I'm all for healthy eating, but..........

[sweets]

Do you ever give your mindees sweets or chocolates?

i rarely do but the other day i only had 2 mindees so i popped them in the double buggy and went for a long walk, on the way home i called in the shop for some milk and for a treat i bought a packet of chocolate buttons, the children were really excited and we shared them on the way home, only 1 pack between the 3 of us and i prob had more than my share! lol

i did feel a bit guilty for giving them chocolate but then thought NO i shouldn't as it was a treat and not an every day thing.

is it so wrong? i was brought up having sweets prob every day and i expect a lot if not most children still do. So why is it we can't give them to them now and again.

[AnnieM]

I give them as treats every now and then, as long as parents don't object. As long as it's not every day I can't see it being too much of a problem, I do only buy chocolate though.

[Ripeberry]

One of my mindees is never given chocolate at home by his parents (or so they say). But he knows what a bar of chocolate looks like and he keeps bringing me the wooden food basket and pulls out the chocolate going "Yum, yum!"
Me thinks granny is giving him some

But I don't give them sweets or chocolates, they may get ice cream with sprinkles, but that's it really.

[Twinkles]

Only as a special treat.

However, I have one family who are very keen on healthy eating.
They are vegetarian , everything has to be organic , freshly prepared etc etc.

I have supported them completely with this.

The other morning they arrived and said ' She wouldn't eat much breakfast. The smarties went down well though !!!!!!'

I will never again carefully consider whether I should exclude my children from having a treat if this child is around.
To think ,I felt guilty if she had a bit of chocolate cake after lunch !

We will continue to eat healthily and will have the occasional treat too.

[PixiePetal]

healthy as a rule with occasional treats - I bake cakes a lot and we make biscuits together but there is an odd custard cream or choc digestive about if they eat meal, fruit and yogurt or if we are out for the day. Parents are happy with everything.

I had one child from 18 months - very healthy eating family - or so I thought until she got old enough and told me her secret with mummy and she had sweets/choc on the way home

Another child knew what the purple wrappers meant that I like the healthy eating mum did say she succumbed to the odd diet coke and dairy milk

I find the ones who have nothing make more of a deal of it when they get older and become obsessed with sweets/choc where the ones who have occasionally take it as normal

[Adiamond]

I don't normally give sweets or chocolate BUT I sometimes give the lo's a biscuit as a treat.
I agree the ones who are not allowed a sweet or chocolate will more than likely be the ones that will over induldge on these things as soon as they get the chance
One of my old los apparently wasn't allowed these sort of things until one day they arrived at mine, lo had chocolate all over her face at 8am mum said she wouldn't eat her breakfast this morning but she has just eaten a full packet of chocolate cookies on the way here
guess what lo had for her breakfast everyday after mum let her do this??? and I had to put up with lo being rather excitable for the rest of the morning x

[Hebs]

yes i do but only as a treat,

i bought mindees choc the other day, first time since christmas

[The Juggler]

as long as no objections by the parents I love to treat my little ones. Those who used to stay for tea got a chocolate biscuit but now I don't do tea, we rarely have anything.

Toddlers on a wed is a biscuit (just the one - the amount of children who are allowed 3 or 4 is worrying) and birthdays we always have chocolate cake but on Fridays I only have 1 mindee and if we are in a park we often stop for coffee and a choccie biccie

[keatingschick]

The thing is, when my children were born I intended NOT to give sweets/chocs, personally I dont LIKE chocolate. My mum would say that it was mean not to let my son have chocolate, and said I should let him "as a treat" but I said "how is it a treat?" a treat is something you LOVE but you only get once every so often. If he has never had it he doesnt KNOW its a treat and there is no benefit to him having it, having said that my mother won but my son was obsessed with sweets and had alot of dental problems as such and it was ME that had to go along to the dentist with him!!!

Now the thing is, I suppose because I dont LIKE chocolate, I dont actually buy it so I rarely buy it (also my daughter is diabetic but loves chocolate so I tend not to buy it so we dont have the rows when she wants it but cant have it), now my mindees, I have a child who I have looked after both his brother and his sister. When they were both little the mother was very specific that she didnt want them having biscuits/sweets etc, and so I wouldnt give them any and would always ensure that if we went on any visits to toddler groups I had a healthy snack with me. Recently the other little boy I mind is a relative of this boy, he came in in the morning (8.30) munching a pack of choc buttons, his mum said "dont forget to give X one" and pushed one into the babies mouth. I asked if he was allowed chocs (thinking maybe she knew different her being a relative) and explained that when I minded the other 2 I was instructed not to let them have sweets/chocs etc, and she got all defensive with me saying that the older 2 MORE THAN make up for not having any and they have loads now, and sort of hooked the choc out of the babies mouth in a huff!! (this is the parent who I am having the dispute with at the moment cos I feel we have a strained relationship).
When the mum came to collect the baby I asked her and explained I wasnt being funny but that I didnt give him choc/sweets anyway and I just knew from the others that she never let them have them. She said CERTAINLY not at 9 months and CERTAINLY not at 8.30 in the morning!!!

