Sweets - do you allow them? Interesting article in Guardian weekend mag

[edam]

Sense of guilty recognition when I read this - suddenly realised that I do feel smug about feeding ds raisins instead of sweets. Then again, he's only two - maybe it will be different as he gets older?
Unfortunately can't make link work but this is the URL:

www.guardian.co.uk/weekend/story/0,3605,1542389,00.html

link

interesting. like the last line 'any child knows that the calories derived from sweets are not empty. They are full of joy'. very true.

i have been reading the dinner lady recently. the book reminds me of the way i used to eat as a kid, and i would get sweets a couple of times a week (with the odd sneaky one from grandma). she says if you eat well 80% of the time, the rest of the time you can have the naughty stuff. def agree. i think part of the problem is the loss of penny sweets. everywhere does huge choc bars but few places have the pick and mix stuff we had as a kid, and part of the fun was the choosing

Message withdrawn

Grrr, how did you manage to do that GGG? I tried several times, cutting and pasting URL so I knew it was right.

I used to spend my pocket money on flying saucers... yummy.

Pruni, I felt 'good' about ds not being given sweets, because I've got a sweet tooth (developed in pregnancy, ironically enough - craved chocolate digestives) and didn't want to hand it on to him. I do give him chocolate occasionally - he'd eat it all day if I let him, after discovering chocolate coins at Christmas when he was 1 1/2.

sorry! dont really know what to say, unless you dont have caps on for { or put \ in wrong way round. just follow instructions in smileys box - and make sure you havent pressed return at the end of your url and included it (tho dont know if it makes a difference, just a thought)

I don't mind the kids having the odd pick and mix - especially as their diet is very good (full of fruit and veg, oily fish etc.). What I don't do is keep sweets in the house (other than choc for dh because he's such a chocoholic!). The children know there are no sweets in the house so happily munch on fruit for snacks but even I still love the odd pack of sweets from the shop!

"We eat raisins and dried mango in this house because they're delicious,"

ahhh - but did you see the article (I think also in the Guardian) a few weeks back saying that raising and dried fruit are just as bad for teeth as sweets are

My DS's have just discovered the 'joys' of curly wurlys too - love 'em

ds3 (14 months) has just had 1/2 a bag of magic stars cos he walked all the way to the shop. i will probably scoff the rest later . am def a choccie girl

I used to love flying saucers as well - I tried one the other day and it was very disappointing - just like cardboard!

to make a link you have to put

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then write the WHOLE link (including the bit) without a space, followed by a

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then with no space what you want to see on the page (ie "here") followed by a

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with no space

so this one

\link{ www.guardian.co.uk/weekend/story/0,3605,1542389,00.html \ here}

without any spaces would be

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eating a piece of cheese after sweet stuff (inc raisins) is supposed to help cos it neutralizes the acid or unsticks the sugar or something. the cheese bit is right, sorry the reason is a bit sketchy

Whilst I agree with the sentiment of this article I would take issue with some of his 'scientific' findings in particular those relating to hyperactivity. I think he over-simplified the issue. You only have to read the threads on here about how parents have calmed their kids' behaviour through diet to know that the link between diet and behaviour really is worthy of investigation.

We eat sweets in our house, but my kids also love fruit and veg and other savoury food. It's a question of balance. I was of the 'sweets on Saturday' generation and now (because I was deprived ) I eat far too many of them. Also my kids are happy to brush their teeth twice a day - in any event this is non-negotiable. In short I have no compunction about my kids having sweets 3 or 4 times a week.

He must be wrong - surely curly worlys have gotten smaller??

And everything else Tassis. I remember when creme eggs used to be the size of footballs (when I was 6)

What about Waggon Wheels and Mars Bars? They used to be ENORMOUS!!

Mine tend to get chocolate but no many 'sweets'. Today they shared a bag of Percy Pigs from M&S though and they loved them!

They love fruit and it eat 3 or 4 portions every day as snacks so I'm not that strict about restricting chocolate. They get chocolate a few times a week at least (only a small bit though and only after tea if they've eat well in the day and at evening meal).

OMG, I love Percy Pigs

DS doesn't get much in the way of sweets but more because I try not to buy them for the sake of my ever-expanding waistline than anything else. But the odd chocolate button or two is fine by me. (He's only 2 though and more fond of nectarines atm )

I really mourn the demise of penny sweets, too. Such a treat to trot down to the sweetshop with a 50p in your hand and fill a huge bag with flying saucers, blackjacks etc...happy days.

they still do penny sweets at the local newsagents near me; although they probably cost more than a penny.

Sherbet dips - mmmmmm.

What about those bags of rice krispie type things that were rainbow coloured?

Mojos were 1/2p each!!!

I was definitely deprived as a kid - hardly allowed any sweets, no telly, horrid sugar free squash. But then me and my 2 siblings have only 1 filing between us and non of us have a sweet tooth now at all. Watch telly all the time though...
I think it is a question of balance. When they are little-little ie when their brains etc are being forged (0-5 if we believe what the scientists say) and when you have a lot of control over what they put inside themselves, this is the time to get good eating habits pressed into them. Mine do get sweets, crisps, icecreams but only as a treat. Once they get their own pocket money (how old is this, btw, only have a 3 and 2 year old!) then you cannot expect them to spend it on an apple or a packet of raisins. I certainly didn't! I loved Monster Munches and slabs of toffee if I remember correctly. And yes, Mars Bars and Curly Wurlys are definitely smaller now. They must have lobbed at least an inch off them.
But because these kind of things were not available at home and I was not accustomed to eating them every day, I suppose I saw them as ideally they should be seen -just a special treat. Now I am all grown up, I do not find the need to eat sweets, crisps, chocolate every day. They are still what they were in my childhood, a treat for once in a while. Hope my kids feel the same way. Eventually. Though they will probably hate me, like Willy Wonka did his Daddy........

Aarrgghh at links, that is what I did - I've used links many times before but somehow wouldn't work this time.

I just don't want to hand down my own weight problem. It's true, of course, that dried fruit is pretty sugary, but I think you are less likely to gorge yourself on dried mango than on sweets or chocolate. Could be wrong, though.

Cha - SNAP! No telly (my parents still don't have a tv), vile sugar free orange squash and no sweets or crisps except for very very special occasions. I do remember on these special occasions that all five siblings would get a share of one Mars Bar between us!! But again, like you, we have something like 3 fillings between the five of us.

Result- I love to spend hours oogling at the tv whilst stuffing my face with crap. OK, slight exagguration. I did that when I first left home when I was 17, but have got a better balance now and don't actually eat that many sweets.

I am due my first baby in October and have yet to figure out how best to get a happy medium

We have sweets on a Friday.

My dd 17 mth goes completely mental when she has sugary things so I limit them to very rare occasions (when I feel up to handling her in loony mode). I remember my younger brother being diagnosed as hyperactive and having the same reaction to sugar when he was little so maybe it's a family thing. When we were kids a pack of digestives were an exciting luxury!

DS has a huge sweet tooth! we do obviously limit sweets but hes allowed them now and again, kids need treats in there life and a lollypop now and again isnt going to kill him!

Still can't get over Pruni's post: "We eat raisins and dried mango in this house because they're delicious, not instead of sweets, which we have occasionally."

Dried fruit delicious? In the same sense as chocolate or sweets?! I must live in a parallel world. Have just eaten some dried figs with ds but it's just not as big a treat as chocolate, sorry.