# Do you eat stuff you don't let your kids eat??



## tara (Jan 29, 2002)

I have an incredible sweet tooth. Ok, it's a sugar addiction. I don't let Jackson have sugar, so I end up sneaking it behind his back. This feels ridiculous, like someday I'll get 'caught' by my child. I also eat dairy and I don't want him to. I drink wine and coffee and tell him they are mama's drinks. He cries sometimes but generally accepts it.

How about you?


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## stormborn (Dec 8, 2001)

I try to keep stuff she can't have out of the house but when I do eat "crap" I take it to work. It feels less like sneaking then.







Although come to think of it I do drink soda and beer at home sometimes and she accepts "not for baby" without a fuss.....but I wonder for how long.


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## its_our_family (Sep 8, 2002)

I guess I'm horrible but I eat things ds can't have in front of him. Now, I don't eat and give him nothing....he gets his own snack. We eat a lot of things that are really spicy and he can't have all of those spices...so he'll get alternate food.

I did realize, when ds started eating from the table, that we don't all that healthy....luckily I've been using ds as an extra incentive to eat better!


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## oceanmommy (Nov 24, 2001)

I voted other because :

- We eat the same foods most of the time... meals, etc.

-but sometimes we sneak something that she knows and likes and that we don't want her to have (chocolate)

-Other things, like coffee or soda, she accepts that they are not for children. And of course she gets her own version... some juice or soy milk for example.

She had a sip of a very fizzy natural soda once when she was like 1 yr - 18 mos (she clamoured for it so badly we let her try) and the bubbles freaked her out. She spit it out and has never since shown a desire to drink from a soda can. Of course if she had liked it we would have to resort to sneaking it or giving it up altogether.

So we do all three.


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## pie (Apr 7, 2006)

No, except if I eat something with red food dye. But I don't sneak anything. The only thing I eat dyed red is that cheap cherry soda. I have to have that now and then. But he hates it so that is not sneaking, he doesn't want it anyway.

We have taken the approach that if nothing is forbidden to him nothing will seem overly desirable to him. It is working. I can give him a popsicle with dinner and he'll still eat dinner.


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## Elphaba (Nov 19, 2001)

i haven't given shosh any chocolate yet, or any sweets really, but i eat hershey's kisses like they are the last food on earth! sometimes i eat in front of her, but she really wants the foil wrapper, so i try to eat them when she isn't looking or is asleep. everything else is fair game, since i don't do alcohol or caffeinated beverages.


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## Greaseball (Feb 1, 2002)

I really believe in trying to be fair and treating dd like an equal, but there are a few things I think are too hard on kids' systems, especially for a kid under 2.

One is COFFEE! I have seen three-year-old kids drinking coffee and I think it's really sad. Another is soda. Another is large amounts of chocolate.

Other than that, there's nothing I don't let her have. And if dh and I are having chocolate or something we don't want her to have, I make sure and give her a special treat too.

While I have reasons for wanting to withhold certain foods, I have to remember that dd doesn't understand them. She doesn't know that chocolate might make her sick, or that soda might permanetly dye her insides orange. All she knows is that she can't have it, and it's unfair to her.

We also don't do alcohol, which is another thing I think young toddlers shouldn't have!


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## babibelli (Jun 4, 2002)

hi tara!








oh boy I am really bad about this..
I have a bad sweet tooth too and I have a horrible weakness for Taco Bell ( I love their cheese quesidillas). I have been justifying eating all the sugar, drinking tons of coffee and pigging out on crap on the excuse that Anna is too little to notice. She is going to start noticing this-when she's eating quinoa and veggies for lunch and i'm scarfing down leftover pizza. I really need to wean myself of the junk I put in my body if I want her to have healthy eating habits.


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## Marlena (Jul 19, 2002)

Dd eats and drinks everything we do, with a bare handful of exceptions. We don't give her soft drinks. Dh doesn't give her any coffee. Nor does she get any beer or wine (though I suspect that, if she wants, we'll let her have some very dilluted beer or wine once she's a few years older, on the theory that, as mamapie noted, what's not forbidden is less desirable). And if dh is drinking a margarita or something, obviously she doesn't get any of that. We don't hide our consumption of any of these from her, but just note that it's not for children. She hasn't complained.

