Does anyone else NOT give their kid junk food?

[Plarka]

I've never given my 2.5 year old junk food, candy, chocolate, or juice. I feel like such a freak, are there any of you who are the same?

[organicpapayamama]

I never have. Its just not in the house. Im not really tempted to give it to him either. But as a side note I personally dont consider 100% juice a junk food. I do sneak juice in his milk to help when he is constipated. The kid does not like fruit or anything sweet at all so that helps as well. We were over my good friends house and she offered him an oreo. I was curious to see what he would do. He licked it once and gave it back to her lol.

[wendy1163]

no sugar here either. it is addictive, so why start it on purpose? I am sure ds has had little sugary bites through friends and extended family, but we just don't keep those foods around, so there is never a big deal about it. you are not a freak my guy is so happy eating fruit; why bother introducing candy as a treat when grapes work just fine?

[Birdie B.]

I don't either, and it drives me up the wall when I see people doing it!! This is one of my top hot-button issues - I wish I could be more laid back about it! I know it's none of my business what other people do with their children, and as long as they're happy and healthy it shouldn't matter, right? But I go nuts (inside - I haven't freaked out on anyone yet, LOL) when some of my friends feed their kids. I want to scream,

"An 8 month old should not be drinking chocolate milk or eating Cheetos or a brownie with walnuts in it!"

"A 1 year old should not eat hard candy!"

"Don't give your 4 year old a second cupcake at 9pm and then remark how he's so wound up he won't go to bed!"

"McDonald's is not a food group!"

Thankfully, I don't, and most of my friends are as much of a freak about whole food as I am. Heck, I feel bad when I give my daughter crackers that aren't homemade! But I think some junk food will be inevitable in her life, and I want to avoid making a big deal about food in general. But I do need to chill out about other people's kids. Live and let live, right?

[limabean]

Of course, you'll find plenty of people on MDC who share your no-junk-food philosophy.

[Summersquash]

I don't give DD junk either. She gets crackers, a handful of dry cereal, or a chunk of a bagel every once in a while, but no candy, chocolate, juice, or anything like that. I figure she has her whole life to eat that stuff. Why purposely start it at 16 months?

[New_Natural_Mom]

We don't give our 2 yo DS any sweets. He eats a very healthy diet. I feel guilty when we give him organic noodles b/c I feel like it is akin to sugar. We do give juice though (usually watered down.) He does not drink a lot other than breastmilk, so though it is a lot of sugar, if he will drink a juice box every once in awhile I am happy. He is very constipated as well, so the extra liquid helps.

[JessieBird]

I am a sugar addict and DH is diabetic so we are very careful with DS. We hardly ever have anything junky in the house because DH can't have it and I can't resist it. Pure good quality juice is okay in my books though. My standards have been slipping lately because early pregnancy is wreaking havok on my diet but in general junk isn't part of our habits.

[LROM]

I was about to say "My dd doesn't eat any junk either", but some of you have listed juice and organic pasta in this conversation and I never thought of those things as junk!

My 15 month old dd drinks filtered water and organic juices (usually pomegranate/blueberry or cherry/apple) together, and eats LOTS of organic spinach pasta, because I send her homecooked food to daycare as a way for her NOT to eat the canned fruit, fried food and sugary breakfast stuff they serve.

But she also eats organic Annie's cheddar bunnies/pretzels, yogurt (which has sugar in it) and other stuff, none of which I consider junk.

So for me the answer is "I agree, no junk for her", but maybe some of you guys consider some of what she does eat junk?

Side note on birthday cakes, I was actually really suprised how many parents gave their babes actual cake/cupcakes on their 1st b-day or before. I thought "Sugar is a nightmare that they're likely to discover on their own at some point - why introduce it voluntarily this early when they still need to get all their food from you???" But a lot of people do it. Fortunately the one time someone gave dd cake before I could stop them, she seemed totally disinterested. Hope that lasts for a long time!

[Plarka]

First of all, what is up with Birdie B's post? It was in normal English a couple hours ago and now it's in some strange German/Alien language!

Ok, would I be a freak to make a sugar free cake for dd's 3rd birthday, like from this site: http://www.homemade-baby-food-recipe...e-recipes.html

For her second bday I made a regular chocolate cake and even let her have some. But I might like to do a sugar free one this time, or am I being too weird and should chill and let her have chocolate cake once a year? What do you do for birthday cake?

[crunchy_mommy]

Well DS eats what we eat and we don't eat "conventional" junk (no candy, chips, etc.) but we have our own versions of junk food that we occasionally enjoy -- homemade low-sugar cookies, vegan "chicken" nuggets, water with a few drops of juice, etc. So I let him have some of that (DH thinks I'm nuts, he doesn't consider those things junk ) The only thing I don't let him have (that I enjoy way too much!) is chocolate, I don't want him having caffeine yet. So anyway... I was going to say no, we don't let him have junk, but only by conventional definitions. I don't want him developing a taste for that stuff. But by my definition, yes, he has junk occasionally.

As far as cake... for his birthday I really only wanted to make one cake so we made an organic vegan vanilla cake, and I let him eat it. I want him to enjoy modified versions (lower sugar, not refined, no artificial colors/flavors, whole grain, etc.) of the things other kids enjoy so he doesn't feel deprived. I think next year I will make him a pumkin cake... I try hard to make things we can eat that our guests (who could care less about healthy eating) would still enjoy too.

