Why do so many parents offer pudding to toddlers?

[CaroBeaner]

I never got into the habit of offering two-course meals to my children, probably because I work, don't have time to think about it, and consider routine yogurts to be expensive, and heavily packaged. I'm not evangelist about any of that, I just got on with making sure they had a balanced main course.

So, whether my kids ahve been good eaters or not, none of the have ever made a fuss wanting pudding in favour of main course. Pudding was never there as a bribe or incentive, either, so maybe for this reason they are not especially fussed about sweet things as treats - they enjoy them if they get them, but they don't clamour for them, or stuff their faces with the leftover Christmas chocs out on the worktop, just have a little if they feel like it.

I am often puzzled when I see people weaning toddlers always offering something as dessert. What is the purpose?

becasue variety is good for them in so many different ways not just nutritionally but psychologically. In DS's case he stopped drinking milk very young but did like yoghurt so any opportunity to give him one was taken. Also he wasn;t always a very good eater and when he was picking a bit a change in texture/flavour often encouraged him to eat a bit more.

Puddings are not bribes at that age (in fact at any age) they are just more food. Fruit and yoghurt afetr a meal for any age is hardly a big problme is it ?

Why do so many people care?

I always worked too - why is that relevant? You're not working whilst they're eating are you? Or if you are then someone else is feeding them so what does it matter?

DS has never "made" a fuss about pudding either. "treats" are a separate issue to puddings.

Maybe to fit in with the rest of the family? If some sort of second course is the norm for the adults, then why not include toddlers in that? If the adults don't usually take a "dessert", then fair enough.

If the second course offered is something like unsweetened yoghurt and/or fresh fruit, then it is a good way of getting more healthy nourishment into a small child. Those are the things we tend to offer our LO, anyway.

I can see your point of not offering unduly sweet second courses though.

Well there's probably no need for it, but in our society people generally do have main course and then dessert. There's no 'need' for all sorts of things but we still do them.

I totally agree about never using pudding as a bribe or an incentive. If you happen to want to make pudding, it's just another thing on the menu that day - it shouldn't be presented as the best part.

I was rather cross with my DD's school who withheld her pudding unless she ate her first course. 1) I was paying for that pudding and DD was very skinny 2) it just seems so obviously wrong to emphasise to a child that sweet things are delicious rewards for getting through that unpalatable savoury stuff that always comes first.

I didn't ever ban pudding - sometimes they had it. And had lots of variety, too, dips on the side, or a starter of hoummous and crackers, or fruit, while I madly threw dinner together.

I only ask about it being a regular, permanent part of meals - and because it seems to cause issues for some who fixate on pudding.

DH and I almost never think to have pudding after ordinary weekday meals.

But I can't pass a cake shop

Why not? Is the good stuff (even if it's fruit) only for grown ups then? I didn't realise that life was a boot camp until you reached your majority.

Yup, i'm like you but that's only because my parents never did the pudding thing either so a bit alien to me. They always had fruit after their meals so that's what i give my dd and she even asks for fruit instead of pudding at school as a preference.

My friends do it so that's what brought it to my attention, everyone to their own though maybe that's what they were brought up with?

If anything the way we digest food should be to eat everything the other way around as its easier for the gut to digest

Is that biscuit for pudding Soupdragon?

I could fruit as a pudding though - what else is it? Its just something sweeter after a meal. DS quite often has cheese and apple after a meal.

I just wondered about the work issue because I didn't have time to prepare pudding, or think about it - disorganised!

I'm not being judgy, jut ASKING, because for some it does seem to set up an expectation and fixation on wanting something sweet or dessert.

I would be furious if a school had witheld desert!

Because it would be a bit mean to sit there eating pudding without giving DS some!
Pudding is fruit, yoghurt or rice pudding/custard (with fruit) or something like crumble at the weekend. It's not a bribe or a treat, it's just part of the meal.

No no no... it's main course.

Forget it.

I was just asking. I have no knowledge of oudding asa given, I was ASKING.

If you can't ask without getting a smug biscuit, forget it.

Oh, and it really doesn't take a lot of thought or effort to open a pot of yoghurt or peel a banana.

I actually sort of agree with you OP. We don't generally have stuff like ice cream at home, so it's normally just fruit or yoghurt.

However I have noticed DD starting to insist she's full, and then having her fruit, and then saying she's still hungry

I don't know... Food issues... It's a minefield isn't it - so hard to know if you're doing it all the right way!

The answer to your question is because a balanced and varied diet is an important way of getting the right vitamins and nutrients into growing bodies. So I always offer either yoghurt (lots of calcium) or fruit (as part of their five a day) to my children. I work full time too and don't see it adds anytime to do this.

HTH.

"However I have noticed DD starting to insist she's full, and then having her fruit, and then saying she's still hungry"

When DS does this, he just gets offered his dinner back again. If he is still hungry he eats it, if not, dinner's over.

I had just read several threads about toddlers refusing main courses because they wanted dessert.

So I wondered why dessert is a regular thing for so many people.

I wasn't meaning to argue.

I have had answers from some, thank you.

Enough MN-ing for me. Too many topics are too sensitive.

We have pudding (homemade cakes, tarts etc) after dinner on most days. Therefore it was only natural that DS and DD would partake in it.

It doesn't cause any eating problems.

There's so much "nutrition" advice around - it seems mainly more to give nutritionists something to do than anything.
I have read the two following pieces of advice:
a) always give a pudding - if a child didn't get enough nutrients in the first course it gives them a second "chance"
b) don't give a pudding - it can cancel out the nutrition they got in the first course!

• i.e. don't give a pudding including dairy products with the meal which is the main iron-giving meal of the day as the calcium in the dairy products "uses up" the iron in the absorption of the calcium and so dramatically reduces the iron intake - at least one meal a day should have maximum iron intake (i.e. meat or grain or some other high iron food - chick peas etc - plus vitamin C to enable the iron-absorption).

But none of this is a given "truth" - they are all just theories about possible advantages and disadvantages.

I think as long as your kids eat a varied diet - with different combinations of food at different meals - you never need to worry about any of these dos or don'ts!

Bucharest - because the OP does ok? God that kind of "oh it's all so boring the things these women post about" posts really wind me up. She obviously does care or she wouldn't ave posted on it, why then ask why she cares! She just does!

FWIW my kids get "pudding", fruit, yoghurt mostly, but apple crumble and custard, treacle tart, cakes etc after Sunday lunch for eg, they love it and I remember pudding being such a treat from my childhood, why not give the same to my children.