Otherwise, anything is fair game - chocolate, spicy food, you name it. Some she likes (she prefers dark bittersweet chocolate, and won't touch Hershey's of any kind; she also likes some pretty spicy Indian curries and tex-mex salsas, and will happily eat a plateful of steamed broccoli or raw tomatoes or other veggies with lunch day after day); others she doesn't (she hates cheddar cheese, for example, and isn't keen on polenta).


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## alexa07 (Mar 27, 2003)

Well, we drink diet coke and very occasional wine in front of kids and they obvioulsy can't have alcohol and I don't like them to drink diet soda. As for sweets, My DH was raised without them and let's just say it didn't work out too well as now 4 out of 4 siblings are drawn to the forbidden fruit with a vengence.

What we do is allow one junky treat every day. Now in this category is everything junky, like sweet cereal and soda. So you can have a cookie OR a 1/2 glass of soda OR some Trix cereal (blech). I believe that nothing should be forbidden but you have to understand everything's place and that some things that pretend to be a "food" are really junk. So Mc'Donalds is something we have, but understanding that it is not healthy but that anything is ok once in a while (like this would be once evey other month.)


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## Greaseball (Feb 1, 2002)

I know if I want dd to eat better, I have to start eating better as well. I remember dh and I being all concerned about dd not getting enough vegetables, and then it dawned on us - WE do the cooking! Neither of us gets enough vegetables, because we haven't been cooking them lately! DD gets a little of whatever we cook, so if we happen to cook vegetables that's what she eats.


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## journeymom (Apr 2, 2002)

I voted "other" because we do a little of all three, also. Dh and I will wait till after the kids are in bed to have dessert sometimes. Usually it's when they've already had their baths and brushed their teeth and I don't want them making a mess on themselves right before they go to bed. Or rotting their teeth.

I know dh and I are hypocritcal sometimes, because the kids are dependant on us to pick their foods for them. And I always try to give them healthy stuff and not let them eat too much junk food. But then I am free to eat whatever I want, however much I want. So I'm not a good example.

Both my kids have regularly tasted our wine. Dd is 8 y.o. and thinks it's icky now, but she'd take a sip when she was a preschooler. Ds is 3 3/4 and still asks for a sip when I have a glass of wine. We were at a restraunt the other day and I had a Margarita and made the mistake of letting ds have a sip. Well, there wasn't much alcohol in there (cheap bar!







) so ds thought it was just the best fruit punch he'd ever had and kept demanding more! Wonderful.







:

Otherwise, we give our kids the same stuff we eat. I think we stopped doing the toddler food safty routine when they were 2 or 3 years old. Other than that, we don't differentiate much.


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## Funkeemonkey (Mar 29, 2003)

no one touches my chocolate. sorry. can't share it at all.


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## sunmountain (Nov 19, 2001)

Nope, I learned long ago that restricting their diets too much resulted in fights and whining. If they want a sip of my coffee, I let them, if they want some pop, ok, but I don't buy it as a rule, to keep in the house. All junk food is a "treat" so they don't beg me for it otherwise.

They eat a well balanced diet, so I don't worry too much about giving them sugar or what-have-you.


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## Irishmommy (Nov 19, 2001)

It depends whether I want to share or not!!

I let them try certain things - they have both had sips of alcohol. Dd1 asks for pop sometimes, and if we have it, she gets it. She will maybe have one mouthful and be done - better than making it forbidden! They do get lots of treats, and they both have had tea. Dd1 can make her own now!! I have no problem with it.


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## Evergreen (Nov 6, 2002)

Since we don't keep really unhealthy foods in the house I don't sneak them, but if I am in the car alone i have picked up some french fries at McDonalds or a candy bar at the gas station, I make sure to do it when they arent around. I don't specificaly forbid these things, I just don't give them the opportunity to eat them. Theyre young, they need a healthy start, once they discover that junk food exists I am sure I will let them have it in moderation, but there is time for that later. My mother never kept Coke or Pepsi or anything like that in the house and I still do not drink it except when I have a headache. I think if my children arent conditioned to like junk food, their eating habits will be healthy ones. Of course, I wont be some sort of food Nazi when they do decide they want to try something deep fried.


