how much and what kind of junk food/drink do you allow your kids? and at what age?

[sugarbaby]

Over Christmas I was at a party, nothing heavy just family get together, there wer a few kids there. I was horrified when someone else at the party poured her 3 year old son a glass of coke, but later when chocolates were offered she wouldn't allow him to have any because "it contains nuts and children shouldn't be exposed to nuts until they're 5"? The double standard of it all struck me somewhat, although I didn't say anything.

So I was wondering, how much junk food/drink do you allow your kids? and at what age? Personally my DS will not be allowed coke until he is much much older, but I do allow crisps/chocolate/biscuits, but coke just contains too much cafeen/sugar and is in my view, highly inappropriate.

Just a general question though

imo everything in moderation is fine. I would love for my dd to eat really healthy foods but atm she refuses most foods. Her favourites are beans & fromage frais, the only fruit she will eat are raisens, so if i gave her no crisps, biscuits etc which she doesn't get everyday she would eat nothing

DS 21 months has sausages, fishfingers, petit filous, watered down fruit juice, occasional crisps (eg if at party or special occasion), biscuits & cake (although not every day).

He does not and will not have, while I have any control over it, fizzy drinks, MD or BK, chicken nuggets or other mechanically recovered meat products, or crisps & sweets on a frequent basis.

Neither DH or I eat / drink those things so he will not see us doing it, it will only be when the peer pressure kicks in.

I went to a friend's recently and her children (2 & 4 ) were drinking coke out of bottles. I know we joke about this on MN but they really were.

I was so completely stunned I couldn;t say anything at all.

I just crept away, feeling terrible for the kids for not having said anything.

God, I love Coke, the full-fat stuff so has been allowed when go out to eat/pub. She prefers J2O now though, suspect that's disapproved of in equal measure.

No coke, never buy it, have a great aversion to it.
DS (12) is allowed it maybe at a friends, but he also now hates it.
DD is 3 and hates anythign fizzy not that I'd offer her any at all.
I'm quite puritanical about additives but am ok about chocolate (obv then avoid hypocrisy argument from smart ass 12 yr old)
we treat ourselves with Green and Blacks
Mcdonalds - we don't ds hates it and my mum sometimes takes dd there, but dd isn't overly bothered and it's once in a blue moon anyway.
WE have biscuits - jammy dodgers, party rings,one or two daily
DD has weight gain issues and we are actually advised to keep her on a high sugar diet so it's amusing trying to sort that out AND be arsey abotu additives.
Juice only smoothies really, high juice in summer as well. DD and DS both drink water happily so no worries there.
DS now he ahs his own pocket money larges it on sweets and as he is pretty modest I let hiom get on with it.
We rarely eat crisps I do not like them so do not buy them.
Anything with artifical sweeteners is banned.

I'm not that fussed about sugar (kids need the energy anyway), but try really hard to avoid trans fat (worse than butter or cream) and aspartame, for all of us, not just the children.
So we don't have squash or fruit shoots.
Nobody drinks fizzy drinks or coffee/tea anyway.
But we do have chocolate after a party or at Christmas, also I make cakes and biscuits (god I sound like Shirley Conran don't I! Not true!!)

This thread is making me laugh- half the things on people's banned lists I dream of ds1 eating. We rejoiced when he ate baked beans (never thought I'd see the day- school give them to him in crisp sandwiches), and I was really pleased with his school trip to McD's (again never thought I'd see the day- got the photos home to prove he did it).

HCC - thought my DD was the only potato-hater in the world. Gutted, I love 'em.

ds 22 months has ready salted crisps occasionally (seems to be mostly in the supermarket as I bribe him to stay in the trolley) and chocolate, biscuits or cake as a treat, on holidays he mostly eats chips and pizza in restaurants, but at home just normal home-cooked, fresh food. I don't get too freaked out about sugar/salt, but we stay clear of processed ready-meals and aspartame. He has never had a fizzy drink yet, just diluted Ribena, but he can taste one once he is a bit older!

dd1+2 both have small glasses of coke occasionally. (not even a 3rd of a can as i split it between all 3 of us). but i wont give them nuts or things containing tartrazine as it sets of their allergies.

