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Toddlers: 24 Months+
Abinormal
member
If you aren't strict about treats/sugar....
Abinormal
member
How often does your child get a treat? Is it once a day, a couple times a day, etc?
Tegan's got a sweet tooth and I try to find a balance between healthy foods and allowing her to have a treat a couple times a day. I typically can get her to eat more of the healthier foods if she knows she can have a gummy worm or two or a couple of m&ms after lunch/dinner. I've always thought this was an ok amount of sweets, but I've recently been wondering if maybe she's getting more than the average 2.5 year old. She does get ice cream or a cookie or something on occasion, but those are more once a week or so treat instead of an every day treat.
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Re: If you aren't strict about treats/sugar....
I guess people define "treats" differently. To me, a treat is ice cream, or a cookie, or a piece of cake. I don't keep those kinds of treats in the house typically, so she doesn't get those items very often. Those are special treats.
I do have sugar-free fruit popsicles that I keep on-hand, which she likes for a treat and she can have a couple of those a day in the summer if she wants. She also likes to bake with me - muffins, pies, etc. I would rather she have the real thing than the packaged stuff. Plus, she's a good baker!! Patient and listens....it's a nice activity for us to do together.
I think as long as a child's diet is overall healthy, treats daily (again, you can define the term "treat" to whatever you want) are fine!
DS1 is 2.5, and he gets a treat everyday.
This afternoon after lunch, he got a sugar cookie topped with M&Ms. We have something sweet nearly everyday as adults (DH and I), and we balance that with a very healthy diet and active lifestyle.
Ok, this sounds the most similar to our situation. She gets a piece of candy/chocolate a couple times a day, but cookies, cakes, ice cream, etc. only once a week or so...
We're not very strict. If MIL brings mini cup cakes they will have 1 a day til they are gone. They have ice cream a few times/week during the summer. Cookies are rare, but it's cause they don't ask for them frequently. Other types of candy is very infrequently. They got candy out of pinata at a birthday party 2 weeks ago and only had 1 piece each. At Halloween they have more candy obviously, but we don't have things like m&ms or the like just hanging around. Even their halloween candy I got rid of after a month or so.
edited: to add that my kids are really really good eaters. In that I don't beg them to eat their veggies and other foods. They eat what we eat. They consume a large amount of healthy food almost every day so I don't mind them having treats.
My kid is a fantastic eater...there are some days that I believe he eats like a high school boy.
Until he got to 2 he really didn't have treats except for ice cream about once a month.
Between 2-2.5 he started getting 1 treat a day...1 piece of candy, 1 cookie, or a mini cone of ice cream or popsicle.
A little over a month ago, he started potty training. He got multiple treats per day (fruit snacks, marshmallows, M&Ms). Now he rarely asks for those, and instead is back to about 1 treat 5 days per week.
We don't do any candy or cookies here. The reason? Their mama has no self control and will eat all of their candy and treats in one sitting. Sad? You bet. I'm not afraid to admit it, I'm just like a kid. My DS and DD like it if we give chocolate milk or something like that-so that is their normal sweet treat. I would totally not have an issue with what you are giving, that doesn't seem like a lot.
I'd cut out the candy, I think that's too much to have every day. Has she been to the dentist yet? Replace it with one snack ( cookie, ice cream, popcicle with milk or water) a day in the afternoon.
My kids ( 11& 8 years old) get candy for a few days after Halloween, Christmas and Easter . Never every day. My kids get their one sweet everyday around 3 ( after school snack) and it is usually cookies in milk or brownie and milk etc. no candy!!
probably every day, for small things. maybe a couple of times a week for bigger things.
I try to keep it completely separate from behaviour or reward type thing. I talk about balance with her and not filling our tummy with one kind of food because our bodies need lots of different foods to stay healthy and not get sick.
I'm working on losing weight (if you see my ticker), but more importantly developing a really healthy approach and mindset towards food that I can pass onto the LOs.
Elizabeth 5yrs old Jane 3yrs old
DD gets 3-4 marshmellows with her afternoon snack, which is usually "bunny crackers", goldfish, etc.
If I'm snacking on a few chocolate chips, I'll share 1 or 2 with her. But thats not that often. She gets m&m's if she goes on the potty - which is RARE. I'd give her them more often (because having a bag open in the house is torture on me, but they are hers for going on the potty, and I have totally hyped that up). Generally she gets a popsicle, cookie or pudding at the end of the day. Usually I offer it if she has eaten good through out the day. Sometimes she'll ask, but not often.
If we have something different in the house - brownies, cupcakes, etc, she'll usually ask for one of those because she sees it on the counter, which is fine because the sooner they are gone the better off all of us are.
