Ok--what do you all think of Soda and kids....

Happycouple

I will admit that sometimes I judge a little bit when I see parents taking shortcuts in nutrition ALL the time.  I see nothing wrong with processed snacks and the occasional less healthy meal such as pizza or icecream (I certainly do this on occasion).  But i do not and will not understand the high sugar juices such as gatorade and soda given to small kids.  DS doesnt even know what soda is and he gets juice boxes at a birthday party and thats about it.  A packaged muffin as a snack is one thing, but it is in no way necessary to give your child Hi-C or coke.  They dont need it....and they dont need 12 glasses of OJ a day either.  (putting on my flame suit)

LVBlvd

Hi, my name is LVBlvd and I'm addicted to coke zero.  While I know this will get passed on to Paige eventually, I want to delay it as much as possible.  For that reason, I never give her a sip of my coke.  

Funny story - she now rats me out.  I spilled my coke in the car (which infuriates my husband - he is anal), and Paige kept saying, "mommy spilled her coke!  mommy wipe up your coke!"  Darn kids.

Anyway, that was off topic.   Coke is one thing she can't have. 

beebe929

Lilah drinks too much juice. It is almost 1/2 watered down but she gets too much. But soda is crazy. She won't get any. Someone I know would share her big gulp diet coke with her four year old I cringed even though I was kid less at the time

schmoodle

I don't offer it, and I rarely drink it myself, so not an issue. I haven't witnessed anyone giving it regularly to a small child so not sure how I'd react but I would never get too worked up about it. As they get older (8-10) I don't think it's a big deal.

Toodle does get juice almost every day, either Mott's for Tots (which is essentially apple flavored water) or the 100% juice from Target, watered down heavily. We started giving it to him around a year old at the pedi's suggestion when the switch to WCM gave him horrific constipation, and now he's accustomed to it and I don't think it's a huge deal.

ETA: Sometimes when DH or I do have pop and Toodle asks for some ("Daddy juice! I need Daddy juice!" we will let him have a sip because we know he hates the carbonation and will reject it and not want any more. Usually it's sprite when that happens, I've never let him have any caffeinated pop or artificially sweetened pop. But he has had sips of my frappucino (which is why I now get decaf, just in case).

LIAngel

No soda for my kids.  Nicholas has had very watered down juice occasionally, but I dont go out of my way to give it to him.  

Okay now I am really going to bed. 

Ali212

I'm not a fan of it for toddlers/kids.  I live abroad right now and in the country where I live, parents give Coke to toddlers/kids like it's milk.  Not all parents but many.  At birthday parties (in school and out of school) my 3 year old is offered soda regularly (and all her classmates drink it -- some even for breakfast).  Fortunately, my daughter likens soda to my sparkling water (which I drink by the bottle-ful) which she says "hurts" to drink I think it's the carbonation) so won't even go near it.  She has plenty of not-so-great eating habits (at least by many posters here), but soda isn't one of them

kimarino13

I don't think pizza is all that bad, actually.  My kids eat it quite often. 

 

JillRock96

I could totally be uppity and say that my girls never have juice except on special occasions (which is true)...but Ava also has chocolate milk almost every day, and they have treats (a cookie, ice cream, etc.) regularly.  So while I can say, NO POP OR JUICE!, another mom could easily say NO COOKIES!

On a side note, I am addicted to Dr. Pepper.  And Starbucks.

epphd

We have given Sam gatorade diluted with water to keep him hydrated on hot days, or when he's ill.  Pedialyte kind of tastes like crap, honestly.

Lately he's fallen in love with orange juice, which is full of sugar, and we give him maybe an ounce, maybe 2 or so on the occasional morning. I don't see the big deal.

I haven't given him soda because I agree that it's not necessary - but I am sure he will have sodas from time to time when he gets older.  TBH, what is most important for our family is for DH and I to model what we want for Sam.  We drink soda from time to time, but not much. We each like OJ in the morning, but not all day.  We both enjoy a greasy burger ocassionally, but not all the time.  We both exercise, and try to keep Sam busy.  My main goal is that Sam has varied food interests and gets some activity.

Happycouple

kimarino13:

I don't think pizza is all that bad, actually.  My kids eat it quite often. 

 

I think it depends on where you get the pizza--which is what I meant  If we get pizza, its either home made or at a pizza restaurant...not a fast food chain like dominos which i feel is much worse, but thats just my opinion

kimarino13

Happycouple:

kimarino13:

I don't think pizza is all that bad, actually.  My kids eat it quite often. 

 

I think it depends on where you get the pizza--which is what I meant  If we get pizza, its either home made or at a pizza restaurant...not a fast food chain like dominos which i feel is much worse, but thats just my opinion

Gotcha.  

Happycouple

epphd:

We have given Sam gatorade diluted with water to keep him hydrated on hot days, or when he's ill.  Pedialyte kind of tastes like crap, honestly.

Lately he's fallen in love with orange juice, which is full of sugar, and we give him maybe an ounce, maybe 2 or so on the occasional morning. I don't see the big deal.

I haven't given him soda because I agree that it's not necessary - but I am sure he will have sodas from time to time when he gets older.  TBH, what is most important for our family is for DH and I to model what we want for Sam.  We drink soda from time to time, but not much. We each like OJ in the morning, but not all day.  We both enjoy a greasy burger ocassionally, but not all the time.  We both exercise, and try to keep Sam busy.  My main goal is that Sam has varied food interests and gets some activity.

