@katrina2017 If I were trying to raise my kid to avoid obesity, I wouldn't treat sugary snacks as if they were "bad" foods. Keeping sweets from kids can make them want to more and makes it difficult for them to develop a neutral relationship with food.
@kevinkret86 I respect your perspective and I have heard this viewpoint before, but my kid’s pediatrician, dentist, and the references I’ve read all disagree. Solid Starts, which has references and nutritional oversight, recommends “ try to avoid offering sugary foods and sweets until at least 2 years of age, but if you can wait longer, such as until 4 years, that can work well too. ” This article was reviewed by multiple dieticians and has over 20 references: https://solidstarts.com/children-an...ences-and-avoid-raising-sugar-obsessed-kids/#
@katrina2017 Of course less sugar is better physically but I think you’re discounting/ignoring the psychological component of food which the person you responded to is talking about. Labeling foods as “bad” can contribute to diet culture, eating disorders and binging.
@katrina2017 Solid starts also says that we don’t live in a vacuum and treats in special occasions are totally fine.
It’s like alcohol, right? If you learn to drink responsibly at a reasonable age, you’re less likely to have issues than if you’re forced to wait until you’re older and are left to experiment all at once.
You can both offer sweets in a morally neutral way and mostly offer non sweet food. They are not mutually exclusive.
@valshantal Alcohol is also not appropriate for this age group, so that’s an interesting analogy. In my mind, this proves my point. My son can have candy, coffee, alcohol, marijuana, a motor vehicle, and a gun- when it’s age appropriate.
@katrina2017 I mean, if you want to continue the analogy…sure alcohol is illegal until 21. Therefore, I’m sure you don’t know a single person who ever had any alcohol before then because you’re not supposed to. The whole point is to avoid putting sugar on a pedestal. That’s why Solid Starts that you are using as a source suggests serving dessert with your meal, not saving it for afterwards or as something to be earned. Jenny (the founder of SS) has also talked about the importance of giving kids unlimited access to candy etc on occasion so that they can learn there own limits because unless you plan on locking your kid in your house until they’re 18, they’re going to be exposed to sugar.
@alanr Can you link to where solid starts recommends unlimited access to candy for toddlers? I’m specifically talking about regular candy use for toddlers.
@katrina2017 Yes. Most of his teachers so far have been obese as well. I dont dislike them. They do their best to teach these kids how to socialize and interact well with eachother.
@binfoco Some of the worst eaters I know are thin people. I don't think it's fair to say that because his teachers are fat, that means that they don't know how to feed the children in their care. You said that your fellow parents bring in all these treats. It sounds like they're the problem.
@binfoco I get that I'm on a moderately granola thread, but I do want to insist that it's probably not that they don't care, it's that they evaluate information differently than you do. Some would say that you don't care because you aren't making a parent group for healthy snacks (the parents at my niece's daycare did this). We don't all have the bandwidth to make big changes in our communities. Some of us are too over extended to make even small ones. It's not an indictment of character, it's just how life is.
@kevinkret86 I appreciate your insight. Most people I talk to about this in real life but I don't know personally Just think I'm kind of cuckoo for not wanting to give my kid or myself the normal things that most other kids have to eat
@binfoco People think I’m cuckoo too! They all roll their eyes at me bc I don’t give my baby juice. He loves water and milk tho, and he gets lots of fruit, so he’s not deprived!
@katrina2017 Thats good! Why do people think babies need juice anyway? I had to do calcium fortified oj because mine is a bit lactose. I wish i had done lactaid milk instead though because now he has "watch areas" on his teeth according to his dentist. I do brush his teeth every day but i guess not enough
Also, Trader Joe's, Sprouts, and Whole Foods offer plenty of sugary junk foods. Food isn't necessarily better just because you bought it from those stores. GMO doesn't mean it's bad or unhealthy, and GMOs are just cross breeds, humans have been doing this for millennia.
No one wants their kid to eat a lot of junk food, but you seem to have a lot of misconceptions about food and how healthy eating habits are formed. Kids eat in color is a great resource if your interested.
@congnh2412 GMO’s being good versus bad is very subjective IMO. Beyond your personal beliefs of gmo’s & health, they are inherently bad for our environment. I don’t think a Wikipedia can articulate this topic accurately. We also forgot about the relationship between gmo’s and the heavy use of pesticides. In my experience working in agriculture, if something is inherently bad for the environment, it is inherently bad for our health.
But I do agree with your very valid point, not everything from a ‘health’ food store is inherently healthy.
As for sugar and kids, the link below is a wonderful resource for all of us to up our knowledge on the impacts of sugar and our children. I learned a lot and found it very interesting:
“Studies show a negative impact on academic performance, learning and memory.”
@congnh2412 Its not the sugar or even the gmos i have a problem with. Its the food dyes , artificial flavors, loads of preservatives etc they put in gmo snacks. Thats why i choose non gmo when i can because 99 percent of the time , its not gonna have all that artificial crap in it. Thats what is causing the hyper activity, bad mood, and just generally rotting their brains imo.
@cday1210 I did for a long time. He doesnt eat it because hes still too young to understand why i did it. He wants what his friends are having. I started giving him breakfast before school but they still give him a bag of food regardless and he eats the rainbow cereal he said.
