soda

triplea1819

Have you given your child soda?  If so at what age?

I saw a grandmother walking what looked to be a 2 year old around, and he was drinking a 20 oz diet pepsi with a straw.  Yah/Nah?

 

Thoughts?

smilejenn

I don't give my 3 year old soda...I just don't feel that they need it. My husband has given him small cups of soda on a few occasions, but always when I'm not around. LOL

I don't think soda is the worst thing in the world, but there's certain things I try to avoid (soda, fast food) that I figure will help prevent regular consumption. 

Pesky

very rarely.  She will take a sip of mine if I have one but I don't drink soda very often.  She got quite a bit when she had her tonsils out, because it was more important for her to be drinking than the actual beverage but since then, maybe a few sips a month.  She can't even finish a tiny can before she's bored with it and asks for milk.

ETA:  oh and aside from a sip here or there of ours, she gets no soda with caffeine or artificial sweetners.

moroccojade

A diet Pepsi!  Wow!  That's....  interesting!  

I saw the ILs giving DD a few sips of Fanta orange soda on our recent visit.  Didn't bother me for some reason.  We were on another continent, and I let my hair down for once.

Here?  She's had very little, if anything.  When she was sick I offered her ginger ale once, but she didn't even like it. 

UpNorthGal

Nope. Once our kids were off formula, we offered them milk or water. Around the age of 2 we offered my son apple juice & he wanted nothing to do with it--he wanted milk. I'm guessing it was too sweet for him. IMO, there's no need to have such sugary drinks (or diet ones for that matter) at such a young age. My kids have a lifetime to eat junk

jlw2505

I think both of my kids - 3 and almost 5, have tasted it but it was just a sip and neither liked it which works for me as DH and I rarely drink it.  They see their one grandfather drink it all the time and we just tell them its a drink for when they are older.  I will be happy if they don't drink it for years and years and years.

franciscaz

Nope to my knowledge Harm has never had soda, and our families respect our wishes when it comes to this.  Soda is just not very good for anyone IMO (I'm trying to cut down myself... when I'm working I'm always drinking one ) so in our home we don't keep it.  Harmon knows soda is not for him at this point and at restaurants he knows chocolate or plain milk is his beverage of choice

I imagine in school he will have an occasional ice cream float or might attend a party when he is older that serves it.  Eventually when he is older and we do eat out I will let him enjoy one.  That isn't a big deal.  I just don't want it to be a daily thing in our house.  

triplea1819

Thanks for all the input on that.  My DS is almost 4 and never had a sip.  I can understand a sprite or ginger ale for sickness, or as a PP had tonsils. 

This is the 2nd time I have seen kids in the mall guzzling soda.  One was playing in an open area and he was running over and drinking from his moms regular coke.  

My parents said they gave it to us early, 2/3.  But they were not good healthy eaters.

My son drinks a lot of calcium fortified OJ because he is lactose intolerant and will not drink lactaid or soy milk.  Otherwise he has a mix of 2-4oz gatorade with 4-5 oz water. 

I drink a ton of soda, but I explain it is an adult juice and he says ok.  Hopefully that works for a LONG time!

franciscaz

triplea1819:

I drink a ton of soda, but I explain it is an adult juice and he says ok.  Hopefully that works for a LONG time!

LOL!  I tell him the same thing!  It is working... for now.  He calls it "Momma Coke".  That is one of the reasons I'm trying to cut down though.  It won't work forever.  

SpartanGirl

Nope, I'm not a fan of pop for kids.  They've had it for root beer floats before (which they hated - go figure), but I'd prefer for them not to have it until they're older.

shopgirl78

Yes, they can have sprite, orange, fruit punch, or blue soda (poweraide) when we are out to eat.   They don't drink it much otherwise.  They were 5 and 3 when we started being more lax on the soda....

kada626

dd1 has tasted it (a sip) once but that's it. Not a fan of little kids drinking soda. My 2yr old niece gets soda everyday which upsets me (the feed her horribly too) but theres nothing I can do about it.

Erika6504

DD has had a sip of my coke here and there.  If she's sick I have let her have sips of sprite or ginger ale.  I try to limit how much she drinks but I figure that a few sips/drinks here and there won't hurt.

howleyshell

Can't think of any logical reason or need for them to have it so we don't offer it to them.

Our now 16 yr old wasn't exposed to soda until a much older age (8 I think?)

The result?  He's 16 and just now has any interest in it and will choose milk or water over soda about 75% of the time.

There's a ton of childhood obesity and the caffeine addictions in teens is staggering.

Can't imagine why I'd want to introduce them to that path when they don't even know it exists yet. 

As for what others do?  In general I try to be a "to each their own" kinda Mom but.... with the health care crisis in our country and no solutions in site I will admit that I do kinda judge when I hear about a 2 yr old drinking it regularly or when I see kids with soda in bottles.

If that kid ends up with health care issues due to those kinds of diet choices I will eventually be paying for it in one form or another. 

April37

As a special treat I will sometimes give DD non-caffeine soda like 7-up or rootbeer. 

LanaM

No, Neither of them drink soda. My 6 y.o. had gingerale maybe 3 times in his life. They definitely won't be drinking diet soda any time soon.

mbritto4

On a rare occasion DD has gotten pop as a treat, but its only been sprite or something with no caffiene.  Last time was on a flight when they'd already done snacks and she was still thirsty (I had a 20oz sprite in my bag).  I didn't let her drink the whole thing and she was 3.5 not 2.

When I was in Baltimore last summer I saw a kid that could barely walk drinking cherry 7 up in a bottle.  I knew that's what it was because I saw her father pour it in there. 

lite-bright

DD1 got some Sprite while we were out at a rehearsal dinner once. For some reason we were having trouble getting water or juice. 

Other than that -- nope. 

But giving her a taste for water seems to have worked so far. Even when we offer juice occasionally, she goes through phases where she doesn't even want to finish it and would rather have water instead.

KristinKD

I think I may have given DD1 some ginger ale when she had a stomach bug over the winter (when she was 3), but I'm not even sure. Maybe it was just me that drank the ginger ale when I caught the bug. Apparently I was too sick to remember very clearly. lol.

Otherwise she's never had soda or even asked to try it. We don't keep it in the house, and our families don't drink much of it, so she hasn't been exposed to it all that much.

penguingrrl

My older daughter just had soda for the first time a few weeks ago. She had a stomach bug and we were hosting a party in the next few days so we happened to have ginger ale in the house (DH and I don't drink soda so we never have it in the house) so we gave her some. She liked it but hasn't asked for it since, probably because she knows that we don't have it. At this point if it was offered at a party I'd probably let her have it if she asked, but won't encourage it since I don't like soda. Also, we don't do any artificial sweeteners in our family, so diet will be completely off limits.