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## Serena (Nov 24, 2001)

Of course I do! I avoid making her feel like I'm "denying" her anything when possible, but of course I have stuff she can't have. I drink a cup of Earl Grey with half-and-half and sugar every morning. She wants some of it. She can't have it. And I'm not willing to wait until she's napping for that wonderful hit of hot caffeine--_no way_ .

I also drink wine--and I don't give her any.







But I do wait until after she's asleep. I also eat ice cream or cookies once in a while, and no, I don't give her any.

But at meal times, we all eat the same thing. Dh and I salt the food on our own plates and she gets the unsalted version, but otherwise it's the same food, absolutely. I believe strongly in this--once the child is a toddler with a range of food tastes and, of course, teeth. And apart from mealtimes, I would never fix a snack and sit right in front of her and let her cry and beg for it unless it was something she could have.

But geez, wouldn't life be boring if we could only eat what our toddlers ate?

I have to admit I also give her stuff that I, personally, don't like, but that I know is healthier--whole wheat pasta, for example, if I'm just making lunch for her and not for myself, or quinoa, or cauliflower. It gives me great joy to feed her as much healthy crap as she'll eat.


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## Greaseball (Feb 1, 2002)

Oh yeah, I thought of one more thing I don't let her eat - fast food beef. Dh and I only eat that maybe once every few months anyway, but I don't think children should eat it. We let her eat local organic beef though.

My mom was a total food nazi and it backfired. Whenever I went to a friend's house, instead of socializing I would go into the kitchen and stuff myself with whatever I could find there - white bread, jelly, honey, cheddar cheese, candy, soda, etc. - all that stuff I wasn't allowed to have at home. I got caught once drinking honey right out of the honey bear.


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## simonee (Nov 21, 2001)

DD eats everything, or is allowed to at least. We don't drink alcohol, she hasn't wanted to try hot beverages including herbal tea. My idea is that if I can have it, she can too. So far it's working. Sometimes she wants icecream instead of dinner (as do I







) but usually she just won't eat well at all









She believes that yoghurt is a bit of a treat, and cookies are something that's mostly good for pg mamas


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## oceanbaby (Nov 19, 2001)

Ditto what Gr8fulmom said. As a rule we don't keep much junk food in the house. If for some reason we have ice cream, then we don't eat it until ds goes to bed. But if we're say having a birthday celebration, then I let him try a little cake and ice cream, because it just isn't fair if everyone else is eating it but him.

I sometimes sneak junk food in the car or when he is asleep. But I can't really get away with it in the car anymore. And yesterday he woke up (he was sleeping on my lap) when I tried to open the bag of Baked Doritos. So guess what we shared . . .

We usually have some natural sodas in our house, but I still treat those as pure sugar so ds doesn't really get any. Sometimes he can gave a few sips of ours, but other than that I will water it down or just not drink it in front of him.


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## pie (Apr 7, 2006)

of course my son doesn't get booze or coffee. I have let him taste those things before, however. He made a hilarious face over the wine and tends not to ask for it anymore. The coffee I drink black, so that was not a big hit either.

Quote:

My mother never kept Coke or Pepsi or anything like that in the house and I still do not drink it except when I have a headache.
Coke is a great headache cure isn't it? It is really amazing.


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## beanma (Jan 6, 2002)

for the most part DD can have anything in the house. i have a serious chocolate addiction that i'm trying to curb and i used to not give dd any, but she has had a little bit here and there and will occasionally ask for choklit, but one chocolate chip is usually enough to satisfy her. like marlena said, our dd too prefers bittersweet or dark chocolate (doesn't have much of a sweet tooth), never even wants to try my ice cream, won't drink anything except breastmilk, water, and "soup" of her own making (her meal in her water glass)







. we do give her chips when we have them (organic, does that count?) -- she loves them. i don't do caffiene (except the chocolate), but she never wants my decaf tea, either. she likes salsa and spicy foods as long as it's not flaming







like my husband likes. we try to eat pretty healthfully, but the spud puppies (organic tater tots) are probably not so great for us...


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## Dodo (Apr 10, 2002)

This is a timely thread for us.

18 mo dd just recently clued into my 4:00 chocolate habit. She wants in on it.

Yesterday I gave her a square of chocolate. She was so happy. I wasn't so happy when she wet the family bed later in the night. We EC. When she was younger, my chocolate intake used to lead to misses. Now it's her chocolate intake.