I am very funny about what my children eat as my dd is hyperactive and ds can be if he drinks the wrong thing.

The only time they really have any sweets/coke etc is special occasions.

I usually try and give the healthy alternative and am very lucky that they both love fruit, crackers with cheese and that kind of thing.

Will not buy things like cheesestrings as they have so much cr*p in them.

I try and make my own biscuits and buy organic when I can.

I truly believe you are what you eat.

Am lucky as both kids do eat a huge variety of food and have just had dd screaming at me for sardines on toast for lunch (strange child I hate the things )

i don't want my DS 15mths to eat MCs or BK and in fact fed him a meal I'd brought from home when we were last in there (incredibly rare but I'm PREGNANT OKAAAAY!) despite all the sniggers and looks I got from other parents who obviously thought I was a meanie.

I generally give him water or milk to drink but my mum gives him watered down juice sweetened artificially, which i never thought was too much of an issue. he has baby biscuits and the odd bit of choc but only started having that when advent calendars arrived on the scene.

I valiantly tried to keep him away from crisps over Xmas but when there arepeople everywhere and bowls of them on every table that is an impossible task...

DH's family seem to feed their kids anything at all and give their small children coke etc, but I am determined my DS will not drink that sugar filled caffeine laced crap.

Elibean I too have a potato hating child. he will eat smily faces but I don't really classify those as potato, won't eat mash or rost though, will eat the occasional chip but not fussed.

Not bothered though as he loves pasta/rice and eats lots of fruit/veg, not that fussed on meat though. think he can't be bothered to chew it.

Another potato-despiser here. Won't even eat (M+S salt free) crisps - the only sort I allow so far. Does however eat hash browns when staying somewhere that serves a huge fry up type breakfast but I am not sure they qualify as potato.

Anyway, I wanted to ask - are BabyBels junk food? I suspect they are. If so what is it that's wrong with them? I think they are about the worst thing I let ds eat.

Aha, a potato-hating club, excellent. DD will now eat chips if smothered in ketchup (oops, more junk, though Peter Rabbit do a good one for home) but we never have them at home anyway, so fat lot of good that is. She eats pasta, rice and bread by the ton so its not a problem - except that I'm a total potato-lover and would love to do boiled, mashed, baked spuds...drool...but can't be bothered to cook two meals.
Interested re babybel, she just discovered those last week at my sister's - pure fat, as far as I know, but are they bad otherwise?

Another potato-hater here! Used to eat mash, baked potatoes, chips etc but has stopped completely now. Have recently discovered that he will eat frozen potato wedges (bad mummy) and has always continued to eat 'chicken balls' (rolled balls of mashed potato, carrot and parsnip mixed with pureed chicken fried in oil). Again, I'm not too worried as he eats bread, rice, pasta and couscous, but potatoes are just SO gorgeous in any form, as far as I'm concerned, that I find it all very odd!

Gladbag, you and I need to go out for a potato-fest. Baked, with mashed, fried and boiled on the side.

I don't know about the babybel, I just think maybe they are more processd than 'real' cheeses? And perhaps more salty? I must admit we are all very fond of them in this house

Maybe some sort of babybel & potato smiley face twizzler product is the answer to our problems....?

my dd doesn't eat potatoes either unless it's the frozen chip variety!! Sheasked me to make her cheese pie today though like Angelina Ballerina has, i made mash with tonnes of mature cheddar in pastry baked in oven, she loves it

mmmmmmmmmm potatoes!

I must be a terrible Mummy! Mine had occasional MC'S/BK's from an early age, with fizzy allowed at weekends, choc Bisc's & crisps in lunchbox (along with decent stuff).

However, DD (now almost 15) ONLY drinks water, insists on a purely healthy lunchbox & maybe has crisps once a week. If she goes to town with friends will go to McD's happily, but often chooses a Boots Meal Deal.