[MamaPhD]

DD is 16 mo and we are doing a very light-junk diet. She is not picky and usually eats anything, so that means I can easily give her healthy stuff. Some of her favorites are asparagus, zucchini, grilled chicken breast, fish, any kind of fresh fruit, avocado, and such. Occasionally, we will do toddler rice puffs, organic bunny crackers, multigrain cheerios or Kix. We do watered down juice maybe once a month or so when I suspect constipation coming on, otherwise, DD dinks BM, water, and soymilk.

We do have a couple of moms in our playgroup whose kids are horribly picky and they are happy to feed them whatever kids will swallow. I feel bad for them but I do decline their offering us juice boxes, cheese-its, chocolate chip cookies, sour cram and onion flavored chips (seriously!). I have issues with dried fruit, too, because I find it's mostly too sweet. I'd much rather have DD eat the fresh version of the same fruit.

Cans.... we do canned beans and peas sometimes because they are so darn convenient!

Cake.... I think DD tried cake (just the cake part, not the frosting or jam in it) 3-4 times in her lifeon her bday and grandma's, etc. I'm OK with her having a small bite. She doesn't seem too interested in it anyway.

So, yeah, like I said, light-junk is how I would call it. Stand up for yourself and your little ones, mamas!

Oh, and my two cents on sugar vs. sugar-free. It is the sweetness that makes cravings, not the sugar. So if you drink diet coke, it doesn't have any sugar, but you will still crave sugar just like if you had regular coke. FYI.

[physmom]

You're definitely not the only one! DD's never had pretty much any junk food in her life. She once had a lick of a frozen chocolate covered banana that I had (and that was basically just to avoid a tantrum at a time when I could afford one ) but beyond that nothing. Granted, I don't consider noodles junk food (although we don't eat them often) and we do go to mcdonald's sometimes (we order the grilled chicken club and she eats some of the chicken and veggies with it so nothing fried or anything). We travel a lot for work so we've had to find the best food at restaurants, which means sometimes she hasn't had as many veggies as we would've liked but we always try to find the healthiest options available for her.

[MoonStarFalling]

My DS didn't get a scrap of junk or candy or even juice til he was like 4. We make birthday cake and cookies but I always use whole grain, far less sugar, carrot cake etc. I don't buy junk food. My kids actually fight over who gets the second or third helping of veggies.

[verde]

Well I can't say DD has NEVER had ANY junk food but I can say it's a rare occurrence. Those are treats for special occasions and she does not ask for them. On the other hand she did very emphatically DEMAND that I get her some celery the last we went shopping...

[lilmom]

No junk over here either. We just don't keep it in the house, because my DH is also one who can't resist it and I have seen that tendency in my DS when we have gone to grandparents houses and they have given him candy (against my wishes!!..that's a whole different thread!)

Anyway, I do make homemade popsicles for him in the summer, made of filtered water and fresh lemon or lime juice, and I don't consider that junk..sometimes I also use a little yogurt and fruit to make popsicles. He loves them, and thinks they are a very special treat.

OP, just wanted to tell you that I made the carrot cake from that website for my DS's 1st birthday, and he LOVED it. Actually, everyone loved it, even my DH and my brother, who are both junky-food lovers. So I highly recommend doing something like that.

Last summer when he turned two, I made fresh whip cream and strawberries, because strawberries are his very favorite food. I did put sugar in the whip cream, but I figured, what the heck, it's his birthday. And he loved it. But he is still just fine with having the strawberries plain.

[marispel]

I'm afraid I'm a mama with a picky eater and we jump for joy when we can get food in him. Tyson's chicken nugget is a staple meal here. He will eat a grilled cheese and we do use whole grain bread and shredded cheese. Last night I wanted him to "try" spaghetti o's ( I know, I know)....but I would love for him to eat pasta and sauce. He ended up dipping a cracker (whole wheat Ritz) in the spaghetti o's. I was excited that he at least like the sauce! I also found dehydrated veggies at Cosco...so it's like a chip with a bit of salt, but it's veggies.

I wish I had the luxury of feeding my kiddo whatever we were eating, but it's just not happening. So, we'll continue to make healthy options available as much as possible and hope for the best.

[honey-lilac]

The great majority of the time we eat very healthy, whole foods.

There are times when we have a treat. Chocolates in an Advent calendar, for example. (Like a chocolate coin per day.) Not infrequently we will bake cookies or other baked goods together. Birthdays totally include cake. And sometimes (a couple of times a year) we will have a pizza night, so shoot me. We also have an ice cream machine that we use pretty often. Yesterday we made blueberry ice cream with organic milk, cream, honey, and bluberries. Awesome stuff.

Do they *snack* on these things? No. They're *treats*. They *snack* on, like, tomatoes and nuts and stuff. There's room in our house for treats, desserts, etc - all in moderation. I will make an exception and draw the line at soda though. Totally not giving them soda. Or like, flaming red Cheetos or something. We usually make our own junk food, not get it out of a box or bag.

[ShadowMoon]

Occasionally I'll make cookies or cake, etc, but DS has never had "mainstream" junk food. I think treats and sweets are fine in moderation, but we really try to limit the amount of processed foods in our diet.

[honey-lilac]

Originally Posted by verde

On the other hand she did very emphatically DEMAND that I get her some celery the last we went shopping...

Yeah, it amuses people when we go to the store and DS throws a full blown tantrum because he wants broccoli and radishes. (Incidentally, he won't actually EAT them at home, he loves lots of veggies but not those, that's why I don't end up buying them - but he will totally want to buy them at the store.)