Junk Food

[bugaboo]

I'm trying to guage how much junk food most parents let their children eat.

Recently I have noticed, and been shocked by the enormous quantities of candy, chips, chocolate and pop the kids around here seem to eat. We live on a street with many small children, and we're less than a block away from a dollar store. Normally, if I treat my children to something sweet it's baking, and homemade at that, not every day, and no pop. But I've noticed many of the parents on my street let their children shop at the dollar store on almost a daily basis for junk food or toys or whatever. And the kids don't come home with just one small candy, they come home with a bag of them, because as you can guess, it's amazing what you can get for a buck nowadays.

This fact alone wouldn't be so bad if it weren't for all these children sharing their junk with my kids. But I think I've finally drilled it into their heads they have to get permission first. Hopefully they'll thank me for it when their adults

So how much junkfood do you let your children eat?

 

[JulySheMustFly]

My oldest only gets soda when we go out to eat if we feel she can handle it. We might go out to eat once a month. My younger two have never had soda and don't ask for it.

They get a small lolipop as a surprise treat about 3 times a week.

Outside of that the most junky thing they eat with any regularly is hot dogs. They have them once a week when my husband works the evening shift.

 

[jgonz]

My kids can have 1 piece of candy/chocolate/cake/pie/whatever for dessert, after lunch and the same after dinner. That's it. Not for snacks~ fruit is for snack. I think I said, "yes, you can have it, but we'll save it for after lunch/dinner" so many times they just "got it" that it was ok for dessert but not for any other time. If they asked why, I said "too much sugar will make your tummy hurt when you haven't had lunch/dinner first".

Chips/pretzels, that kind of stuff, is allowed in Very small portions, With lunch Only.

Pop is a major treat~ Daddy usually gets them some every once in awhile. I do not Ever buy pop (because I don't drink it anymore). They only drink it with lunch or dinner.

Of course, my Older kids (teens/college aged) have their own money and buy their own fast food and junk. Even though they know what's healthy and what's not, they still buy it. And now they're gaining some weight (LOL) so they're finally trying to get healthy.

July, hot dogs aren't that bad... especially if you get the beef only ones, or the Hebrew National ones.

 

[jennyren]

Too much. I stil have not learned to say NO to the suckers at the bank, the after-church baked goods, the treats that grandma brings over for them, the candy that they have at preschool (although it is discouraged, parents actually give their kids candy to bring to the preschool and share with their friends). My daughter has received gum, jelly beans, suckers, five cent candies and more just from friends at preschool.

Thats just the junk they get from outside sources. I have to admit that I have given in at the grocery store checkout and bought my kids the following: licorice, chocolate bars, ring pops, push pops, candy necklaces, chips, cheesies, chocolate covered nuts, smarties, M&Ms, slushies (I know I'm kinda breaking the no-pop rule on this one), freezies, popsicles.

The worst is when we've gone to the peachfest (a huge festival with lots of vendors). We would go all day for several days and I would feed my kids from the vendors the whole time. Doughnuts, poutine, cotton candy, lemonade, snowcones, pizza, corn dogs, cinnamon rolls. At leat they had some fruit- the festival handed out unlimited free peaches. Of course there was also the peach juice competitions and the free peach cake.

Wow, this thread has revealed to me that while I think I feed my kids mostly healthy food, all those little times really add up. My kids eat waaay too much junk and so do I.

 

[lucypevensie]

I'd be one of those that you might be shocked about. It's not so much me as it is my husband. I'm a little more horrified about sugar and fat and chemicals than he is. If it were 100% up to me junk food would be more of a rare treat than it is. It's hard to tell them no to the soda and kool-aid and bags of candy when he eats as much of that stuff as he pleases.

So I try to teach them as well as I can without making Dad look like a bad guy. It's tricky.

 

[sparassidae]

Not much at all. DS goes 'nutso' when he has various additives, plus one of our daughters has type 1 diabetes. So it's a good reminder not to give them junk.

"pop" as you call it, is only at parties (so a few times a year), same for chips/crisps, lollies (candy) etc.

Icecream is homemade, so we'll have it for a few nights then not for another couple of months. Biscuits (cookies) and cakes are homemade, so about once a week, but at least I know what's in them

 

[bugaboo]

the candy that they have at preschool (although it is discouraged, parents actually give their kids candy to bring to the preschool and share with their friends). My daughter has received gum, jelly beans, suckers, five cent candies and more just from friends at preschool.

That would bother me, because at that age my kids didn't really ask for the candy because we just never kept it in the house.

Pop is a major treat~ Daddy usually gets them some every once in awhile. I do not Ever buy pop (because I don't drink it anymore). They only drink it with lunch or dinner.

Pop is a real treat here too, reserved for special occassions. We treat it more like we treat coffee, as an adult drink.


I don't understand parents who do that. For me, it was easier when they were young like that, because we just didn't keep it in the house, therefore the kids never asked for it.

Despite the fact that I almost never buy candy or junk food for my children, I am disappointed in how much they still manage to ingest. I do get them treats for special occassions, and yes, sometimes I cook hotdogs or bring them to McDonald's, and we buy freezies and ice cream occasionally. But their friends and grandparents seem to be the biggest culprits for candy. Both of their grandmothers come over with purses loaded with smarties and hard candies regardless of how often I've asked them not to. And both grandmothers would have been horrified if their own mothers had done this with their children. But their friends are worse. It's not that I don't want my kids to ever have candy or chips. I just think that giving a child a bag of gummy bears or licorice on a daily basis is just unhealthy. And I think that letting your children visit the dollar store with $5 once or twice a week is wrong, too. A couple of weeks ago my children had a friend sleep over. Their friend's father packed her 6 or 7 full sized chocolate bars to bring with her, for only three children!