DS now also believes crisps are bad, maybe 1 packet a week & then he feels guilty (even with DH who can't eat a sandwich without crisps), is trying hard to drink more water more, otherwise juice or squash, & is very aware of "healthy living"

Only posted here to show, as long as nothing is outlawed & choices given, most kids will make the right choices as they get over & not get too hung up on treats.

My two (4.8 and 22mths) eat

1 - 2 bags crisps each (salted) per week

3 - 4 Burger King per year

1 - 5 chocs per week

1 - 3 biscuits per day

2 - 3 sweets per month (excluding ds)

dd had coke at a party recently and keeps mentioning it and both have only just started eating chips (Sainsburys organic)

What on earth is fruit shoot? Is it a squash?

DS is 4 and has had coke. When we were on holiday the hotel had help yourself soft drinks and he got himself a diet coke shudder Anyway, he has had it a few times since (maybe 3 times since June) but only a teeny amount.

Every day he has a treat sized bag or a Penguin or what I would say was a small choccy like a Cadburys on the way home from pre-school.

When we are at friends he has treats (crisps, biscuits, chocolate, sweets) but I don't buy them in.

I try not to give dd (2.10) anything I try to avoid myself (because it's fattening/rots your teeth/addictive but not good for you). So she gets things like fish fingers, sausages and ham but I've never taken her in McD's or buy crisps, fizzy drinks, soft ice cream, biscuits, ice lollies, etc. At Christmas she got some chocolate coins and didn't realise for a week that there was any chocolate inside the wrapping, until I really fancied some chocolate myself and asked her for one!

On the other hand, I gave her chopped hazelnuts and sunflower seeds yesterday - is that bad?!

DD is 3y9m.

In terms of drinks she drinks water or fruit juice at home. When out or at parties then she is allowed to drink (full sugar) squash. I don't let her have Fruit Shoot type things on the whole as they do make her hyper afterwards. She has tried a sip of coke, as I drink it, but ntohing more. I don't let her have fizzy pop yet. MIL sometimes gives her a very milk cup of tea if DD asks for it, but it really is just milk with a tea bag dipped in and out - more for show than anything else. And she likes the odd hot chocolate drink.

Junk food? Yes she has this a bit. Her normal day to day diet is pretty balanced and pretty healthy on the whole. She prefers rice, pasta and potatoes to chips. She doesn't like cakes, buns or ice cream. But when she has eaten well each day she is allowed a small chocolate bar after her evening meal. We try and restrict chocolate to only that time, but are happy to break the rules for special treats and parties. She doesn't really have sweets as not keen - I pinch those from her party bags . She has had the odd McDonalds - not often, definitely less than every 2-3 months. She has pizza with us sometimes. She will eat biscuits and,given the chance - I don't buy them, crisps. We don't buy a lot of processed food at home so she doesn't get it there. We eat out a lot at weekends but I try and order her proper food rather than kid's menu stuff.

So, a bit of most stuff but not the really bad stuff

I am a mean food fascist mummy but ds (2.4)does have the occasional cake. I do restrict raisins though . My dentist told me that chocolate is actually much better for their teeth than dried fruit, and since I have the world's worst teeth, I am inclined to just do as she says.

He does basically eat anything though, so we have been really lucky. Dd looks like she's going to be more picky. Our days of Yo Sushi may be over .

He has a real thing about tea though, he loves to be given tea. We get round it by giving him Roobosch (sp?).

I'm quite reluctant to give them junk because my family is uniformly mobidly obese, with very few teeth and short life spans, and I suspect his genes will not forgive him much.

Mine (7 and 4) eat chocolate/biscuits every day after school and have a drink of diluted juice, occasionally sausages (usually decent Waitrose ones ), fishfingers/fishcakes, and Mc D's but they don't have fizzy drinks or squash, except at parties or on very special occasion (I just don't buy it and they don't ask , ds only likes ice tea or lemonade anyway). They might have a share of a bag of crisps at a weekend.