How often should kids have sweets?

[catsofa]

I think there should be some days of each week on which a child doesn't consume any sweets/chocolate etc. Is that mean? Do your DCs have sweets every day? More than once a day? How about if they also have dessert after dinner every day?

Only just realised my expectations could be way out of step (never mind the reality for now, just wondering what we should be aiming for! )

My kids (5 & 3) never get sweets (haribo, chocolate bars) from me, nor do we have it in the house. They can and do have it at parties. Dessert if we have it is usually fruit or yoghurt, occassionally ice-cream or cake. If we are out for coffee then they will usually get a babycinno with a sprinkle of chocolaye - they might also get a biscuit or cake or pain au chocolat. They do however eat a lot of dried fruit which is full of sugar.

My twins are nearly 4. DS loves cake, chocolate, ice cream but we rarely have them in the house so he only really has them at cafes, parties or grandmas house (so maybe once a week on average?). DD won't eat anything sweet at all, prefers savoury stuff like cheese, bread or occasionally crisps Dessert here is either fruit or yoghurt.
They've never had any actual sweets - I haven't tried to stop them, they just don't seem interested so when they get haribo in party bags they just give them to me!

Oh yes lots of dried fruit here too - dried banana chips and yoghurt-strawberries in particular

Ds is 11, Dd is 9, we don't have pudding Monday-Friday only on Saturday and Sunday. I try to stick to the new guideline of 30g a day and get them to read packets and do the maths. They get to choose how to "spend" their sugar. So if they have a hot chocolate (15g) then they could have a small cake or chocolate bar. They know that 330mls of soft drink is their whole allowance gone. Tbh I gave up at Halloween , but that is now over and we are back on the straight and narrow.

enjoyingthepiece we have very similar family living. My dcs and dh very sporty. Probably 8 to 9 hours of sport outside school weekly, and dh and I exercise three times a week. We do a lot of competitive sport too and we are all very slim, fit and healthy. Dc's 7 and 8 just started Crossfit too.

I think moderation is key. We eat a sweet everyday (maybe a small piece of chocolate/pudding/sugary sweet). I make it a point that they can only eat this after eating a full piece of fruit or other healthy snack like cheese/chicken stick. Cooking from scratch is mandatory. Our meals have in excess 90% ingredients from fresh and unprocessed. Just the cooking oil and soy sauce etc is processed. We have treats as we like it. But we don't crave for it. It's about teaching our kids, yes...they can have a small slice of cake or a few chocolate squares but putting the rest back and avoiding that binge eating crap (and future yo to dieting issues).

Age 3, something every day after a meal.

Sorry I should have said, 10 year old. I'm thinking of DSD, although am also bearing in mind that DP and I are just weaning our 6mo baby and will have at some point to agree on how much he is allowed too - DP just seems to expect a lot more is ok than I do!

There seem to be lots of rules in place to make sure DSD doesn't eat too many sweets, but then she always has sweets on her and is always allowed sweets when she asks, which is making me think that what we're doing isn't working. Also she is completely obsessed with sweets and seems to think about them all the time. And has tooth fillings, which I had never even heard of in someone so young! Also she doesn't eat fruit unless she isn't allowed sweets, or it is cooked e.g. apple in apple pie with custard for dessert.

If a 10 year old had something-with-custard after dinner most days and loads-of-jam-on-toast-or-something most days as a snack, isn't that their RDA of refined sugar really used up for that day and they should be going without any extra "treat" food like sweets most days? Not talking about Xmas, Halloween, Easter etc for which I'm most prepared to make exceptions and fill her full of it for fun :).

Is there something somewhere that will tell me how much sugar is recommended daily for a 10 year old?

Mine are 4 and 8 and have a treat every day ! If they eat dinner and a yogurt then they can choose from the treat cupboard ( mini roll, fun size chocolate) they are both very very slight and active.
I have friends who's kids are so restricted I find then grabby and greedy.
Active kids who brush well should have no problems.

Weekends only for me and the dc when they were small. Coke or fizzy drinks only at Christmas at home and water to drink at home, but eating out they could have a fizzy drink.

We have or had occasional pudding or really chocolate after a meal but not always.

Sweets are for Saturday's
Pudding on Sunday's

We don't really have rules or routines around this but I am conscious of striking a balance between too much restriction and too much sugar.

We don't tend to have pudding very often, it's usually fruit or yoghurt (although of course flavoured yoghurt has sugar in) - although I do get pudding if they have a friend to tea or we have guests. They have a chocolate biscuit sometimes after school or in their packed lunch. We hardly ever buy sweets but at the moment there's an enormous tub of Halloween sweets in the kitchen. This morning they had hot chocolate when they got back from their sports clubs. Fizzy drinks I only really buy for birthdays and Christmas but they'll usually have some if we go to the pub or out for dinner.

So it varies a lot. Some weeks they might have hardly any and others maybe something 4 days out of 7?

Ds3 (9) has something most days normally after his evening meal. It might be a pancake, cake or scone (homemade) or an ice cream or something out of his treat box where I stash the Christmas, Easter and Halloween goodies and contents of party bags. Sometimes he prefers an orange or crackers and cheese and occasionally doesn't bother at all. He might have something sweet if we are out and has what he likes at parties. He rarely has fizzy drinks or crisps. Ds1 (20) and ds2 (18) do their own thing but raid ds3's treat box regularly. None of them have ever needed any dental work.

Mine are 7 and have only ever had sweets on a Saturday, we don't have biscuits/cake in apart from home cakes at the weekend.

