How much biscuits, cakes sweets do your children have age 5- 9 yrs

[t875]

Just wondering how much 'junk' food do your children have? With all the talk about healthy eating i do let them have sweets, crisps, chocolate etc but im not sure if im depriving them or letting them have too much.

Cheers guys!!

They have a treat most days at breaktime, this could be a sweet roll (pain au lait) or fruit, or a small packet of gummibears.

Other than that they often have a croissant or a pain au lait at the weekends for breakfast and sometimes crepes/cake/strudel one weekend afternoons, if we are out for the day.

Kids 7 and 9.

They probably have at least 'one' unhealthy thing each day, so e.g.

• a few crisps with tea

OR

• a couple of biscuits in their snack box (if we're low on fruit)

OR

• a mini chocolate bar on the way home from school

OR

• a few sweets in the car on a trip at the weekend

but I tend to balance it out across the day, and will say, "if you had biscuits at break, have a banana now"

It gets harder though as they get older, and going mroe places with friends, and also asking to help themselves more to snacks.

Bucket loads . But they are skinny mins!

Sweets a couple of times a week-usually when Grandma comes.

Biscuits/cake kind of thing everyday after a meal.

Typically: 3 bix + 1 hot chocolate/day.
1 bag of crisps / school day (rarer on weekends)
Sweets/chocolate typically only in place of some or all the bix/HC.
1 cheese string most school days.

I have all but stopped buying biscuits and chocolate because the DDs descend on them like vultures and eat the lot in seconds.

So now once a week I buy them an after-school treat at the boulangerie (a pain au chocolat or somesuch) and either I or DD2 usually makes a cake at some stage during the week.

They sometimes have some tortilla chips or crisps and a glass of lemonade on Saturdays before dinner while DH & I slurp whisky or gin...

Dd1 has a biscuit after breakfast, sometimes a small choc biscuit or a handful of crisps in her lunch and sometimes cake as pudding in the evening.

They rarely have sweets apart from when grandparents buy them.

DS (5) has a fun size choc bar about 4-5 times a week, cakes a few times a month, puddings only at school (school dinners) or when we go for a meal at nanny's or great-nan's.

Sweets very, very rare - usually birthdays and national holidays only.

Oh, and typically no other cakes/lollies/ice cream etc.
And only a smidgeon of sugary cereal allowed daily.
Do let 'em have scones/pancakes/fruit loaf 4 breakfast sometimes tho'. .
Am probably quite lax by Online standards, but am very strict compared 2 what I observe IRL.

....and a pudding every day at school dinners of course.

but seriously, DS 9 has probably
2 packets crisps per week.
1 pack of chocolatey sweets, eg minstrels or rolos (I help him by eating a few).
Sweet pudding or icecream maybe twice a week at home, usually when he has a friend round, or at a friends house.
Chocolate bar like penguin probably twice a week.

as well as horrible haribos or whatever gets dished out at school for birthdays etc, and party food averages about once a month.

Then there's christmas, where I'll probably let him eat non-stop chocolate for a day or two (till it's gone or secreted into my private store aka the freezer)

I think it is too much, but banning them completely would result in WW3

DS can get quite obsessional about a lot, so I will also use chocolate as a threat. Seems to be the only thing that will work!

Just last night he started creating and was just about to get into a huff as I wouldn't let him have any choc. Dinner was about 10 mins away and I said he could have a bit after.

So as a result of the huff he started I banned him from chocolate for 3 days.

He also only has cheerios, rice crispies or weetabix for cereals. Coco pops are a nanny's house treat if we ever stay over there.

Biscuits and cakes are not junk food.

But since you asked, they have biscuits every day at afternoon snack unless we are having pancakes or cake. (In general I make a cake once a week and there are four of us in the family.)

Sweets and/or chocs get handed out at school when it is a birthday, works out about every other week.

Crisps with picnics and school trips and if we have friends over for drinks/go over to friends for drinks so I'd say a couple of times a month.

They are nearly 5 and nearly 7.

I try to balance.

so fruit HAS to be eaten every day, before any treat. If its left in the lunch bag, then it is eated 1st or no treat.

crisps maybe one bag every 3rd day.
mini chocolate treat maybe every other day.

But we do eat tons of fruit and veg and i have always used treaty type stuff as a reward or special treat and it is restricted.

I refuse to buy sweets, crisps, biscuits or cakes from the supermarket.

dd2 is allowed to make fairy cakes or chocolate cookies and all the ingridents are readily available in the cuboards.

Crisps if we are out and they are requested, for example after swimming.

Chocalte sometimes after swimming.

If its in the house I eat it so it is easier as an occasional request and if they are bothered to make bake it then that is fine as it is about once a week or two.

I do get a bag of banans, pears, apples, satsumers, a melon and kiwi every week
so they don't go without

Thanks for the responses everyone.

Yeah we alternate it here, i will a few days a week after school get a cookie or something chocolatey, they have fruit in their lunch box everyday,

They have a small box of currents after school a few times a week, they have a fair amount of veg and fruit at home, i add fruit to their packed lunches

Crisps majority of days in their packed lunch.

sweets they dont have often and i was wondering whether i was depriving them, i do have this continuing power struggle with the 9 yr old!!

Do you let them help themselves? I know I cant as they will not stop at one of 2! Lol!

Interesting to read what everyone does!

a cake or crisps each day. Sweets and chocolate not very often because we don't tend to have them in and we don't go to the shops very often.

Today though dd has had crisps and cake and chocolate and a lolipop. and I don't care! sticks out tongue.

To be honest, Halloween was my biggest nightmare - the DCs went trick or treating with friends, and came back with far too much crap. We put it away in a tin as an occasional 'treat' and they are allowed something maybe 2-3 times a week after school.
However during the day I have been going through it and chucking stuff like Haribos out so that it goes down quicker!

DS1 9 is much better at regulating than DS2 (7).

Sometimes I will say, "yes, you can get yourself a snack, but it must be a muesli bar/piece of fruit/ yoghurt frube.
I get very when DS2 refers to sweets as 'snacks'....

My DC's school dinners usually include cake or some sort of pudding with custard, so I am greeting them at pick up time with fruit! Goes down like a lead balloon, but hey-ho. When I do bake, I try to make healthy cakes - using grated veg or apple puree instead of butter. DD1 has a VERY sweet tooth and would happily gorge on cakes and biscuits all day, every day. Weekday puddings are fruit and yoghurt. I sometimes make a fruit crumble at the weekend and serve it with good quality ice cream. DC will often have a pack of crisps when we are having a picnic lunch. I never have them in the house because I would munch my way through the lot!