I guess I'm just afraid my children will grow up thinking that eating this way is normal. My parents let me have a lot of junkfood and pop as a child and i developed a weight problem. And it was difficult to change my eating habits. Except for the pop - I feel like I'm going through withdrawal if I don't have a can of coke a day.

 

[Birbitt]

My boys eat very little junk food. The only soda they get (and rarely I might add) is sprite. And as for chips and those type of things they don't eat them more than maybe once a week. Candy they get from Sunday school on Sundays (little treat bags) and that lasts them the whole week.

 

[-~Truth_N_Trust~-]

well, if you're gauging it on yesterday (DD's birthday) then you'd say WAY TOO MUCH! lol, but generally, I'm pretty happy with how healthy they eat. they probably eat a small amount of chocolate about twice a week - usually on the weekends, hardly ever do we have soft drink 'pop' - I mean maybe a few times a year. Most deserts (cakes/biscuits) are homemade, but even then we (parents) mostly keep em for ourselves! lol! We eat takeaway (Mcdonalds eg.) about once or twice a month.

I don't know, sometimes I feel like a horrible mother for letting them taste chocolate! But all in all, I know what goes into their mouths, and for the most part it's healthy.

 

[OrangeHope]

My mom did do a pretty good job on not eating too much junk food. pop was a once in a while treat and so were sweet stuff, but we mostly had some thing sweet every night for dessert. On the other hand my cousin who was 4 years younger than me his parent would let him eat a bag of chips before dinner and would hardly eat when it was dinner time and then also got dessert! I used to envy him cause he got all the 'yummy' food when I was very limited but now looking back I can see what bad eating habits he had, his parent always kept coke in the house and thats all he wanted to drink and his parents would have to fight him to drink a glass of water cause he was so addicted to coke.

Any how, when my baby girl is born she won't be allowed to have all allot of junk food, only as treats, like at b-day's, holidays and stuff like that. we will have dessert after dinner but I'll try to make it as healthy as possible like watermelon, fruit shakes, healthy oat meal cookies, exc..

 

[lin1235]

Very little. She's never had soda of any kind, and drinks water, milk or well-diluted juice only. Snacks are fruits or yoghurt mostly, maybe some pretzels. I will let her have something with sugar in it now and then (once a week or so), and if she's having something like chips (rarely) it's only MSG and tartrazine free. We've been on holiday for 2 weeks and she ate worse than usual due to availability of healthy options, but now we're back on track again.

 

[Singin4Him]

I think the best thing is to begin to gauge what you eat and if you wouldn't put it in your mouth don't give it to your children. In our home literally everything is whole grain and whole wheat and often organic. My son never drinks juice and until he asks for soda we won't even consider soda. We never have soda in our house so when he's old enough he probably won't get one unless it's a special treat when we're out if that. Sugar just isn't a good thing for kids no matter how you look at it, the less the better!

 

[bugaboo]

I think the best thing is to begin to gauge what you eat and if you wouldn't put it in your mouth don't give it to your children. In our home literally everything is whole grain and whole wheat and often organic. My son never drinks juice and until he asks for soda we won't even consider soda. We never have soda in our house so when he's old enough he probably won't get one unless it's a special treat when we're out if that. Sugar just isn't a good thing for kids no matter how you look at it, the less the better!

The problem is that my children are older now, 7 and 10, and it's getting harder to control what goes into their mouths... they're eating over at friend's houses, having sleepovers, and playing with friends whose parents just aren't as careful as I am about what their kids eat. It's really hard to pass up the candy for a carrot when you're only 7.

 

[charligirl]

We don't do junk meals really, Mc Donalds is a rare 'treat' I think my DD (2yr 8 mt) has been about four times and has chicken nuggets.

The only drink she gets is real fruit juice and water, but I do let her have some sweets and crisps, the crisps are usually organic or child friendly ones with low salt etc and the sweets have no artificial stuff. At the moment she gets a jelly baby for sitting onthe potty before a car trip and perhaps a few more in the day, I don;t want her to think sweets and chocolate are some prized thing to be craved and sought after so we do little and relatively frequently, she has a few small sweets every day as already outlined and chocolate maybe once or twice a week.. a small small bar or biscuit.

The only other thing is jaffa cakes after church

 

[GolfingMom]

We allow it in our house. I know that my nieces/nephews are NEVER allowed to have it so when at a party or gathering they go crazy and over induldge on it. I figure if it's around and the kiddo's know they can have some when they want it (they know to ask first) it doesn't become such a desire for them. I have all sorts of chips/cookies/candy in the house atm and they kiddo's usually choose string cheese, carrots, apples etc instead of it. I'd rather allow it than have them sneaking it around.

 

[Singin4Him]

The problem is that my children are older now, 7 and 10, and it's getting harder to control what goes into their mouths... they're eating over at friend's houses, having sleepovers, and playing with friends whose parents just aren't as careful as I am about what their kids eat. It's really hard to pass up the candy for a carrot when you're only 7.

I guess you can't control what they do when they are not in your sight but for I do believe if it's not something they are used to having they won't have much desire for it. I know my cousins haven't eaten junk food since day one and as older children and teens they even now choose things like fruit instead of cookies or cake and I've noticed when there is no other option but junk food they eat very little. So I think it is possible for children to eat healthy when they don't have a parent over their shoulder watching them. It might take a while to change their habits but it's completely possible.