Is it better to give your DC's sweet things so that they are not forbiden and they don't become become obssessed about them?

[josben]

My DS2 went to a party last weekend and when all the food came out he went straight for the choc biscuits and cakes. I know most children would've done this also but he was obsessively filling his plate with these things! I try not to give my DC's sweets or cakes but now i'm wondering if I'm right as his friends who seem to have unlimited sweet things at home, really didn't seem as bothered with the sweets or cakes...?? My Mum never allowed us sweets or choc when we were growing up and I must admit that I now have a really sweet tooth - (one of the reasons I don't have any sweet stuff in our house...)

I had very few sweet foods as a child. My mum didn't have a sweet tooth, and rarely bought any.

I have a very sweet tooth, and used to be desperate for goodies as a child. Am still that way now, cannot give up goodies, no matter how hard I try, and I get panicky if I don't have immediate access to them.

I don't think denying it totally, works, you just want them more and more, and tbh I think my being given very few set up an un
healthy pattern which still dominates my life now

Agree with 'everything in moderation'. My mum was militant about not letting me have any sweets/biscuits etc as a child and by the time I was about 10 I was woofing down a quarter of lemon sherberts in about 7 minutes flat. Am still disgustingly unable to hang onto anything sweet for any length of time.

What is a fruit shoot?

My ds (2.9) has led a sheltered life so far! At the moment I am able to walk past the sweet counter without breaking out into a cold sweat, although he has just started pre school so I imagine that's all about to be turned on it's head! He is allowed home made biscuits and cakes, although he doesn't seem to have that much of a sweet tooth at the mo... As he gets older though I think I will be going down the moderation route, but only once he stumbles upon the refined sugar for himself!!

I was about to say what Brang said - fructose in fruit etc. We can live very well without sucrose. In the summer with some native Indians - I haev never seen such huge groups of people where everyone is the same size and no obesity in a single person. It was an amazing sight. Their diet is fish, veg and presumably some carbohydrate or other. Anyway we don't ban the sugar things here but don't tend to buy them so they might get apple pie after school lunch but if they're hungry at home there isn't a cupboard full of biscuits to pick at.

As I recall we don't ingest sucrose. Enzymes break sucrose down into simpler sugars. We evolved to deal with a high sugar diet.

Thus the fact that it's sucrose doesn't directly matter. The problem is that it's so easy to take in such a large hit that the mechanisms we evolved get swamped. A side effect, but possibly worse for kids is that it reduces the appetite for things that contain more complex nutrients.

my ds has sweetie day which is a saturday when hes allowed to have sweets and a lollypops, ho deos have cakes and biscuits throughout the week but in moderation. I nicked the idea of sweetie day of my mate who said it worked until the age of seven then it all went tits up!

Due to allergies, DS doesn't get sweets. For Christmas I went through all the trouble to get something he may eat and... apart of chocolate, he refuses to eat/try the other ones.

When I was growing up, I was allowed as much chocolate and as many crisps as I wanted. Actually, it was quite embarrassing because I used to turn up at school with big bags of mini eggs, and semi-family sized crisp packets that other kids made fun of. You know, those biggish M&S ones, sticks and things. I didn't eat the gummy sweets/boiled sweets my friends seemed constantly to be eating, and have no fillings. Also, I was a very skinny kid and teenager, and never weighed over 8 stone apart from a) on the pill for 3 months and b) pregnant and now post-pregnancy. I've also never dieted, at least not very seriously and not for more than a couple of days. So it worked for me. But I was really active as a kid and I just think that's not going to be possible for my kid - I spent all evening rollerskating on the roads in front of my house or on my bike, and in the middle of London that's not going to be possible.

My brother has also always been skinny. My mum is pretty fat, so it's not necessarily a genetic stroke of luck.

Oh but - sorry - I think kids' foods are formulated now in a way that's rather more conducive to overeating. They have additives and more empty calories. Also, I'm reminded of a really funny bit in War of the Roses where Kathleen Turner patiently explains to Michael Douglas that it's important not to demonise any foods because it encourages obesity in children, and they should eat whatever they want. Then it cuts to 8 years later and they have two monstrously fat children.

I don't think it matters.

Your child's natural metabolism is basically inherited from you.

Their exercise and eating habits as adults will also come from watching you.

I say indulge, and give them a good example by attending the gym.

Please excuse bad grammar as my comma key seems to be broken. Could be the wine I spilled on the keyboard last week but who knows?

I was banned sweets and all junk as a child. We were allowed one treat each week always on Thursday so my mother didn't have to hear about it the rest of the week. I now love all manner of ice cream...cake...ice cream...chocolate...ice cream. You see my pattern.

Dh was allowed as much junk as he wanted to eat. As an adult he can take it or leave it and frequently leaves a pint of ice cream in the freezer for two weeks which drives me batty. He purposely buys flavors I hate so that I will leave it alone .

