"oh no I am never allowed chocolate it is ^really^ bad for you and rots your teeth and makes you fat"

[CrushWithEyeliner]

I am a TA and this was said to me by a 4 yo girl when discussing favorite foods and trying new things.

I really felt sad for her to have been indoctrinated so negatively about a food that in moderation can be really enjoyable. I honestly believe this attitude causes eating disorders and I don't understand why some parents feel the need to drum in things like this. Are they scared their children are going to get obese or what?

Had roadkill burgers at a wedding recently. They were great. May suggest it as a tip next time there's a budget weddings thread.

I'll eat roadkill unless it's very squashed. Or a rat.

Pagwatch... that biting his own arm thing. My DS does that sometimes..do you think it is triggered by E numbers etc. ?

I tend to start off thinking all his annoying habits are just that, then start analysing it and realise that he does have triggers (tiredness, hunger, sugar, any high GI foods, too much TV, not enough exercise.. not ALL of these on the same day of course) maybe if I was the perfect mummy, he might morph into the perfectly behaved child. But then I see his school friend whose behaviour is fabulous gets heaps of cr*ppy sweets.....

I also feel sorry for the child in the OP if what she said is true. However, she is 4, and her idea of 'never' might be slightly exaggerated iykwim. She might also be repeating what she thinks the teacher wants to hear.

My dd2 told me yesterday that she was worried about her friend xxx, 'because she always has cheese-strings in her lunchbox and they are full of chemicals, aren't they?'. This is because I refused to buy her sodding cheese-strings in the supermarket and commented that she could have 'real cheese that's not full of chemicals' instead. We had a little chat about how different parents like different things and how cheese-strings are not bad, exactly... just not as nice as real cheese. It's a minefield....

Not roadkill exactly, but dh has cooked and eaten squirrel (someone else shot it). He put it in a casserole with hazelnuts and called it 'irony stew'!

ahhh yes, the irritatingly well behaved child who seems to subsist on haribo and macdonalds, eaten while walking sedately beside his mother. Ds1 lives on brown bread, cucumber etc and chocolate from the shop once a week , with tiny amounts in between, and can be quite uncontrollable.

Still , I don't think his friend is very bright

Oh that is too extreme wrt the 4 yr old in the original post. How sad.

Mind you little girls can be very hot on what they see as a 'rule' and can repeat stuff like that. There are no grey areas with my 6yr old dd (and sometimes 9 yr old if she feels inclined).

Maybe she just trotted all that out - repeating what her mum said - when she was angling for an extra forbidden choccy.

Sounds a bit like something I might say in an exasperated moment when I've said no and they keep on. I would probably add a comment about all things in moderation etc, but I can bet that bit wouldn't get repeated in translation.

You had to see it TC. The horror on her face. I agree with whoever said that one day she WILL try it and like it and feel guilty or like shit that she is betraying what her Mother/ Father taught her.

Bingo - eating disorder.

Parents should realise breeding fear in food is not the answer. My Mum always used to give us a bit of everything and make no snap comments either way about Junk. It wasn't in the house as such but is I went out and ate McD I would not get into trouble or get a lecture. She also had a knack for making healthy food really tasty.
My SD 13yo and her all friends come over for tea sometimes and it is like a competition as to who can eat the least. They talk about calories, make comments like "that is so fattening" about Potato salad

I do think the obesity crisis is making certain parents obsess about food in the wrong way.

choccypig

tis such a pisser isn't it.
Ds2 has other issues withfood connected with his ASD so he is not a typical example.
But Ds1 is totally NT yet had these food issues too.
the good news is that I think it is a particularly child based things as we have noticed DS1's tolerance increase massively as he has aged.
now at 15 he can eat most things but also ( hooray) realises himself which foods he struggles with and now chooses to exclude them.

Personally ( and of course this is just my view) i think the fewer E numbers and chemicals in kids foods the better. We all have to get on with the rest of our lives and i honestly would prefer to just be able to hit pizza hut occasionally but for my family I can't and the truth is they haven't actually missed out at all. I think some foods mess with their brains.

Ds1 eats fat and carbs and sweets but not too much processed stuff and he is spectacularly fit - way fitter than many of his friends and he does not have the craving/needs for some of the foods that some of those boys seem to.

Twas a huge pain in the arse but he has actually thanked me for it several times recently .
some kids can get away with it but i think others can't. But thats life isn't it - and why i have a big arse and my friend who eats more than me is stick thin

handy list of e numbers to avoid

bout the only thing i am mean about as dd goes mental with certain e numbers, it's like she's possessed!

When my children visiting the dentist recently he said he was filling five-year-olds teeth who had never even seen a Mars Bar. He puts it down to fruit in between meals.

However, 4 year olds will come out with things that they have picked up but only half understood. DS is learning about nutrition at school.

"Why do people eat sugar? Sugar is bad for you! Can I have an icecream?"

4 year olds aren't very good at picking up on subtleties.

Basically I am with Ellbell on this one.

Yup. "I don't want sugar on my weetabix, can I have cocopops this week instead?"

Very difficult to explain that sugar can be invisible.

Better to educate the parents (and hopefully that way misinformation will be picked up on) than try to indoctrinate children with something they don't understand.

I wouldn't feel sad for the little girl,
it's not as if chocolate is an essential food item.

Lots of things aren't an essential food item but it doesn't mean that they are really bad for you. If you eat too much of anything you will get fat.

I would have thought it quite a challenge
to grow fat on fruit and veg.

If the little girl didn't eat fruit, that would make me sad - but chocolate?
Maybe if you own shares in Cadbury..

A child would be fairly unhealthy if they only ate fruit and veg. They really need to have protien, fat and carbs. You can get fat by eating lots of pasta or baked potatoes or chicken etc. if you eat too much. They don't necessarily need sugar or chocolate but eating chocolate as part of a normal diet does not make you fat or rot your teeth significantly more than eating fruit between meals and generally eating too much.

My dcs have dried fruit in their cereal every morning. I know that it rots their teeth so they clean their teeth after breakfast. I give it to them because the teeth rotting and high sugar content needs to be put in the balance with the fibre content and the nutritional value and the pure enjoyment of eating something nice.

This girls parents hve told her a lie to try and stop her enjoying food which almost everyone else likes. One day she will try chocolate, like it and be filled with guilt that this bad thing gave her pleasure.

People get fat because they have a bad relationship with food, and medicate themselves with food, not because sometimes they eat chocolate.

'Everything in moderation' is all good and well
but when we are dealing with something that has addictive qualities
and triggers cravings in people then the question of moderation
becomes a whole lot more tricky.

In that sense, I can see where her parents are coming from.

And btw, she might well try chocolate when she's older - and not like it at all.
It's an acquired taste, you know.
I really dislike English chocolate (Cadbury just tastes wrong)
which, I am pretty sure, is because I never tasted any until my late teens.

I think it's a bit extreme to ban chocolate because you think it's 'addictive', DaddyJ! You can't get AIDs, hepatitis or other drug-related infections from chocolate and I've never heard of anyone slipping into a career of crime to feed their dairy milk habit.

Btw, I know an eminent dietitian (i.e. properly qualified and knows her stuff) who says she is addicted to creme eggs because her parents banned them when she was little.

She does cycle 14 miles to work and back every day, though.

You lead a sheltered life, edam

Seriously, I don't 'think' chocolate is addictive.
You are already on the interweb, do your research.

It is understandable that some parents might
want to shield their dcs from addictive substances.

serendip.brynmawr.edu/bb/neuro/neuro01/web2/Slaughter.html

DaddyJ this artical says that it is inconclusive that chocolate has addictive qualities. Is it wrong?