Sweets

[HavingFun]

We don't give our kids many sweets yet (age 4 1/2 & 1 1/2).  I would think that if people are trying to train their kids in good eating habits, it would be praised.  Somehow it seems though that others think you're depriving your kids or something.  Anyone else face that?   It's especially coming into play during Halloween.  We don't go trick/treating or the alternatives.  We just dress the kids up and take them to see their grandparents.  At their age, that's enough for them and they don't feel a bit deprived. 

In another sweets situation, I mentioned at our local pool that they should consider giving out mini-packages of cookies or something other than skittles, M&Ms and candy bars at the end of their 5 weeks of swimming lessons.  I would think they would do something different, especially for the "infant" swim (6 months - age 3).    It just seems like we're perpetuating unhealthy choices by making sweets the treat of choice as a reward.

[TeachingMyToddlers]

We used to do a much better job of it than we do now, but this reminds me of the time I took my daughter to the pediatrician when she barely turned 2. The doctor was just delighted with her and before we left, she gave my daughter a full size adult m&m cookie ice cream sandwich. I was stunned. LOL 1) We really pushed healthy foods and this was coming from a doctor, who apparently kept a stash in the back?! haha and 2) I was going to the car with my kid who wanted her treat right-this-minute, with multicolored m&m's melting all over the hands along with the ice cream, the whole deal. you get the picture.  I know I only gave her part of it, but I was really surprised by the whole thing. In hindsight, I can't remember if I threw the rest away or ate it.....probably ate it if I had to guess.     

As my kids are getting older, it seems like the unhealthy options become easier to fall into. My son does not eat vegetables nearly as well as my daughter and I feel like as parents, we didn't push them enough when he was a little younger. We try now everyday but it's a much harder road, he's the kid that will always pick the carb over anything else.

We have had the same issue as you at Easter egg hunts. We have held our own in the backyard with friends who were also conscientious of their kids' food intake and filled the eggs with better choices.  At Halloween, I like to give out glowsticks or mini-playdough, that sort of thing, so I am not contributing to some other kids' expanding waistline and rotting teeth.

[Korrale4kq]

When I was a kid we didn't get, softdrink, cordial, cake or chips or lollies(candy) often at all. And we survived. When we did get those things it was a treat, NOT a snack. So that is how we do it with James.
Cake is limited to birthdays. It is funny, whenever it is someone's birthday James says "happy birthday cake day."
The few other times of the year that he gets anything like chocolate or candy is Halloween, Easter, Christmas (maybe)
We have a chips rule.  If I am ever having chips. Which is once every few months James is allowed to have 1 chip per year of age. So right now he only gets 2 chippies. It is cute when he tried to argue by asking how many weeks he is, in an attempt to get more.

[HavingFun]

Glad to hear I'm not alone.  Around Easter, I start hiding plastic eggs around the house.  In some, I put something edible like raisins or fish crackers (something that can be eaten any time).  In others, I put trinkets like some of my daughter's own little figurines - a duck, bunny, etc..  She has fun finding the eggs.  My daughter doesn't like chocolate (really - not sure how that happened as that's my one vice!) but she does like sweet tarts.  Oh yeah, that brings up that at the bank and the post office they generally offer either sweet tarts or suckers to the kids.  Now that my daughter knows that, she wants to go along to get the mail!  I'm trying to teach her that we don't eat sweets and treats every day. 

Fortunately, both my kids eat most anything put before them.  They like their veggies and especially their fruits.  I like the quick sale rack at Meijers where we shop! 

[kiwimum]

My daughter is 1 1/2 yrs old and we also do our best not to give her sweets. She thinks a grape is sweet enough.
I like the one chip per age idea. I think it is mean to eat something in front of them and not let them try what you are having.
My daughter has just worked out how to sign "more please" its very cute and hard to say no to.

At the moment she is a good eater, I cant think of anything she wont eat. I also just make a habbit of making her food interesting and if she doesn't finish it then thats fine, but she doesnt get anything different other wise I can see how that would lead to a fussy eater. If she eats all her dinner she will get something for pudding but its normally yoghurt and fruit or maybe rice pudding.
 
Because she doesn't have much or any sugar i can really see the effects it has on her when she does. Within five minutes she is running around the table or acting all silly. If its only been a little bit then it wears off pretty quick but man she is full on when she has sugar.
The first time we really gave her anything too sweet was on her 1st birthday, she had some of her cake, not much but that afternoon once everyone had gone home she really was like a different child. From that day on i knew just what too much sugar can do to her.

