Petits filous for 7 month old

[Gingernut81]

Lots of my friends seem to be obsessed with sugar and I can't help but feel I'm being frowned upon for giving DD petits filous. She has one a day, at lunchtime and nothing else she eats has added sugar as I make pretty much everything myself. I know she shouldn't be having loads of sugar but I don't want to be one of those sugar police mums who completely bans it. I mentioned it to my HV and she wasn't concerned just feel like I'm being a bad mum for letting her have them

I'm not so naive as to think it will last forever, I'm not trying to shield him for life but right now my toddler has no idea that anything other than water and milk exist as drinks and if he asks for yoghurt he gets plain and never bats an eyelid. He pulled faces at it when he was 6 months old but now he scoffs it down.

Similarly I've never added any other ingredients to his porridge so he doesn't realise it's an option.

Penguin, I've come across quite a few children who didn't have exposure to various sweet stuff as babies and have genuinely never developed a taste for it.

My DN's for example are 10&11 and still only drink milk/water. They wouldn't thank you fizzy drinks or squash. I know kids who don't care for sweets.

I see no reason not to at least try guiding their palates in a healthy direction when they're little. It may not work out as planned, but let's not just fatalistically assume they'll hanker after sugar.

Seriously it really is just a yoghurt. A small one. Even where sugar is concerned, moderation is far more sustainable than abstinence. The winning battle is looking at their diet as a whole, not micro managing everything that passes their lips.

Slightly random but anyway! Lidl Turkish yoghurt is plain and really nice. It doesn't have an sour tang to it like other natural yoghurt so that could be an option? Comes in a big tub/bucket for less than £2

About this pre programming for sugar - it's not quite so simple. My grandmother grew up in current Bangladesh with a mum who introduced her to garlic and chillies early on. My memories of gran involve her devouring raw green chillies in curries. My mother dislikes sweets and craves savoury hot spicy food. I grew up in an Indian household (and in amniotic fluid!!) that perpetually tasted of sour pickles, tart Indian gooseberries, hot chillies and garlic.

I as an adult Despise sweet tastes enough to despise mangoes and bananas. DS sees me savouring homemade lime pickle and tart yoghurt with curry masala! That's what I've introduced him to and that's what I devoured throughout my pregnancy and this little one now pulls faces at banana but face plants himself on tart plain yoghurt!

Of course he could develop into the biggest chocolate cake lover ever. But anything could transpire. Pretty much anything. It still doesn't mean that I would add sugar to his food as he is beginning to develop taste preferences. For unsullied who safely advised me it won't last - thanks for your cautioning - but it very well might. Or perhaps the fifth in a long line and family of tart-savoury-hot taste lovers will develop a taste for gulabjamuns :-) anything can happen eh. And the chilli is relevant because I used it as an example of how yoghurt can be eaten in so many ways and contexts. Not all of which are the western dessert concept of yoghurt as a sweet treat. Food and taste preferences are culturally shaped and my examples are about that.

Totally agree jemappelle.

Unsullied, I don't think the argument being made here is about abstinence, rather about shaping & stretching tastes and not defaulting to sweet the whole time in the assumption that's their overwhelming preference.

There's nothing wrong with giving petit filous, but for me it's an opportunity wasted when my son will eat something healthier and more interesting. The OP circs are different and each to his own.

And I don't buy that their early experiences can't impact their palate later, though I get that nothing is a given.

Completely agree with unsullied. Dd had whichever yoghurt came to hand at the time. Don't feel bad op

Don't worry about the occasional one however I am giving my LO greek full fat mixed with either fruit puree or mashed banana. I'm not so much worried about the sugar than him developing too much of a sweet tooth.

I don't think fruit pots are much better than yogurts- no added sugar perhaps but still very sweet.

I wouldn't and didn't give them as they're just sugary junk.

If you only give them healthy stuff, they'll eat healthy stuff. This lasted until around 18 months - 2.5 years with mine when they developed different tastes.

They now eat a varied diet which includes the odd cake or bit of chocolate. But I'm very glad I gave them as good a start as I could with cutting out sugar and junk until they learned about it from other kids.
They still drink only water though.

OP - if you've posted about it it's obviously bothering you. So why not do plain yogurt and banana?

Oh and the aldi versions are just as nice and cost half as much.

Some of these comments are awful, op you aren't a bad mum or setting your baby up for a life of sugar craving obesity. I'm trying to remember if I was like this when my two girls were little, I don't think I was and I can't recall many friends being like this either.

There is nothing wrong with your baby having one pot a day, as part of a varied diet it's absolutely fine. If she only ate petit filous then it would be a problem but she doesn't.