My opinion is that OJ or watered down apple juice or whatever is ok, just not 12 glasses of it as I mentioned. Its mainly the 25-40 grams of sugar juices and soda i think is unnecesssary 

epphd

JillRock96:

On a side note, I am addicted to Dr. Pepper.  And Starbucks.

For me it's diet coke or diet DP, and candy - twizzlers, gummi bears, etc.  I recently ordered a 100 ct box of blowpops on Amazon I keep them at work so Sam doesn't get too interested!

kittylove

We do mostly water (we call it juice) but he can have juice too (albit not 12 glasses), we have friends who do more or less than us and I like to hope they aren't judging us but maybe they are?

Happycouple

kittylove:

We do mostly water (we call it juice) but he can have juice too (albit not 12 glasses), we have friends who do more or less than us and I like to hope they aren't judging us but maybe they are?

Ive seen R drink 'juice' and Im not judging you.  Again, i see kids who get 3-5 sippys of juice a day and capri suns.  Thats what I dont get

fallbride110406

Pssha. Whats wrong with giving kids soda?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MqTH5ll1StI&feature=youtube_gdata_player

MyShellyBelly

Both my DH and I do not drink soda (except for the occasional 7-up for an upset stomach), so having it in our home won't be an issue. I'm going to try my hardest to have others respect our "no soda" wish as well. I responded to Kimarino's post below about the toddler with Starbucks with a story about our friends (who we don't see any more) child -- they gave him soda at 6 months old and it was ok because it was "diet Pepsi"

Happycouple

MyShellyBelly:

Both my DH and I do not drink soda (except for the occasional 7-up for an upset stomach), so having it in our home won't be an issue. I'm going to try my hardest to have others respect our "no soda" wish as well. I responded to Kimarino's post below about the toddler with Starbucks with a story about our friends (who we don't see any more) child -- they gave him soda at 6 months old and it was ok because it was "diet Pepsi"

oh boy

crystalgirl

I remember having Sprite as a kid when we would go to McDonald's. I was around 4 years old in those memories.

Anyway, DS1 has tasted soda on several occasions, but he hates the carbonation. It used to be enough to tell him it had bubbles, and then he wouldn't even want a taste. Now he insists, so I let him try it. His reaction is, "It's good," said with a look of "omg, mom, that's nasty, but I won't hurt your feelings." Hahahaha!

Now coffee...oy. DH is coffee-obsessed and has also let DS1 try some of his coffee a few times. DS likes it. I thought for sure he'd hate it. We certainly don't give him his own, but I have a fear that DH will allow him to drink it at a much younger age than I would approve of (which is not until he's a teenager, if then). OH WELL!

PrincessShay80

OKay LVBLVD and must be long lost sisters because I too am addicted to Coke Zero, as is DH- we drink a case (sometimes) more a week- yes bad I know.

I inherited this from my mom who was addicted to diet coke, and while I know DD will most likely inherit it in the future- I have never given it to her. DD drinks a lot of water, and milk, and vitamin water- that's all she needs right now. I give her watered down juice every now and again, but she really prefers water or milk to anything else.

 

sliz

I let Asha have sips of soda. We go on binges where we will have two cases in the house and then go dry and not have it in the house for weeks/months. She loves ginger ale - so when we have it at home I'll let her have an ounce or two over a whole cup of ice and she loves it. Otherwise, DH and I share a soda sometimes when we go out to eat (which has been pretty often lately but we don't always get soda with our meals) in which case we let her have some.

Even when we do have soda at home, I don't drink more than 1-1.5 cans a day so it's not like I drink it constantly.

On the other hand, Asha hates juice even when not diluted, so if she'd rather have a little ginger ale to spice things up once in a while, I'm ok with it.

muppet.fan

Jumping in late, but only because I have a judge-y story to share I used to work with a woman who put Mountain Dew in her son's bottle. So I'm guessing he wasn't much older than 2 at the most. I remember thinking she was crazy, but now that I have my own child, she was definitely crazy. Yep, I judged that.

Elizabeth's never had soda. She's wired enough - she doesn't need sugar and caffeine adding to it! DH has a Diet Pepsi addiction and any time she sees the Pepsi logo, she yells out "Daddy's milk." When she gets older, I'm sure she'll drink it. I remember as a kid, it was a special treat to have a can of soda with popcorn on Friday nights.

krissybegs

I can say that I am addicted to Diet Coke and my DH is addicted to Coke Zero, but Robbie has never had it. I know eventually that DNA will reign supreme and he will love soda as much as we do, but we are holding out as long as possible.

Robbie's main drinks are water and milk, but he gets OJ and Grape Propel (which he calls special water) once in a while as a treat.

LIAngel

I cringed and tried not to get all worked up when Nicholas helped himself to 5 Capri Suns on Easter Sunday.  We were with a bunch of friends grilling outside and all the kids were drinking them. My sister kept handing them to him when he asked for more.  Since he never gets juice I did my best to relax about it.  I jokingly told my sister "Okay I'm calling you at 3am when Nicholas is still wired from all that sugar and won't go to bed". 

My sister tell my niece and nephew they can drink "Bubble Soda"  which is seltzer.  They like it- cause that means they can use the seltzer maker that my sister has.   I may do the same for Nicholas (no Coke or Pepsi, but Bubble Soda is fine) in a year or 2 or 3.

Mrs.Reem

I think I've been addicted to pepsi since I was like 5. It about killed me at one point because I'm diabetic. I have sweet parents.  So no... my girls will not have pop/soda until they're much, much older. They get juice on special occasions watered down or if my MIL sneaks it to Katen when she's there. Poor K always comes home sick from her house because she's not used to eating/drinking crap.