Lemonade given at Nursery parties

[doodygirl]

My eldest child is at nursery attached to infant school. The infant school claims it is a healthy eating school. Every half term the nursery have a party and the chldren are given lemonade. I was shocked at first but haven't said anything yet. My child is the oldest in the year (early Septembber birthday).

In September my second child starts, who is August birthday and I am not keen at all on her having lemonade. My eldest child had never had any fizzy drinks before he attended the nursery.

Do you think I am making a fuss? I really don't think it is appropriate.

Golden - I can give you around 10 - 20 academic studies showing this if you like?

Including ones where they manipulated foods - got children to rate how much they liked foods, banned them from eating them and then looked to see how much they consumed / what they now rated it as.

Or studies that show that how much mothers report 'restricting' certain foods from their child is directly linked to how much of that food a child will eat if allowed to / or how much in general a child will over eat

And no, I dont believe that all children eat ridiculous amounts of crap at parties.

I would genuinely like to see some of that work Peppa if you have a link, thank you.

hmmm,

there, the assumption is that there is a ban. With a first-born toddler, you don't need to ban coca cola unless they're particularly switched-on!

whereas with a toddler who has a 10-year-old sibling, for instance, it's going to be more of a "ban" isn't it?

But the pre-school dictates the culture to the children. Ours gave out biscuits at 10.30 each morning from 2 1/2. That's a rubbish habit for a kid to get into - one it took me years to outgrow as an adult. they don't allow it for 5 year olds any more, why is it ok for 2 year olds?

Yes, I didn't "ban" anything from ds, just didn't let him know certain foods existed until I felt he was old enough and could understand the concept of a treat or occasional food.

Wouldn't bother me in the slightest.

I try to follow the 80/20 rule when it comes to my toddler's diet. The general rule I follow is that she can have stuff out that she wouldn't have at home (not that I would 'ban' that stuff, but I just don't buy lemonade/squash/biscuits/ice cream at home and never have since pre dc).

Since the majority of what she eats and drinks is at home, and isn't rubbish then I don't sweat about whether she has a biscuit and squash once a week at toddler group.

A friend had an excellent policy. Her kids knew she never bought them crap. Ever. No exceptions. But they could eat anything offered to them by anyone else.

So she never got caught in the social dilemma and her boys ate a slightly-below-average amount of crap.

Benton, D. (2004). Role of parents in the determination of the food preferences of children and the development of obesity. International Journal of Obesity, 28, 858 ? 869

Ventura, A.K. & Birch, L.L. (2008). Does parenting affect childrens eating and weight status? International Journal of Behavioural Nutrition and Physical Activity, 5 /15, 1 ? 12.

Fisher, J.O., Birch, L.L., Smiciklas ? Wright, H., & Piccano, M. (2000). Breastfeeding through the first year predicts maternal control in feeding and subsequent toddler energy intakes. Journal of American Diet Association, 100, 641 ? 646.

Joyce, J.L. & Zimmer-Gembeck, M.J. (2009). Parent feeding restriction and child weight. The mediating role of child disinhibited eating and the moderating role of the parenting context. Appetite, 52, 726 ? 734.

Fisher, J.O., & Birch, L.L. (1999a). Restricting access to foods and children?s eating. Appetite, 32, 405?419.

Fisher, J.O., & Birch, L.L. (1999b). Restricting access to palatable foods affects children?s behavioural response, food selection and intake. American journal of Clinical Nutrition, 69, 1264 ? 1272.

Carper, J.L., Orlet-Fisher J, & Birch, L.L. (2000). Young girls? emerging dietary restraint and disinhibition are related to parental control in child feeding. Appetite, 35:121?129.

Birch, L.L., Fisher, J.O., & Davison, K. (2003). Learning to overeat: maternal use of restrictive feeding practices promotes girls eating in the absence of hunger. American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, 78, 215 ? 220.

Birch, L.L., & Fisher, J.O. (2000). Mothers? child ? feeding practices influences daughters eating and weight. American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, 71, 1054 ? 61.

Anzman, S.L., & Birch, L.L. (2009). Low inhibitory control and restrictive feeding practices predict weight outcomes. The Journal of Pediatrics

Lee, Y., Mitchell, D., Smiciklas ? Wright, H., & Birch, L (2001). Diet quality, nutrient intake, weight status and feeding environment of girls meeting or exceeding recommendations for total dietary fat of the American Academy of Paediatrics. Paediatrics, 107, 45 ? 52.

