sugar free sweets/children

Mimi_Arc_en_ciel

So sorry for the delay in replying and i apologise if i miss anyone

Didnt know about the sugar free sweets and the laxatives so thank you for the heads up!

Generally we are a sweet free house and its only very occassionally we will buy sweets (usually on a "movie" night which is probably about once a month) The only other time we have sweets in the house is when there has been an "occassion" (Hallowe'en, Christmas, Easter etc when people give out things) and they are kept in the drawer which DD does not go into unless asking. If there are sweets in i will let her have one but nothing else for the rest of the day

When she goes to my mums i know she has biscuits etc (Mum has now said she will start limiting what DD has there) and nan - well she's potty anyway and is one of those who you can never please so I've been trying not to go and see her too often but when DD is there nan is constantly trying to give her kitkats etc (even when i've said no!)

Mum said she will have a word with nan but not sure if it will do any good!

At school she has puddings etc - and they do "bake" biscuits (digestive biscuit covered in icing with dolly mixtures on top) but this is VERY rare - But they do give out treat size sweets when its a kids birthday etc

She eats yogurts, cheese etc - she does have a piece of fruit daily (either an orange/apple) and no, she doesnt drink anything other than milk or water (Tell a lie, occassionally in summer she will have a milk shake as a treat)

DD is small - but because her height and weight are in proportion the doctor isnt worried - Although she is nearly 5 she fits in clothes for 3 year olds - but they cant prove this is because of the thyroxine in the womb, some people are just naturally petite (My mum's family are all under 5ft 4 but my dads family are all 6ft odd) so its one of those things, we will never know if she is the "right" height that she is supposed to be.

I dont want to completely stop her from having treats - one of the reasons of this is that I have seen someone grow up on a very strict diet, wasnt allowed any treats etc - and the minute they left home they went a bit nuts and will now only eat junk food, she refuses to eat anything with vegetables in it, often goes to the shop on pay day and spends £xx on sweets and cola etc and will think nothing of eating a great big tub of ice cream. I dont want that for my kids, I want them to understand that Yes they can eat what they like - in moderation.

I will starting noting down what she is eating on a daily basis then hopefully i can monitor it a lot better

Her teeth are not bad because of the sweets - its my fault (or rather my bodies fault) for not giving her the thyroxine that she needed but unfortunatley there is nothing i can do about it now. With DD2 i was given extra medication and monitored a lot more closely and she seems to be "better" than DD1 (higher birth weight etc)

Thanks everyone

fluffnutter

Mimi_Arc_en_ciel wrote: »

She doesnt really have that many now - i personally dont give her sweets that often but my mother and grandmother give her sweets when we visit. I've spoken o them and my mum understands but my nan bless her is in her 80's and considers me "mean" if i dont give DD sweets and tells me "social services will come after you for being mean" :rotfl: I want to get a few so i can give them to mum and gran so that if they do want to give her a sweet then they can and i will feel a lot happier, and DD won't notice a thing, likewise at parties etc it would be a lot easier than having to go through the "loot" bag before DD gets her mitts on them (The parents know she has something wrong with her teeth and because i would be the one forking out for the sugar free sweets i dont see this being a problem) if that makes sense

I guess you can get sweets marketed for diabetics but you then have the issue of artificial sweeteners. There's been a bit of a question mark over the healthiness of these for a while, not to mention how vile they taste!

I know families are complicated but it seems to me like you're putting the 'needs' of your grandmother (i.e. she wants to give her great-granddaughter sweeties) above your own child's health needs. TBH, I'd just simply put my foot down and say 'no sweets'. They can treat her in other ways, surely? My mum's parents were really keen on giving the grandkids sweets; they're showered my two cousins (my mum's brother's kids) with sweets throughout their childhood. My mum insisted that they didn't do that for me and my brother. The result? My cousins have terrible teeth whilst mine and my brother's are fine. You've just got to prioritise things. Frankly, her health is more important than your grandmother's views on sweeties and social services.

the_cat

Crikey don't give her sugar free sweets!

After eating a packet (without looking at the label properly and realising) I spent a very uncomfortable 4 hours on the loo recently. Hand on heart it was far worse than any stomach bug I've ever had. That was a full sized adult body. What they must do to a small child's doesn't bare thinking about!

RacyRed

Avoid the sweets marketed as suitable for diabetics, they are truly horrendous!

Try substituting dark chocolate if she can adapt to it, much lower in sugar and, in moderation, has health benefits which may outweigh disadvantages (lots of research being done on this just now).

Lidl do a range of sugar free sweets that are sweetened only with natural fruit sugars. They taste great, have no nasty after effects and, used in moderation, make a nice alternative treat.

cutestkids

RacyRed wrote: »

Avoid the sweets marketed as suitable for diabetics, they are truly horrendous!

