Giving sugar to a 12 month old

LittleSal wrote: (or am I just being a judgemental aunty? )

I would think it would depend on whether it is a habitual thing or if it was a special treat because of the time of year.

Issy had muesli bars, biscuits and even a bit of her birthday cake at one .. it hasnt made her a sugar fiend though.

I prefer she doesnt have sugar because a toddler on a sugar high is a nightmare

However - each to his own .. should they want their child to grow up eating crap thinking its normal, who am I to judge.

My 1 year old has the occasional sugary treat, everything in moderation. I was not going to deny her birthday cake or a treat for Christmas.

I think if you go too far either way it could cause issues. I have a cousin who was never allowed sugar and he would just go crazy for it and now eats a lot more of it as a teenager than any of the others who were allowed it.

When it comes to teeth they say that dried fruit is one of the worst things but what child does not like raisins.

HeidisMum wrote: When it comes to teeth they say that dried fruit is one of the worst things but what child does not like raisins.

Yep the dental nurse gave us a huge lecture on raisins, muesli bars and diluted juice when Isabelle went for her first check up (and he teeth were in perfect condition!)

I let Kyle have the odd thing like a biscuit or some muffin, but usually it would be after dinner or sometimes just a bit of mine cos he's hanging off my leg. But certainly not everyday.

I let him have a choc bic the other day round my friends and OMG the mess, never again (well not till he is much older and a cleaner eater).

I think if it is balanced out it is fine but if it's part of what they eat everyday then that is probably a bit much.

Yeah dried fruit is suppose to be really bad, but then where do you draw the line, mine don't really ever have chocolate or sweets and they never have juice or fizzy so cutting out dried fruit as well just seems OTT and I think if you are cleaning their teeth twice a day it should be ok. Well so far Spencer's teeth are looking good so fingers crossed.

Hmmm, I give my daughter plain biscuts on a daily basis, and at the moment she's drinking pedialyte (OMG there's a lot of sugar in it!) because she's got a tummy bug. Normally that's the limit of her sugar intake though - 1 biscuit (normally a superwine) for being a good girl while mummy runs her errands. She thinks that muffins are cake, and she'll get a date about once a fortnight.
She had cake for her birthday, and has a little piece of any birthday cake. She's never had chocolate or lollies. She did have some of Grandad's pudding at Xmas lunch (choc chip bikkies is the base) but it was Christmas and he made it for us special.

If I want to eat lollies, take aways or chocolate, I wait until she's having a nap or asleep for the night. I expect her to eat what we are eating - which means setting a good example.

lilfatty wrote: Flutterby wrote: If I want to eat lollies, take aways or chocolate, I wait until she's having a nap or asleep for the night.. I do this too .. but mostly because then I don't have to share

ha ha, oh things were easy when they were under 1yr, now have to hide it & dam those loud wrappers

C has had sweets etc from a young age . Im not losing sleepliess nights over it .

Sugary things don't help the teeth , but they aren't the only thing that cause bad teeth , that can also be down to genetics, we had plenty of kids who never had lollies in their life come in to work with horrible teeth to fix .

DD has the odd piece of chocolate or sweet-biscuit or cake when we do. I do not want to make these items out to be fantastic once-a-month treats or whatever.

This is because my parents really limited these things with me and as soon as I had control of my own pocket money and could get to the shop on my own (and this was back in the 70s/80s when kids were often allowed out alone at 5) I would buy huge amounts of sweets and hide them from my parents and eat them in secret.

I will probably now go to the other extreme with my DD and over-indulge, but then I guess I am no more perfect a parent than anyone else

Edit for typos

Edited by Susiec

I guess that answers the birthday cake question .

I agree with everyone else, everything in moderation, but I must admit that lil miss gets far more junk than the others did at her age because if the older kids are having a lolly, muffin, cake etc. then she demands to have some too. But she eats a really varied, healthy diet for the most part, so I don't stress over the occasional junk food. In an average week she wouldn't have any junk food, but when we go away she might have junk food every day for a week, or a spate of birthday parties etc. It all evens out in the end.

i have only just started giving Cody the occasional biscuit in the afternoon as a snack while waiting for dinner. Goodness knows what he gets when DPs nana is looking after him . I okayed a gingerbread man on Christmas day and she kept saying that it was good for his teeth .

He likes having a potato chip when I am having some, but he only gets a couple of small ones. i won't give him anything with a heap of sugar in it, such as lollies and juice. I really want to hold off on the sweet stuff as long as possible.