Liem, D.G., Mars, M. & De Graaf, C. (2004). Sweet preferences and sugar consumption of 4 and 5 year old children: the role of parents. Appetite, 43, 235 ? 245.

the existence of a journal called "Appetite" is making me feel peckish! I'm off!

Wow peppa, that looks really interesting.

Can I be cheeky and ask you to tell me if there's a general theme from those studies that indicates what I should be doing with my DD, diet wise? I haven't got time to read them all!

lingle, I have a similar policy to your friend. Although it might depend on what you define as 'crap'.

But, eg, we never fruit shoots at home. I don't bat an eyelid if the dds have one at someone else's party/house/event. Works beautifully.

YUm

lucky them

Well...what it says on this thread really. Everything is a sensible continuum.

There is good 'control' and bad control.

Good control would be presenting them with lots of healthy food choices but when the opportunity comes up for them to have sweets, let them (within reason). Don't make it obvious you are stopping them from having it. So...

Loads of ice cream in the freezer which they have free access to all the time and you never say no = probably bad

No icecream ever ever ever = probably bad

Buying ice cream occasionally for home, buying one when the ice cream van comes / out at the beach, for a treat in a cafe = probably best

When it comes to getting them to eat vegatables...

Just giving up when they say no = probably bad

Forcing them to eat them = probably bad

Giving them lots of opportunities, getting them to try a bite, showing them that you eat and enjoy them = good

Basically common sense and balance

Woohoo! I've been doing it right! Yeay! Thanks peppa

(really)

Chill. Out.
It's. Only. Lemonade.

well, no surprises there then.

thanks peppa

Food for thought (see what I did there?)

Genius Golden

My DS is banned from juice, fizzy anything and sticky sweets because the poor thing has malformed tooth enamel and is in danger of having severe decay by the time he gets his main teeth in. I would be very (given I tell nursery not to let him have such things) to learn they had not given him milk or water at a party.

DS is actually very good - he tells people straight out that he's not allowed juice because of his special teeth (though the dentist disapproves of me giving choccy biccies even though it does mean brushing 20min later!)

Cheers for those links Peppa. I'll have a look as am quite interested.

For what it's worth, my DS only has squash or juice at parties. At home and when he's out with us it's water or milk. I am the only parent I know IRL who does this - everyone else's kids have flavoured stuff, which is of course their right and choice to make (the parents'). We just felt that while we were stll able to manage pretty much completely what DS drinks, we would try to keep him off sugary drinks as much as we could. (I am also aware that there's sugar in milk, in case anyone's wondering, but I can accept that because of its other benefits.)We recognise that this won't last forever or even possibly much longer - as he goes more and more to parties, other kids' houses etc he will no doubt start drinking more sugary stuff.

So in answer to the OP, I would not worry about the occasional glass of lemonade. DS is told 'juice is for parties' and accepts that. What I envision is a gradual absorbing of sugary drinks into his diet but not that he'll have them all the time. One thing that really seems to help is making sure that they will drink water and not insist on some flavoured alternative all the time. I have friends whose DS only drinks squash/juice and it proved very difficult once when they went on holiday and couldn't immediately get hold of any.

I can understand why this would worry the OP. My kids have never tried any fizzy drinks. Everytime I let them try something that they have not previously craved - e.g. the first time I gave them chocolate, or crisps.... they endlessly ask for it, and it becomes part of their 'treats' cycle. Same for sweet cereals: they've only ever had cheerios or cornflakes, and I'd dread having to trudge down teh supermarket aisles if they knew what was inside a frosties box (i loved frosties when I was a kid).

That said my nephew has just had seven fillings from too much dried fruit.

As the mum of a teenager, I only wish that lemonade was all that is being consumed at parties

Funny how ideas change, mumblechum Lemonade suddenly becomes very desirable!

If you're pro veg, and not anti-DVD/TV, you can hand a child an enormous plate of raw veggies - just before supper, in front of favourite programme - and watch them consume vast quantities.

Not remotely relevent to this thread, but its a tip my step-mother gave me when dd1 was a tot, and it still works like a dream now she's 7. And one doesn't worry about leftover greens at mealtimes then, thus obeying Peppa's instructions