The only friend who banned sugar ended up with two children who were mad for the stuff, party bags were consumed in seconds, if they managed to get their hands on sweets they used to fight over them, it didn't seem to be a healthy approach at all. My two girls had sweet things as part of their balanced diet and they have a take or leave it attitude to it now.

If you only give them healthy stuff, they'll eat healthy stuff.

Mumsnet of all places is a very silly place to make a sweeping claim like this.

Out of curiosity, how do you all think the body processes fruit sugars differently from refined sugars? Both are very simple sugars on a molecular level. Sugar isn't automatically better for you because it's from fruit.

at the idea that adding plain yoghurt to chilli is relevant here. It really isn't. Nobody is adding petit filous to chilli. Nobody is making raita out of it either. This isn't a conversation about yoghurt as a component in a dish.

Durham, I share that exact approach. I don't think banning foods is good for anyone, adults or children. It just makes them more appealing and exciting. A little bit of everything in the context of a healthy diet is fine to my mind

Penguin, I've come across quite a few children who didn't have exposure to various sweet stuff as babies and have genuinely never developed a taste for it

And I've come across quite a few children who dive into the sweet stuff at a party or whatever like possessed demons, they are the ones whose mothers insist they don't eat any sugar. Last time ma was smugly telling everyone how pfb truly preferred broccoli to anything processed and would never choose a biscuit over an apple. Funny how I saw him with a chocolate bar in each hand and a cake stuffed in his mouth!

Do what you like with your own kids, but lay off the the lectures to others about sugar, and the pretence that you can make them prefer vegetables to sweet treats. They either do or don't.

Little bit aggressive penguin. I don't think anything I've said could be construed as a 'lecture'. I will of course do what I want with my kids and urge all others to do the same.

By the by, I found Bee Wilson's 'First Bite' to be a very interesting read on how children are weaned and develop their palates. It challenged a lot of my assumptions.

just feel like I'm being a bad mum for letting her have them
No you are not a bad mum, and as you said its only one pot a day.

I think, as some posters said, children who are allowed some sweet things as part of a good diet might take it in their stride later and not become desperate to have it.
And, as a mother one wouldn't want to get too police like about it all.

But you might find it really easy, as an alternative, to mash in some fruit and then your baby gets the vitamins and fibre from that, and a sort of much gentler version of sugar. Even sugar from fruit concentrate tastes quite strong.

Frozen berries, especially blueberries, are cheap and useful for crushing and mixing in.

Just come back to this. Some posters seem to be obsessed with the idea that those of us whose babies eat natural yoghurt (I'll recommend Yeo Valley again as it really is very nice) are some kind of food police who never let their children eat anything nice. The OP asked for advice, I assume because she is on some level concerned. I think most posters who have advocated natural yoghurt are just offering other options to petit filous. It's just not true that babies won't eat unsweetened yoghurt. Maybe true of some babies, I don't know, but not true of mine who both liked natural yoghurt as babies (and yes unsweetened porridge too) and the 5 year old still does (among other less healthy options). So why wouldn't you give it a go eh. You might just be surprised.

My DTs have one a day now probably. When we were buying the Ella's Kitchen fruit pouches then I'd mix some of that with Greek yoghurt and they loved that.

The first time I ever heard my dd say 'mmmmm' and lick her lips to any food was when she first tasted petits filous at about 7 months one a day imo is fine.

My dd is now 10yo and eats a healthy, varied diet which includes some treats - moderation as always is key.

Well I'm with the few who say don't worry about it! Obviously within reason, but I think you're well within reason with a few Petit Filous. I think at that age it's more about the goodness you can get into them rather than the "badness" you keep out, without taking it to extremes of course.

Even in the mid 80s the midwives gave a baby class and advised the mothers not to give sweet yogurt. They had an empty yogurt pot with dry sugar in to show how much there was in it.

Logic = out of the window.

A petits filous in the context of a child's overall healthy diet really isn't an issue.

there is 2 teaspoons of sugar in each small one. I love them! nice treat.

Just don't do what DP's nana did when he was a baby, had one in his packed lunch for his day at nana's, he had one yogurt and apparently liked it that much, she just had to give him 6 more, and I reckon 33 years ago there was way more sugar in them than there is now and he's fine. Not obese or a sugar junky.

OP you're not a bad mum at all, there are obviously alternatives which could be better and less sugary but everyone I know was brought up on petit filous and we all survived. Sugar is the new devil food so anything you put on here about sugar will get a negative reaction. As long as her overall diet is pretty good, I don't see any issues.