My favorite cookies to give her are the "Whonew" or something like that (orange box) brand. They taste pretty good and aren't quite as a bad as a regular oreo, chips ahoy, etc.
DD thinks raspberries are treats so she gets a lot of those (I think she goes through 2 trays/week). She also loves Dum Dum Pops and we give her one a day.
my read shelf:
DD gets a treat every night after dinner because we do too. It is usually a cookie (or half a cookie depending on what it is), a small piece of chocolate or a couple of tablespoons of ice cream (though ice cream is very infrequent since we don't usually have any at home). She also loves black licorice (she is half Dutch after all) and will sneak a piece here and there it that is maybe a couple of times a week.
She does not get any juice a( except when we go out to breakfast like on vacation) and only drinks water and still nurses. She eats very few veggies but loves fruit.
I don't have a problem with a daily treat, I am sort of annoyed by other people always wanting to give her crap. I take her to work or to my DH's work and people always feel like they need to give her something. I personally don't really feel like she needs to be given anything to eat whenever she goes somewhere. That said I usually let most of it slide although I will say no to suckers/ hard candy and juice.
We usually have one treat a day, after dinner. It's usually small (3 Trader Joe's kitty cat cookies, about the size of animal crackers) and only if they've eaten well all day. Larger cookies, ice cream, cakes and such are very rare in our house. I have a sweet tooth myself, so I understand wanting that stuff.
I also am strict on what. We (as a family, not just the kids) absolutely avoid artificial sweeteners of any sort, including high fructose corn syrup. This has been a big fight with the grandparents who think artificial sweeteners are healthier than sugar while I wholeheartedly disagree.
I usually try to limit it like this:
Breakfast is usually some "sweet" flavored yogurt (like a strawberry banana or a cherry or something like that) and some toast. Or maybe a waffle with a tiny bit of syrup and some fruit.
Morning snack is usually some healthy stuff like a couple graham crackers or a hand ful of cheerios or something like that that's still "sweet" but not unhealthy.
Lunch is normal lunch stuff, but at the end of her meal I'll usually let her have a few animal crackers (which she thinks are cookies), or some fruit (which isn't unhealthy, but is a sweet, dessert like thing), or maybe a few fruit snacks or something.
Afternoon snack and dinner are about the same as morning snack and lunch.
So, she's getting some "sweets" throughout the day but i'm choosing healthy things that give her the feeling she's getting a "treat".
As far as cookies, cakes, ice cream, candy, and stuff like that I generally only give those a few times a week as a very special treat.
A kiss he will never forget- Disney World 2014
I used to be a lot more strict about sugar/treats, but have eased up significantly lately. My daughter DEFINITELY has a sweet tooth, but thankfully seems to think that fruit is almost as good as ice cream or cake. "Dessert" for us is almost always fruit. (and then I have my real dessert after she goes to bed like an evil mom
Since potty training, we did jelly beans for about 2 weeks when she peed, but those have stopped. She still gets a dum dum sucker when she poops but she's an infrequent pooper so that's only 3-4x a week, and I'm planning on replacing those with temporary tattoos after she has one more.
Weekends are kind of absurd with the treats though - because at pretty much every gathering we go to, there is ice cream or cookies or cake - so I realized that this weekend, she got ice cream every night - oops
At least she got her calcium 
ha! We really don't keep much at home though - so it's mostly if we go out to get a treat as a family, or go to a gathering. I don't limit that much though - if we are at a gathering, I'll let her eat whatever and she gets whatever treats are there in moderation. She's gone through phases but in general is a pretty good eater and will eat vegetables and TONS of fruit so I know she's getting a pretty balanced diet overall.
Once in a while, like maybe once every 2 weeks, I'll give her a little cookie or something as a treat just at home but that is very rare.
We do have muffins/scones a lot though but I try to keep them reasonably healthy - she loves helping me bake.
They get dessert after every dinner (if they eat good). This consists of either a cookie, small ice cream cone, cake, whatever.
Occasionally, Preston will ask for a cookie during the day and of course he can have one.
As for the little one: I'll give him a mini tootsie roll at times or a cookie (other than dessert time).
Yeah, I change my answer, I guess I am pretty strict, too! I have a friend who's kids have candy, like twizzlers or jelly beans or gummy worms, nearly every day, and they have soda for a treat, too. I don't think my kid has ever had a gummy worm, at least not in my house, and I know she has never had soda!
I love food and there will be a time where my child will be able to eat anything he/she wants, because I won't be there to say no! So I want to make sure we eat treats in moderation, but right now, I guess I am picking the treats that I like (I like real homebaked goods, not jelly beans!.)