I give my toddler far too much sugar and I feel terrible - what snacks do you feed your DCs?

[MsFrog]

I have fallen in to terrible habits of giving my DS (who is only 2.5!!) far too much crap. It start with grandparents offering treats (endlessly) and I started relaxing my own rules. Now, DS frequently has biscuits, yoghurt, jelly, actual sweets/chocolate, cake, sweeter cereals (e.g. raisin wheats) etc. Suddenly, I've just realised this and I feel terrible.

What do you give your toddlers for a snack? We do breakfast, 10ish snack, lunch, 3ish snack, and dinner. If he doesn't eat much dinner, he might eat something before bed, e.g. a banana, bowl of cereal, scotch pancake. Is this the same as other people?

We have good meals, healthy and mostly fresh, he has fruit and some veg (often refused or ignored, but always offered and sometimes hidden). But it's snacks and desserts I seem to be bad with. Any tips?

I used to aim for a balanced week and not beat myself up if some days were more about Jaffa cakes and yoghurts than organic vegetables and whole grains. My tip is don't feel terrible, don't think of sweet and treat food as an enemy, don't create such high expectations and rigid rules for yourself that you view your child eating a biscuit as a failing.

Puddings are generally fruit and yoghurt occasionally ice cream or a little cake.

We tend to have a morning snack only as generally have earlier tea as found that he wouldn’t want tea if had had afternoon snack

But snack tends to be fruit or cheese / crackers or crumpet etc if at home or if out a banana / cereal bar / bag teddy faces - something that can be eaten walking around.

Veg sticks go uneaten here so limited on those but he will eat most fruit. In nursery all their snacks are fruit - tinned peaches / apricot, banana, pears etc

I love natural yoghurt as does my 3 year old dc. Dc will happily eat it plain but you can add a squirt of honey if necessary.

If mine snack between meals they get fruit or veg. That's it. They don't ask for anything else because they get sweets on Friday and that's just how it is.

The thing is when they get to teen years, you can no longer control their eating habits the same way and they will eat a lot of crap! So bearing this in mind I have taken care with all of them to not let them snack on crap when they've been small.

Now that some of my kids are adults they've left behind the teen crap and have gone back to healthy eating of their own volition so it's a matter of training I reckon.

Don't beat yourself up, you've noticed it and are wanting to change it. Chopped fruit and veg, unsalted nuts, cheese if you eat dairy. It's possible to do it without buying lots of packaged bars etc.

Apples
Grapes
Youghurt
Pineapple
Kiwi
Satsumas

Cereal is wheetabix or shreddies or bran flakes.

Occasionally gets a freddo or a donut as a treat.

Fruit of any kind, veg too, crackers. She's not on fruit and veg which we have to ration. I've avoided giving sugar and so far she doesn't seem too bothered. I'm sure that'll change soon (just under 2.5)

I have a weird toddler in that she doesn't like sweet stuff and doesn't like plain crackers, cheese or cereal either. So snacks are mainly:

• Cucumber slices
• Cherry tomatoes quartered
• Tinned sweetcorn
• Blueberries
• Steamed broccoli florets
• Walkers Salt & Shake crisps without the salt packet
• Toddler Dried Fruit Bars
• Bananas
• Thin apple or pear slices
• Mandarins
• Corn puffs for toddlers
• Green & Blacks 70% Chocolate (1-2 squares broken into little pieces)
• "Ice cream drops" made from frozen greek yoghurt and pureed strawberries
• Kiddylicious Banana flavoured Rice Crackers
• Yoghurt pouches
• Whole milk (surprisingly filling and works well on the go to avoid crumbs and messes in the car)

I find a lot of what adults feel is a "snack" (mixture of flavours or textures with the feeling that it's a bit of a treat) doesn't even apply to toddlers since they're too young to know better. Depending on their mood they'll happily eat plain sweetcorn out of a tin or four mandarins in a row.

Ds is 12 months but is now eating normal family food with us. He doesn’t snack in the traditional sense because I add them to his meals - could that be an option? I usually add cheese cubes / crumpet or toast with butter / various varieties of fruit / home made pinwheels with justroll / or some variation of Organix fingerfood if I can’t be asked onto his plate with his main meal and he’ll eat it all together.

He has sweeter things like normal biscuits too but it’s only a little bit - for example we’ll break off a tiny piece of biscuit if he wants one we’re having. I don’t believe in banning foods - moderation is key.

This means breakfast is always plain - either porridge with peanut butter or weetabix.

If you convert the sweets /biscs into the size they would be if you were eating a similar amount it should put you off
A 2.5 yr old is about 90cm and adult is about 175cm, about double, so double everything and imagine you eating it - how do you feel, how claggy are your teeth? ARe you a bit lethargic?

How well does she eat her main meals?

I'm guilty of giving too many "bad" snacks as well, but as long as she eats healthy 80% of the time I dont feel guilty. Her teeth get brushed twice a day and I have absolutely no worries about her weight whatsoever, if anything she's tiny for her age (2 years 5 months and in age 12-18m clothes and weighs 24lbs) I do t want her to have an unhealthy relationship with food when shes older so as long as she knows that chocolate etc is a treat and not something she can have every day then I'm ok with it.