I don't feel comfortable not sharing with her. I might have to start sneaking treats during naptime.


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## wwhippetcrazy (Mar 3, 2002)

Voted we eat the same foods, but I guess I could have put other, cause there are some things that I will eat when she's sleeping if I don't want her to have it that day......








But for the most part, she eats everything we eat....
This has definately changed as she has gotten older though...but I agree that if you make it "forbidden" then they want it more.

She does accept that some things are for mom and dad though, like pop....dh drinks it, I don't but she calls it Daddy's pop and has never asked for some (yet







)....and Daddy's beer is also something that she'll name, but not ask for.....I'm sure dh would give her a taste though....







: ...I don't think I'd have a problem giving her a taste of wine though, when she gets older. And she does have the occasional sweet, but sometimes her sweet is a arrowroot cookie, and mine is a chocolate bar...lol







ag

Jen


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## tara (Jan 29, 2002)

It's good to read the replies - lots of sneakers here, though the responses are pretty diverse, really... I think I'm going to try for a happy medium of sorts. I'm not going to give up my coffee, and I'm not going to share it. I may someday let him sip my wine so he knows it's nothing special. Someday I will loosen up a little about junk food, since I don't want it to be a big forbidden. But... I'm going to use his interest in my food as a motivation to eat healthier. I think.


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## CollegeMama (Oct 31, 2002)

My son's too young for this to apply yet and if there's one thing I have learned it's to never say never. So I have no idea how I'll really handle it once that time gets there. I would think I will try to keep a lot of junk food just out of the house, so that when he does have some it's a treat for the whole family.
I wasn't allowed to have sugar when I was a child (for health reasons) but I would sneak it anytime I could. Once I found a box of cake mix and took it to my room and ate handfuls of the stuff!







My mom busted me and was shocked that I'd go to those extremes just for that taste of sugar. And, like Greaseball, when I'd go to friend's houses I'd eat all the sugar they'd give me.
I'd usually have to go home in the middle of the night after getting sick from the forbidden food.
What a terrible spot to put my mom in though. Back then there weren't any good sugar-free sweets, like there are now.


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## Greaseball (Feb 1, 2002)

Marcy - I also ate Tang powder, and sometimes I would mix Kool-Aid powder with just enough water to make a thick paste, and then eat it until I literally passed out. I did this at a friend's house, and when her mom saw me, my friend had a hard time trying to convince her that I had only been eating Kool-Aid!

I wonder, for those of us who sneak food, how would we feel about our children sneaking food?

I remember finding a candy bar wrapper in my mom's bag and I lost a lot of respect for her, since she built herself up to be this kind of health nut. Not that we aren't allowed to indulge, but if she is going to scream at me for eating cheese, what right does she have to eat a candy bar?

I did sneak candy yesterday though - someone gave dd some m&m's, which are choking hazards. So I distracted her and then ate them.


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## DebraBaker (Jan 9, 2002)

The tables are turned at our home.

I let *them* eat things I'd never eat myself


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## wwhippetcrazy (Mar 3, 2002)

Marcy - I also ate Tang powder, and sometimes I would mix Kool-Aid powder with just enough water to make a thick paste, and then eat it until I literally passed out. I did this at a friend's house, and when her mom saw me, my friend had a hard time trying to convince her that I had only been eating Kool-Aid!

My friend and I would sneak the frosting tubs, and eat the whole thing! The thought sickens me know though....









I really don't want my kids to sneak stuff.....I remember anytime I would eat chocolate I would hide it and feel guilty....cause we weren't allowed to eat sweets....







: ....It took me awhile to get over that....I use to hide it from dh when we first got together, then I was like hey...I can eat what I want!
I would feel bad if I gave them that guilt kwim??

Jen


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## Avonlea (Jan 21, 2002)

Yes, because occasionally I have ice cream for breakfast and do not share.....







Unless I get "caught".

Otherwise no.I do not drink alcohol...no worries with that.

I agree with what ever momma it was on here who does not treat any food like"forbidden " food. I turned into a major junk food muncher when I got older, all I think , due to the fact that we were NEVER allowed to have it growing up. My Mom did not want us to have sugary , candy, what have you.....So I would eat like a piglet at friends homes who did have that type of stuff there.

I let my son eat whatever..be it broccolli or ice cream. So far so good!


