At what age do you allow chocolate?

[kdaisy]

DH and I have differing views on this...please help us out!

(We aren't disagreeing so much with sugar as we are the caffeine content.)

[Drummer's Wife]

I'd say around the first birthday. Really, there isn't a huge amount of cafffeine in chocolate. I'd be more worried about the sugar in it making the kid hyper.

[JessicaS]

About one or so. Usually that is when my parents start sneaking them a bit.

That just isn't a hill to die on for me, they live far away and do not get to see the kids as much as they would like.

[mamadelbosque]

IDK, about the same as everything else - 9-12 months when they start actually eating decent amounts of food. Certainly b 18 months or so.

[treemom2]

Our first child was over 2 before she had chocolate or any sugar really except for her birthdays and major holidays. Our second child was much, much younger. . .he probably wasn't even a year when we had chocolate for the first time.

[Baby_Cakes]

Hmm, probably after their 1st bday, maybe around 18 mo or so? I think that's when DD had her first few tastes. Her 1st birthday cake was chocolate...

I don't see the big deal. It's a "sometimes" food, just a treat.

[eclipse]

I voted any age, but I wouldn't give it to an infant - but not necessarily over 2, either. I think my kids first had chocolate around their first birthdays.

[Storm Bride]

Somewhere around 1ish, I guess. I'm not really sure. DD2 has had a few very tiny amounts. I know it's been a bit younger with each subsequent child.

[Mama2mc]

DS doesn't get almost any sweets, but he does loves chocolate. I think he was around 10 months old he got his first tiny taste.

[Purple Sage]

Originally Posted by eclipse

I voted any age, but I wouldn't give it to an infant - but not necessarily over 2, either. I think my kids first had chocolate around their first birthdays.

[AmaraMonillas]

I intend to avoid almost all processed sugar before age 2. As a child, processed sugar caused my excema to flare up horribly. Also one of my sisters and I have noticed ourselves with cravings and reactions to sugar that have features of addiction. There are enough really delicious whole foods that as long as I am the one choosing everything in my child's diet, I don't feel like I am depriving them at all by not giving chocolate, candy, pop, etc.
I won't however, make a big deal of other people giving it to my kids when they are old enough to talk/play without being in arms reach.

I realize this may end up changing since I haven't had my little one yet

[Llyra]

The first chocolate my kids had was around their first birthday-- a little before for DD2, and a little after for DD1. DS wasn't given any until much later, but that's because he wasn't allowed dairy, so he didn't have chocolate until he was old enough to eat semi-sweet chunks-- because anything with chocolate that I might have offered (cake, pudding, cookies) mostly had dairy content.

I as a general rule don't offer my kids sugar. Not at home, at least. But I have never refused to allow them to try a small amount of whatever's on offer at a friend's house or a party or something.

[kriket]

My DH and I disagree about this too. I don't have an issue with chocolate, as a treat or on occasion, but DH has started letting DS eat cocopuffs out of the box.

At about a year I think I'm OK with a bite now and then. I am NOT ok with calling chocolate cereal breakfast

[JoyfullySubversive]

All of my kids have had chocolate as babies. I love good chocolate, so it's kind of hard not to share it with them, they notice. Organic 77% cacao type chocolate though.

[mommy212]

my 10 1/2 mo has had small bites of chocolate... very small tastes, but then again, I give him small tastes of many things. I do not worry overmuch about it. I am a crazy huge chocolate fan and there is always chocolate in the house so it was ineveitable. So far he has had homemade chocolate chip oatmeal cookies, homemade brownies and a couple little nibs off a milk chocolate I was eating.

[karika]

I think around 14 months or so.


I have also struggled with this as we are a strictly no caffeine family (well us girls anyway). There is only a small amount in chocolate however. I would not ever let them eat any mainstream candy, as it all contains GMO components, and a lot of it has dairy and soy. We eat Enjoy Life (an allergy free brand so no dairy)Chocolate Chips in peanut butter cookies, or on a spoonful of peanut butter.

We have been chocolate free for 2 weeks because I was thinking the caffeine was affecting my sleep pattern. I also thought it was causing dd1 to be more annoying than usual. I did not make any conclusive findings. I still had periods where I slept for 10 hours and then a day or two where I couldn't sleep... so I can't attribute insomnia to chocolate in my case. dd1 had a few days where she was improved (the first three days), but then she was back to back talking, pacing, talking incessantly, etc.... I am now thinking it is just sugar (fruit sugar and raw unrefined sugar, we don't eat white sugar or processed food) in general that affects her.

I am patently against caffeine on any level. However the reality of living without chocolate was just not doable for me at this time. If I am going to eat it, I allow my children to have it, but only the Enjoy Life allergy free kind, and I only let them have some, like maybe 1 1/2 tbsp in a day at the most. I have gotten over most of my vices, but this one is still with me for now. If there was caffeine free chocolate, I would buy it instead to be sure I was not ingesting anything speedy. But like I said, from my own experiment there didn't seem to be any difference for us.

I also recently read that chocolate is harvested by child labor in poor conditions. I am investigating where Enjoy Life gets theirs from, since I try very hard to support the types of systems that do not use child labor in a cruel way.

[Princess ConsuelaB]

I couldn't vote, I'd also say around 1, in small amounts of course. The caffeine content is negligible(my kids probably recieved more caffeine from my milk ) so we treated it like any sugary food, an occasional treat.

[Princess ConsuelaB]

Originally Posted by AmaraMonillas

I realize this may end up changing since I haven't had my little one yet

It's good to recognize that

[major_mama11]

Around first birthday, for both. I think their birthday cake was their first chocolate. I always have choc chips in the house for myself to munch on, and DH has started giving DS (16 mos) choc chips for a treat now and then.

I'm not big on offering them sugary foods (definitely not an everyday thing anyway), but I don't have a lot of control over what DH allows them to have on the evenings that I work. And I'm ok with the fact that the grandmas like to keep chocolatey treats in their freezers for when the kids visit, because well, I want to eat some too, and don't want to be a hypocrite!

[Artichokie]

my 2.8 yr old has been offered something with chocolate in it twice and both times she picked out the chocolate. Once she stuck a chocolate chip in her mouth and spit it out. So I guess she is not really a fan...

eta: she was not offered chocolate until she was over 2 yrs old.