I try to limit dd's sweets/junk intake to a reasonable amount but I don't freak out about it when someone gives her candy or anything. She also seems to have a healthy relationship with her food just like her father.

Just reading a few of these posts, it sounds like everyone is different. Some like some dislike, some had some did not have as children. I didnt have as a child (2 sweets after Sunday lunch only) and I do not have a sweet tooth now. I can leave bars of chocolate int he cupboard for months and have just the odd square usually as a craving just pre period. I think it comes down to the relationship you have with food. If sweet things are a comfort for you then you'll crave them in times of stress/need. I tend to reach for a bit of smelly cheese!! if hungry or actually not eat at all if I'm miserable. Perhaps if you keep your child amused with biscuits and sweets to get you through a shopping trip them they'll be more likely to crave them as a comfort food later on, or as a boredom distraction.

I think we all have quite a relaxed and healthy attitude to food in our house (mostly a balanced diet, 3 meals a day, occasional treats) DS (2.10) has chocolate maybe twice a week, ice cream on holiday and cakes and puddings when his mum can be a**sed to make them. His biggest food treat are clementinews and he would choose savoury over sweet 90% of the time, using chocolate buttons for potty training was a dismal failure!

Whilst growing up we had a no sweets before lunch rule, which I largely abide by now, I cannot eat sweet things in the morning just seems wrong. We had sweets after school on tues and fri and after sunday lunch- i think this is about right. However my sister is a confirmed chocoholic so there you go .

I had a lot of chocolate when I was young, ranging from coco pops to choc bars. I am still mad over chocolate & scavenge around the house looking for secret supplies ( I don't tend to buy it to stop me eating it & then only buy organic, which I'm not really that keen on!)

DD1 didn't have chocolate until she was 2. I put white choc buttons in the parcel the parcel bags. She doesn't like white choc though...phew !

Her favorite sweet thing is, well things rally are; fresh pineapple, melon, pure juice ice lollies, homemade smoothie ice lollies, satsumas & grapes. All fruit things. Oh yes, & gelatine free jelly

I recently made a chocolate self saucing pudding ( we do have homemade puddings when I'm in the mood) at a friends house & she choose melon over it ( does that say much for my cooking ?!)

I think I've succeeded in giving her a inclination to a savory tooth - or else I've brain washed her - either way, I would HATE her to have this desperate & manic chocolate habit that I have.

Apparently if you can keep sugary foods out of their diet for the first 2 years of their life, they won't have a preference.

I liked this article about children and sweets.....

here

Thanks for posting that article, KTeePee. I liked it too.

My ds's like most things, especially veg, fruit and sweets. DS1 is as happy with olives as chocolate, but I do not hold with blanket banning- it makes things more attractive imo. Is about good eating habits for life after all- teaching them healthy skills for when they have their own choices

well i'm just not sure how much you can really influence it
my dh was given sweets, cakes etc growing up - lots of siblings - and he has the most sweet tooth i have ever come across. I just can't have anything in the house as he can't leave it alone.

my mum was very relaxed but we didn't really have chocolate/sweets in the house as my sister had a growth disorder and put on weight easily. I can completely take or leave chocolate/sweets. They were never banned, but neither did we have many as they just weren't around.

My dds - i decided to be fairly relaxed, they both had a chocolate button at about 8 or 9 months. Both of them looked like they had tasted the most amazing gorgeous thing on earth. Even now they love chocolate, and biscuits - so i just can't have them in the house... it must be nature over nurture, cos i just don't get it.

My mum always told us she didn't like chocolate but would only eat the best belgian chocolates at Christmas time... but she was making us once a week a delicious chocolate mousse, and baking a chocolate cake once a month too. It made us appreciating chocolates and i am working on the same rule for our DD... i wouldn't forbid sweets and chocolates but make her appreciating them.. I think it will work better that way!!!

i'm with Budababe on this one

i think mine have realised that at 4 & 2, they are just that treats, and get them if all the good dinner is eaten or if they've been really good or i need some peace ! but its not a free or all. and with perceverience on my part their actual palate is quite savory now, and dd will eat most things including fish. ds is going thru is i dont like dinner phase but thats fine cos there aint anything til breakfast the next day.

Moderation - couldn't face a life without chocolates and sweet things in my life. I'd rather my children sought solace in a bar of galaxy as they got older than something more sinister .

When I was a kid we had no junk food at all, and chocolate at Christmas only. When I went to parties I gulped down ornage squash -thought it was the elixir of the Gods, couldn't get enough of it. When I left home at 18, I lived on Pot Noodle, kebabs and tinned custard for years. Junk food had been forbidden for so long, I needed to eat as much as I could. Now I eat very healthily.

I reckon moderation is the answer. Mind you, I'd be lucky if DS would eat anything, but that's another story!