerbread man or a kinder egg in town. I grew up always having dinner and then pudding, with nothing off limits, and I'm a healthy weight and have a healthy attitude to food. I'd say that things were probably worse in the 90s when it was totally normal to have Frosties or Coco Pops for breakfast, washed down with Sunny D, and given weekly pocket money to spend on weird, brightly coloured novelty sweets from the corner shop. And when I was au-pairing in Spain the kids had pre-bought individually wrapped cakes every day for breakfast, but you rarely saw obese kids and they were just as happy with olives as with sweets.

Not really a shock. I think from an early age I was given home made puddling/cake most days (in the 80’s), chocolate and sweets were a weekly treat rather than daily. As most small children now attend nursery, many of them will get a home made pudding as part of their nursery meal? Or a yoghurt which is likely full of sugar.

Its not just chocolate though is it OP? Its a treat. A bit of pudding, a fromage frais, a little orange juice. Theyre all treats.

"When asked about how often biscuits, sweets, chocolates or cakes were eaten, 38% of caregivers reported that they were eaten by children between 2 and 4 times a week. One in 10 (13%) children were reported to eat these foods every day, and a similar proportion (9%) never ate them."

That is from the survey and heres the link https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/eating-habits-of-children-aged-16-to-18-months/eating-habits-of-children-aged-16-to-18-months-report#background-and-methodology

So 13% of these toddlers ate chocolate, cake, biscuits or sweets everyday. And 9% never ate them.

Of course it makes a difference, You would be setting them up for a future life with diabetes, heart conditions and much else, as well associating sweet foods with love and approval - eating disorders almost inevitable! I can hardly believe anyone could think this is OK just because its easy and everyone else does it. To me its beyond lazy, and negligent too.

DD's pudding at nursery and also primary school was subject to different regulartions than when I bake.

Her primary school had the food available for tasting at parent evenings and believe me - it was so bland and unsweetened, I didn't wonder that DD hardly ate it.

For example an apple crumble would be mainly cooked apples with a small scattering of crumbs, nearly unsweeten, and some low sugar custard.

We had some junk food when I was a child, my kids had some junk food when they were little. We're all now healthy adults with great relationships with food and all are also keen cooks and love healthy and nutritious food as well as the occasional piece of chocolate, and all on the slim end of normal, so go figure.

@childofthe607080s

treats - something perhaps at the weekend / a Friday trip to the sweatshop for one thing and a home made cake for Sunday.

If you're sending your kids to a sweatshop on a Friday, I think a few sweets is the least you can do. 😂Sorry, couldn't resist.

Our kitchen was always stocked with crisps, crackers, sweets, goodies - everything you could possibly desire.
We never over-indulged, we never even thought about raiding the kitchen - because we didn’t have to - everything was right there.
It takes the desire away, I suppose.
But chocolates - every Christmas my father’s business associate would gift us a 5 pound (weight) box of very fancy chocolates. I can’t imagine how much he spent.
Mum would allow each of us one piece and then she’d hide the rest. She’d eat 5 pounds of chocolate.
Otherwise, she was rational.
Some people are irrational over chocolate. Some people are irrational over crisps. Others over ice cream. Some people can’t get a grip on sugar.
Some people aren’t irrational over anything.

That's not true or everyone in France would be obese and have EDs when in fact they have a much better relationship with food than us. We've lost sight of moderation.

@user2255679541🤣

Well, I am that parent - at least with my second who demanded everything her brother had. They are 4 and 2 and are bribed with chocolate most days. We have a tub of miniature heroes which are the current bribes/rewards. Potty training started the whole saga and it’s carried on from there.

However, I don’t see it as a big deal because I care hugely about their diets and try to expose them to lots of different foods to enjoy. Today they had chicken lentil soup for tea, yesterday they had salmon, potatoes and green beans. I like to think their diet overall is pretty good and a miniature hero a day hopefully won’t cause any long term problems.

Tbh most people in the UK seem to have no idea about nutrition or guidelines. It’s estimated that 75-80% of adults will be overweight or obese by 2050.

People are also totally brainwashed by what I call ‘health washing’. You know, the kids yoghurt drops that claim to have calcium and probiotics and real fruit (but don’t mention a pack is 9g of sugar) or the purees that claim to be fruit and veg but only have 2% spinach and the rest is blended fruit (Aka free sugars).

So I’m not surprised that half of parents think giving their kid cake everyday is ok… they likely eat sweets or cakes or crisps every day too as part of a ‘normal’ lunch.

Half of Britain is overweight and many people won’t even realise it. And I know it’s hard, I was overweight myself (BMI) and fit in a size 10. But we really really need to educate the public more… and people need to care and listen.

So at that age mine would have had a treat everyday- however all homemade
Made homemade cake- with apple sauce rather than sugar
Made cake with tinned peaches rather than sugar
Made cake with carrot, orange, avocado or courgette and not sugar
Made flapjack with grated carrot, apple sauce and raisins
She had pizza pinwheels and cheese twists
I made homemade crackers rather than giving crisps
However at that age I had time with maternity leave etc to make things- I no longer have the luxury .... And I got creative to give her food without added sugar or salt. ..

I completely agree with this.

I think this is just so silly. Some homemade cake or a piece of good quality chocolate per day is just not a big deal. When kids eat a lot of good food and vegetables there's a lot of fibre there and they fill up fast. If you teach them early on to enjoy a small amount of something sweet they'll retain a sense of proportion about it. People would rather get themselves worked up though.

The question said “such as” chocolate, crisps, ice cream or sweets which leaves it open to interpretation.

The report even points out this could have happened when it explains why there’s discrepancies in the data;
“Nearly half (49%) of caregivers said they gave their child a treat once a day. This appears to be inconsistent with responses to an earlier question where caregivers said 13% of children had ‘biscuits, sweets, chocolate or cakes’ every day, and 14% had ‘crisps and corn snacks’ every day. This may be due to:

• differences in the way these questions were asked in the survey
• limited answer options in the ‘treat’ question
• differences in the interpretation of ‘treats’ by caregivers”

Eating disorders almost inevitable 😁that's really made me laugh.

Apple sauce behaves exactly like white sugar in the body. It’s still a free sugar…