So...I just respect the parents wishes, but also I suppose cos I dont really like chocolate/sweets anyway and dont actually view it as any kind of treat then its not something I would think of.

I do know though that a minder friend of mine used to have CHOCOLATE parties every so often and she told the Ofsted inspector at her visit, and the inspector said that was great - everything in moderation.

[zippy]

i made banana smoothies laden with loads of ice cream and made cupcakes during an inspection, when inspector questioned it i i told her i thought healthy eating had its place but i believed more in teaching children about moderation and that every food group has its benefits even ice cream - think of all that calcium lol got graded a good so she must have bought it, i don't believe in changing what i believe just because a handbook tells me to or if an inspector comes calling

[Rubybubbles]

hmmm everything in moderation I think. I don't as a rule give sweets ect, but we do lots of baking at least 1-2 times a month (saying it loud, doesn't seem alot)

LO I mind is 2 in april and I hate it when we pop to the shop as he shouts chocolate, crisps ect ect as he has anything he wants with mum Up until now I have been providing food, but he is cutting down to part time and will be bringing his own lunch going to have to sort out what to bring leaflet me thinks!

[Chell]

Only as a special treat.

However, I have one family who are very keen on healthy eating.
They are vegetarian , everything has to be organic , freshly prepared etc etc.

I have supported them completely with this.

The other morning they arrived and said ' She wouldn't eat much breakfast. The smarties went down well though !!!!!!'

I will never again carefully consider whether I should exclude my children from having a treat if this child is around.
To think ,I felt guilty if she had a bit of chocolate cake after lunch !

We will continue to eat healthily and will have the occasional treat too.

Smarties aren't vegetarian as they contain cochineal.

[Deb]

I think that was the point of the

and they are dyed using red cabbage now :

god bless wiki

[flowerpots]

I NEVER EVER let my children eat sweets but i do give them a little bit of choc once in a while, i think everything in moderation is nice. I always respect the parents wishes but will never give mindees sweets.

[fionamal]

We have a treat on Fridays. Normally Choc Chip muffins or cookies or sometimes it could be a milkyway but other than that its normally fruit, raisins or a biscuit

My own 2 like a bit of chocolate after dinner and I dont mind that as they generally eat healthy meals anyway and brush teeth after dinner and then again before bed.

[babs]

i dont give out sweets and chocolate regularly but birthdays i do a party and we have goodies... my own son use to throw up on chocolate when he was little and wasnt allowed it, he grew out of this and now eats chocolate to much if you ask me.... but hes now 19.. i think in moderation everything is good for you.. i do have mindee arriving eveymorming having eaten sweets or chocolate for breakfast, and also has them in lunch bag but they go home again in bag...

[Cazz]

and they are dyed using red cabbage now[/COLOR]

Red cabbage is a vegetable so does that mean that smarties are actually healthy?!

I normally give the children a few wotsits or quavers for lunch after they've eaten their sandwich or wrap. It's literally a few and the parents know and are fine with it. I sometimes give them a biscuit as well but this is only occasionally.

I've had some new mindees start recently and when mum came and signed the contracts I asked if they ate fresh fruit (unlike my daughter who refuses) and she said that they prefer fruit to chocolate and sweets and they only tend to have them at nanny's house
Several times a day for the first week the older child asked me if we are going to have some sweets soon By the following week he stopped asking and just made a comment that that they don't have sweets at my house

The thing is they came to me from a nursery that they have attended from babies and I wouldn't have thought they got sweets there! Although they were at home with mum for about 3 weeks before they started with me.


Mind you, one evening last week dad turned up earlier than usual and they were still sitting at the table eating their yogurt. I asked the older one if he had finished and wiped his hands and face and dad said "Come on then - lets go in the car and have some sweets" He had literally just eaten his meal!

I'm rapidly discovering that quite often what parents tell you when they visit and what they actually do at home are worlds apart!

I agree that sweets and chocolate shouldn't be excluded completely from a child's diet because they will want it all the more if they've been denied it. We also do baking fairly regularly and sometimes have a sponge type desert for our evening meal.

[Daisy1956]

I think that there is no problem with sweets and chocolate so long as you have the parents permission and it is in moderation.

[Kimmy050983]

I don´t give any sweets and chocolate, i think it´s up to the parents to decide what treats and when their children should have it.. but then Jamie doesn´t eat any refined sugar, that doesn´t stop him from having treats, organix do a fab range of biscuits, cereal bars, sweetened with grape juice.
I also bake with honey

[nokidshere]

Of course we have treats and sweets or chocolate.

I bake cakes and various stuff for the children for after school. Sometimes we go to the shop and buy something "treaty" on the way home. Sometimes we have parties for no other reason than we want to!

I can't be doing with food police - gets on my nerves! I teach the children about healthy eating, everything in moderation and plenty of exercise and water.

There are no bad foods - just bad diets, bad eating habits and bad advice.

My own boys are fit and healthy, exercise well, eat well, sleep well. They have treats when they want them and, god forbid sometimes they have fizzy drinks too

Life is for living not for counting every calorie or morsel that your child puts into its mouth.