Do you give your DC's sweeties / lollipops and if so, how often?

[ilikeyoursleeves]

OK this might sound PFBish but just wondering about giving DS lollipops etc. He is 20 months old and had his first one when on holiday a few months ago. I gave him one the other week to stop him whinging and it worked a treat . He doesn't normally get any sweets apart from dolly mixtures and chocolate buttons from the inlaws when he sees them.

He was out with DH this morning to give me a rest (I am 9 months PG) and when they came back he had a lollipop as a treat from daddy. He loved it but I just kept thinking about his wee teeth as he'd been sooking it for an hour!!! I brushed his teeth after he finished it but then I'm thinking, am I being too uptight here? I won't be giving his sweets all the time but I know others love to (as in said inlaws) but feel it would be a bit mean to ask them not to give him sweets too. I give his raisins all the time so not sure if they are just as sugary?

So just wondering what you do or would do?

I prefer chocolate to sweets and lollipops as it isn't in the mouth as long. Raisins are also sugary, so I tend to give them after meals. I think everything in moderation is fine, but at 20 months I would be concerned about the choking risk from lollipops.

Mine do have ice cream cones and ice lollies sometimes though.

mine have sweets if they get a party bag and if we go somewhere special

so today was the summer fair and they had sweets and an incecream

but then they will go a whole week or more with nothing at all

as long as it isn't every day it's ok

I don't give DS sweets or chocs as a rule. He may get something from Granny, at a party or from friends but I don't go out of my way to give them to him at other times.

Raisins he will get once every couple of days maybe as a snack as they are pretty sugary too. If you are looking for less sugary snacks, how about breadsticks, cheese straws, scones? Sounds a bit mean, but DS loves fresh bread and butter as a snack!

The reason I don't mind DS having sweets now and then is that he is used to drinking water and not juice, so I feel I bit more relaxed on the food front as his teeth are not being constantly bathed in suger.

When she asks for them, which is about once a week to 2 weeks. They are in the fridge/cupboard and she can help herself. She's 4.9 so it's different, but we have had biscuits etc out for her since about 2years old. She is more likely to take a bagel or a yogurt tbh. Of course there are fruit, breadsticks etc around too.

dd2 might be more into sweets though - so I don't know if we'll have to change our policy. I think I'll continue to have all things within their reach, and monitor how much they are using up. So far so good with dd1, but I realise I am now doomed as I have spoken of it

Daily. Mainly choc, but they do have sweets/lollies instead if they ask.

I rarely buy fizzy drinks/squash though.

My DS ,who is a lot older than yours, has chocolate and cake frequently but I don't like him having sweets and lollipops so these are really only when they come in party bags.

I would not have given lollipops to a 20 month old child.

All the time
But in moderation
I eat lots of chocolate and icecream and cake
Balanced with lots of healthy home cooked food and fruit
My father is a dentist and my brother and sister-in-law too
so my dad doesn't bat an eyelid, but my DB and DSIL do
Mainly sweets and chocolates , occasional lolly use
We drink fruit juice and water
But we brush our teeth religiously
I don't want any food to become forbidden or bad or 'naughty'
Everything in moderation

you know, according to my dentist, the worse thing you can give your child is lots of raisins. Not only are they pure sugar but they are really sticky...
ds1 had a filling when he was 5 due to raisins, I really did not realise how bad they were and it turned out, nursery, childminder and myself were all giving them
Ds' are now allowed sweets or chocolate once a week on Fridays.
Ds1 has a really sweet tooth and would hunt them out if he was allowed them more regularly.

And no raisins
[pats herself on the back]

Much the same as DR.

I strongly believe you should not restrict or ban certain foods. Just makes them want them more.

Lollipops on the odd occasion. Chocolate on more regular occasion but still as a treat, as is the case with other sweets. All in moderating but certainly not withheld due to teeth problems. She cleans her teeth every day with little fuss (now), and eats well in all other aspects, fruit vegetables, meat fish, so no problems here with her having lollipops as treats.

DS is the same age as yours and he doesn't have sweets as a rule. But i had a Percy Pigs the other day after work (also pregnant!) And He had an ear of one and was so chuffed! So a little and infrequent treats are ok.

At his Nana's he broke into a chocolate (he has a dairy intolerance) bar and was caught on the floor sucking it. It was removed resulting in an almighty tantrum. Poor nana.

he has raisins quite often and biscuits but sweetened with fruit juice not sugar.

He only drinks water and Milk. He'll have a carton of apple juice if we are out and watered down fruit juice at home. But have stopped that as its a bugger to clean the residue out of his beakers especially the ones with the straws!

All in all i'd say no to lollypops.

as is do into fruit that i feel that a mango is probably choca full of sugar but at least its got some vitamins and fibre too! He also has jam and home made lemon curd sometimes which are pretty crap for him too. So i certainly don't have a halo on the sugar front!

What a raaaammmmmmmmmmmmble

He only *usually drinks water and milk.

DD is 26 months, she has been given 'sweeties'/lollipops very rarely, by relatives etc. Was given a lollipop by a waitress in a restaurant the other week without asking me first and I did feel quite pissed off in a PFBish way because I would have said no at the time.She loved it of course.

I let her have chocolate/cake/fruit juice at mealtimes quite often (not altogether) ie several times a week, very careful with teeth cleaning. I haven't been to dentist for many years a while but have never had any fillings.