[Krista G]

Unfortunately the US, and many other countries are full of obese people.  Don't expect them to share your point of view.  Kids today eat garbage from sunup to sundown.  People complain that their kids are picky and won't eat this or that, yet the children are not at all underweight, or only in very rare cases.  The children rule and the parents oblige them in filling their homes with sugary snacks and processed foods.  This is a real disaster for our children.  We are setting them up for a lifetime of health problems and disease.  My kids aren't picky because we have little to no snacks in our home.  Meals are what we eat and for snacks they eat fruit or occasionally a homemade muffin or granola bar.  We are definitely the exception and not the rule.  Once in a while we have ice cream or make cookies, but as a family we consume very little sugar, drink water instead of juice and eat lots of veggies.  Draw your consolation from knowing that what you are doing is great for your child and forget what the neigh sayers have to say.

[MummyRoo]

I try to keep sweet treats to a minimum, but it is really hard! My parents are both over-indulging grandparents who think there is no harm in giving chocolates or cookies or cakes or ice lollies... I had my 11 year-old brother come to stay for a week and he spent half his pocket money on sweets and very kindly shared them with us. I allowed him to offer Nikki a couple of times, since it was good sharing behaviour, but unfortunately Nikki decided that he *needs* sweets. It took weeks to re-train him that sweets are for special occasions after one day's slip-up!

I don't like to 'deprive' my son of sweet treats - I just select what ones he can have and set a daily limit. He probably has more than he should, but sometimes it is so hard to say no... Usually I can distract him, though:

"Please can I have a biscuit?"
"You can have an apple or a banana."
"I want a biscuit!"
"You can have an apple, a banana or < conspiratorial voice> a plum."
"Plum, please."

    

I try and keep the sweet snacks in our house limited to plain biscuits, raisins, tiny baking marshmallows etc. and have one special-treat tube of white chocolate buttons. I am so stingy with them that they are some he got last Christmas

If all the other children at playgroup are having biscuits, I let him have one too (but pick a plain one) and then he won't get another one when we are at home.
In the summer he often wanted ice lollies, so I froze yoghurt (the ones in squeezy tubes) and fresh juice in lolly moulds. I could possibly have gotten away with freezing water 
If I'm making cakes, I substitute half the sugar for pureed fruit (or courgette or carrot...) and make tiny cupcakes (using the cases designed for chocolates - I recently bought a cake-pops mould which I am excited to try out).

Most influential of all, I have always insisted that he can't have a lot of the sweets that he likes the look of because he might choke. My brother proved this for him 12 months ago, when he gave him a large gummy sweet that caught in his throat    (thank God I managed to remove it immediately) so now he looks at most sweets and tells me I can have it but he might choke    So he is content (for now) to stick with tiny marshmallows and chocolate buttons as his sweets-of-choice This doesn't stop him trying to pick up every chocolate bar in the shops, though  >

[Yani_Byron]

  Running the race against sweets has giants rewards.   The chief reward is a healthier child.   I've studied in depth both sides of the sugar question.  That is I read what the sugar companies believe and what nutritionist write.  When ever I do a study I tried to be as objective as I can.  On the internet you can find anything you want such as emphatic statements saying there is nothing wrong with white sugar, or the opposite protesting that it is the demon of all foods.
  I could write a small book on the subject, but the bottom line is white sugar, sucrose, is a pure carbon molecule with no fiber, minerals, or vitamins, proteins or fats.  Logic then ask why eat it?  It's a stand alone compound created mostly by mechanical means using high temperatures and pressure.  Harvard University recent study concluded that this 'food' is as addicting as heroin, and I'll add it is as pure as heroin.
  However, the consumer is up against a virtually unslayable monster.  Sugar is the food industries best friend.  Besides making us addicts to the foods it possess, it's a wonderful preserver of food.  The sucrose molecule has a unique characteristic which makes it very stable, and therefore retards spoilage  of the food it is in.  There are other great reason sugar is relished and used profusely by the food manufactures, but I won't list them here.  However do note that much sugar has been replaced by an even greater menace and that is high fructose corn syrup. 
  Sugar, from my studies, is not a food, but an addictive drug.  Do I eat sugar?  Yes, partly as living in the USA it is almost impossible to avoid. Most the time I live outside the States, where it is much easier.  However, wherever I live I try to limit my sweet indulgence to only twice a month.  However for young growing bodies it is a serious issue.  Sugar is linked to 100 hundreds of diseases.  For my 6 kids, and now grand kids, we were very strict in the formative years with their diet, practicality the first 3 years.  Virtually no white sugar at all.  I can testify they are all very healthy compare to society at large.  My grandson, now 3.5 has only been sick with a handful of colds. 

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