Try substituting dark chocolate if she can adapt to it, much lower in sugar and, in moderation, has health benefits which may outweigh disadvantages (lots of research being done on this just now).

Lidl do a range of sugar free sweets that are sweetened only with natural fruit sugars. They taste great, have no nasty after effects and, used in moderation, make a nice alternative treat.

Have to agree with you regarding the lidl sweets they are delicious and not full of the nasties that so many normal sweets are.
My kids really like them and I have been known to sneak a few for myself also :rotfl:

I have always prefered dark chocolate even when I was a small child and I seem to have passed this on the kids as they both enjoy it.

Without meaning to sound like an advert for lidl they also do a fantastic range of chocolate bars with up to 85% cocoa solids thus reducing the sugar content.

Chocolate is also the lesser of the evils in sweets as it does not stick to the teeth in the same way as very chewey sweets so if you can not brush straight after eating then less harm is done to the teeth.

brook2jack

RacyRed wrote: »

Avoid the sweets marketed as suitable for diabetics, they are truly horrendous!

Try substituting dark chocolate if she can adapt to it, much lower in sugar and, in moderation, has health benefits which may outweigh disadvantages (lots of research being done on this just now).

Lidl do a range of sugar free sweets that are sweetened only with natural fruit sugars. They taste great, have no nasty after effects and, used in moderation, make a nice alternative treat.

No no no to natural fruit sugars, they will decay teeth just as easily as refined white sugar. As will yoghurt as most yoghurts are sweetned and very acidic, so they are fine with a meal but not as a snack.

No to dark chocolate, it doesnt matter how much sugar or how little you eat , it is still a sugar attack and the acids will take an hour to disappear.

RacyRed

brook2jack wrote: »

No no no to natural fruit sugars, they will decay teeth just as easily as refined white sugar. As will yoghurt as most yoghurts are sweetned and very acidic, so they are fine with a meal but not as a snack.

No to dark chocolate, it doesnt matter how much sugar or how little you eat , it is still a sugar attack and the acids will take an hour to disappear.

Wow! You sound like the person who preached at me that I was doing the wrong thing when I decided to replace sweets and cakes with raw carrots and pea pods. Apparently carrots and peas have higher sugar levels than other vegetables therefore "must be avoided"... :mad:

Fortunately the depressing !!!!!hole was quickly told to shut up by the health professionals in the room at the time.

I mentioned the magic word in my post... MODERATION. That, as well as "balanced diet" get better results than extremism.

brook2jack

Racy you are right moderation is right for most people, however in this case ops child has dental issues already due to developmental problems with her teeth. At the age of four she has already had treatment on teeth that have to last until she is ten or twelve.

Op was asking about sugar free sweets and you replied about sweets sweetened with fruit juice. Unfortunately many people do not know that fruit sugars will rot teeth as easily as sugar, easier because fruit juice is also acid. Following this advice in a young child with compromised teeth will lead to disaster very quickly. Op and her daughter unfortunately are in a position due to no fault of their own where moderation is not an option, but strict control of diet is. This is different from the vast majority of people with normal teeth.

Many children have to follow a strict exclusion diet, ops daughter does not ,as said before she can eat sweets etc as part of a meal but according to her dentist who after all can see her , she has to cut out all sugary snacks. Three acid attacks a day.

Perhaps it sounded harsh to you but it is heart breaking to take teeth out of a five year old who has followed a healthy diet because parents don't realise fruit juice, honey, smoothies, yoghourts, cereal bars etc are as sugar laden or more so than coke, sweets etc.

Hopefully ops daughters adult teeth will be better but for now she needs to follow her dentists advice and totally avoid sugar attacks outside of meal times. That's not banning anything just controlling when food/drinks consumed.

peachyprice

RacyRed wrote: »

Fortunately the depressing !!!!!hole was quickly told to shut up by the health professionals in the room at the time.

Erm, Brook2jack is a health professional.

brook2jack

I couldn't find an ingredient list for the lidl sweets but found these touted as healthy because they have no sugar just fruit juice like the lidl ones. If you read the nutritional information these "healthy" sweets contain over 6 spoonfuls of sugar per serving!!! It might have come from fruit but it will rot your teeth as easily as "unhealthy" sweets.

http://www.surfsweets.com/media/press/press_kit_ss.pdf


A normal 100 g serving of "healthy" dark chocolate has around 7 spoonfuls of sugar (12 in milk chocolate).

Both of these are not good choices for a 5 year old who has been told to avoid sugary snacks and neither can be seen to be healthy choices. In the case of the "sugar free" sweets they could be more damaging to teeth because they will also be very acid.