Sugar consumption for toddlers

[chloechloe]

Guidelines say 1-3 year olds shouldn't be having more than 17g of added sugar a day. DD is nearly 2. We cook fresh food at home, she rarely has biscuits, cakes or sweet stuff, less than once a week. She only drinks water or unsweetened fruit or herbal tea. Yet I'm really shocked when looking more carefully that she probably eats more than the recommended amount. In one pot of yoghurt (not a kiddy one) there is 12g of sugar and the breakfast muesli which she loves and doesn't seem overly sweet has 15g of sugar per 100g.

I know yoghurt and muesli are top sources of hidden sugar, but never realised just how bad!

Any tips on keeping within the guidelines?

Maybe get rid of the bought cereals and yoghurts? For my two year old I buy plain low fat greek yoghurt and keep bags of frozen fruit in the freezer - you can get a bag of mixed berries/mango for £2 from Tesco. Whack a handful in a pan and let it simmer for a few minutes until all defrosted and soft. Then you've got a lovely compote to go with the yoghurt, keeps in the fridge for ages. I sometimes add honey to sweeten it up a little. Does she like porridge? I make that a lot with either stewed plums to mix in or chopped banana and blueberries. I like mine with brown sugar but my son hasn't learnt of this delight yet :) These are the two main things I keep control of, yoghurts and breakfast. He does have a biscuit/little chocolate a few times a week but at least I kNOW that is sugary rather than suddenly reading it on the pot.

We have Yeo Valley natural yogurt which only has 6.5g of sugar per 100g, and porridge for breakfast (her portion has 0.3g of sugar.) I had gestational diabetes and was shocked at some hidden sugars, bran flakes containing more sugar than cornflakes, for example. Cereal in general is pretty bad.

Well it is added sugar remember not natural sugars so your muesli might not be that bad if the sugar content includes the natural sugars in the dried fruit. No added sugar or sale muesli is easy to come by, all mine eat it. Then go for plain yoghurt and mix in chopped fruit or a spoonful of jam which will sweeten it but be much less sugar than flavoured shop bought yoghurt.

But yes, sugar is added to so much that it can be tricky.

Oh yes porridge. Mine love it with frozen fruit, as above the bags from tesco or lidl, nuts or sometimes sugar or golden syrup but you can control the amount so just a sprinkle rather than larg amounts in shop bought kids porridge. With golden syrup I dunk the spoon, let it run back in to the tin then put the spoon with the thin coating in the porridge, they love stirring it In as it melts on the spoon.

Thanks for the tips!

She loves porridge but loves muesli even more. I've tried giving her different muesli but she tends not to eat it. I might try mixing the one we have with plain oats to cut down on the sugar before weaning her off it! It may be that some of the sugar in the muesli is from the dried fruit in it as there is no breakdown.

She's also happy to eat plain yoghurt so I'll start ditching the fruit ones and add in some purée. She's addicted to homemade apple purée so I'll experiment with other fruits too.

I feel the same OP. My DD is only 9 months. I looked through the family cereal section of Tesco website and I struggled to find a few without added sugar. She won't eat porridge.

My DD is lactose free but has reduced her formula too much for her age. I am giving her yoghurts and cheese. This week I could not get plain lactose free yoghurt so I bought real fruit lactose free yoghurt and they have 15g of sugar per pot. As I have been given her lots of cheese I was worried salt content so I made the mistake of buying fruit bread as it has less sugar but 5g if sugar per slice.