They never ask for fizzy drink as when they tried it last year they both hated it! Water and juice are their drinks of choice. They never ask for sweets either and look forward to their treat on a Saturday.

As kids we (me and 4 siblings) had too many sweets and we've all had problems with our teeth so this is probably why I might appear mean to others.

My kids my rules, same applies to everyone else

I have teenagers - neither has had any dental treatment - we've gone every 6 months since they cut their first teeth.

We don't have desert after dinner, but they have a supper every evening and although sometimes that will be toast, often it is a doughnut or pastry or pudding with cream. In their lunch bag every school day they will have a biscuit/piece of chocolate/cereal bar. (as well as fruit/sandwich etc)

They sometimes go to the shop at the weekend and get a snack to eat in the park - I think its mostly crisps but could be sweets or chocolate.

They still have actual sweets left over from Christmas so I guess they don't each much sweets as such, but do consume a fair amount of sugar especially once you add in breakfast cereal.

We don't do fizzy drinks though except if out for dinner or on holiday.

People will think me a monster....but - our children are now teens but we never gave them sweets. Nothing overly strict, we just never bought any, ever. We also never gave them squash or juice. If they got sweets in party bags, they just ignored them. They would take the toys out and I would throw the sweets in the bin later.

Now they're older, they quite like the odd fizzy drink if we're out. Despite what I was told, they have never got a taste for sugar or sweets. They quite like a bit of chocolate, rarely, but will only want a tiny amount.

I never say this in RL, but I don't really understand why parents give children sweets or sugary stuff. It's just as easy not to bother. They're not missing out on anything.

And yes, our children have perfect gnashers - but again, that's not the issue: what I think is more important is that they don't associate any sort of comfort or reward in sugar.

Dick, just curious, do they not have cereal or desert or pudding/ ice cream or anything either? Or jam? Not judging btw in some ways I wish I'd done the same.

My Dc have sugar every day but not much of it, and usually at mealtimes. They are teenagers and have never had a filling. They brush their teeth twice a day. I am uneasy about turning sugar into an issue as that makes it more desirable.

My other - mine eat ice cream off your list in summer outside, but we don't keep ice cream at home. They don't eat cereal, jam, sugary deserts at home ( just Greek plain yogurt and fruit if wanted) etc. like above, they don't miss it as they don't know it as normal really.

Ah well. I come from a family that was putting chocolate buttons in DSs mouths and couldn't wait until they were weaned so Granny could take them for their first ice cream....

Mine also eat a lot of fruit rather than veg which isn't great from a sugar point of view either.

Most days but only after meals.

My DC are 10, 7 and 2. The rules are the same largely.

They eat a cake/biscuit probably most days (either as a snack in lunchbox or after school) - the other snack of the day will be a croissant, crackers and cheese or similar - always plus fruit/veg.

We don't really have deserts. They sometimes eat vanilla yoghurt with fruit in the evenings but I don't make puddings unless we have guests and even then they are more "adult" puddings and the kids don't eat them. In the summer they would fairly regularly have an icecream or icelolly (maybe 3-4 times a week) - but this would usually replace the biscuit/cake - certainly at a weekend.

Sweets and chocolate are much less regimented. Basically if they get them they eat them so are eating quite a lot at the moment to finish off the trick or treating loot, similarly around Easter and Christmas. They get sweets in party bags. To be honest I don't buy any (or very rarely) and they don't ask for them very often (maybe a Kinder egg at the supermarket once a month or a bag of jelly sweets if they are having friends over for a movie). I think (touch wood) they are fairly balanced about it all as a result of my lacsadaisaical (sp?) attitude!

DH and I are v different in this respect. He was brought up to enjoy sweets and still craves sugar - can easily eat a tub of icecream and a block of chocolate in an evening and would happily drink lemonade throughout the day. He has really curbed this and doesn't feed his sugar habit around the kids - after bedtime is different!! I was brought up with not so many sweets (although we did do the weekly sweet shop trip) but thinking that home baked goods were fine no matter how much sugar - I have really curbed my cake intake in the last couple of years in order to manage my weight. I used to enjoy a piece of cake while out for coffee or in the afternoon with the children and rarely do that now but I eat a square or two of dark choc after dinner some nights.

Just read back a bit. I have a friend who banned sugar at home and her DC come round to my house and literally gorge themselves - it's a bit horrifying - so I think it can go either way dickdewy!

My DC don't have fruit juice or cordial since more research about sugar became widely publicised in the last year or so. They don't really miss it I don't think although I do allow that or a fizzy drink once or twice a month when out for a meal.

So many interesting points. I worry about sugar more from a health POV than weight...

I do worry (in my head) a little about weight though as my DC don't eat loads and loads, but can fill up big time on pasta, toast, etc and they do a lot of sport (DD, age 10, does 16 hours a week plus what's in the school curriculum) . They are both skinny minnies but what happens when she does less sport - as an adult she won't have time for that amount unless she goes professional in one of her sports which is unlikely... Will her fairly small appetite adjust down as she must be using up thousands hundreds of calories on sport?

Yes, appetite will adjust but it's all about metabolism at the end of the day. More muscle you have, more calories you burn even just sitting down and sleeping. Being a sporty family, I don't think sport or being active will ever leave your children once they get bitten by the bug. Be it swimming/run/cycling/ netball.... They'll be active throughout their adult lives. Let them enjoy their food but make sure they know how to eat healthy. Carbs is important in growing children and lots of good fats too.