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## sleepies (Nov 30, 2001)

i dont let my son eat nuts...raw veggies or anything hard to chew.

he only has one molar.

he is 20 months.

until he gets some teeth, then he will not be getting those things, but sure I eat them.

i dont let any of us have "junk food"


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## Serena (Nov 24, 2001)

I'm confused, I'm sorrry... maybe this is a well-known EC fact... how does chocolate intake (either yours or your dd's) affect her peeing?


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## Viola (Feb 1, 2002)

I do the opposite--I let her eat stuff I don't eat. She eats things that my husband likes, but that I avoid, and sometimes I let her choose her own snack and it is something I wouldn't eat.

Oh, I just saw that Debra Baker says she does the same thing. LOL


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## Viola (Feb 1, 2002)

Oh, I have let her have a little coffee. For awhile she knew it was mom's drink, but now she sometimes will ask for it if I am having some. It is organic SWD decaf, but I guess there are still issues with acid and all? I don't know, but she has very little anyway as it is mixed with a ton of milk.

My husband is on the Atkins diet and has Carbolite bars in the house. Molly knows that those are daddy's candy and that it isn't good for her, if for no other reason than it works as a laxative. We don't need that!

We have ice cream in the house that is basically hers. I don't care for ice cream very much anyway, and this stuff is high in fat but not very sweet. I don't plan on buying anymore when it runs out because I'm tired of the wanting ice cream for breakfast everyday issue, but it lasts and lasts. I usually steer her to another food for breakfast, and that's been working pretty well so far.


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## Mommiska (Jan 3, 2002)

I didn't vote, but I guess we do a little bit of everything. I do like Diet Coke, and I let both dds try a tiny sip the first time they asked. DD1 hated it, so we could safely drink it in front of her (a couple of cans a week at the most - we dont' have it too often, and I try not to have it in the house for my own sake!).

But DD2 liked it, so...I don't drink it in front of her now, and she's never had another sip.

I'm another Mom who doesn't believe in totally denying sugar to my kids. Growing up in our house, we primarily had healthy food, with the occasional junk food as a treat (we used to beg Mom to buy sugar cereal, for example...she would maybe once a month).

We've all grown up with pretty healthy eating habits.

My dh and his sister, on the other hand - never got sugar, because their dad was diabetic. They BOTH have major sweet tooths now (she eats candy like it's going out of style, and he eats so much chocolate that I can hardly stand the sight of it now myself).

So I'm a believer in 'all things in moderation'. So if dds ask for bites of something - as long as it doesn't have nuts in it, I let them have a bite. They get occasional sweet treats (although that didn't start until they were around 18 months or so).

So far, so good...they'll eat healthy stuff, and dont' seem to have too much of sweet tooth. For example, I bought dd2 (almost 2 years old) a cupcake the other day as a treat when we were out (I was having a donut!). She ate a couple of bites of the icing, then peeled it off and ate the cake underneath - yeah!


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## Viola (Feb 1, 2002)

Oh, something I thought was kind of funny. When my daughter was pretty young, she wanted tastes of what I was having. She would never try coffee, though, because it was hot. But one time I was drinking a Sharps non-alcoholic beer, and I let her have a sip, thinking she'd dislike it, but she seemed to like it ok. Well, last summer I was drinking a real beer, and she wanted some. She was about 3 at the time. My sister told me that what she always did was let her children have a sip so they could see how bad it tasted. I wasn't sure that Molly would think it tasted bad, after the incident with the Sharps. Sure enough, she took a drink and wanted more. So no more sips! I thought beer tasted disgusting until I was 22, and I don't want Molly to develop a taste for it already. :LOL


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## Greaseball (Feb 1, 2002)

My mom, despite her freaking out if I ate cheese, always offered me beer! I think it started when I was 8 years old. Luckily I never liked it. To this day, I have never drank a beer!

I think that's a bad idea, though, because a lot of kids do start to like beer at young ages this way.

I think that psychotropic drugs - whether they are in food or not, legal or not - should not be used by young children.


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## hydrangea (Jun 5, 2002)

We obviously don't let them drink alcohol, but they have had the occasional sip (actually we will dip our clean fingers in and let them suck it off our fingers). I think this is actually more likely to keep them from becoming alcoholics. Alcohol isn't taboo in France and Italy the way it is here and the alcoholism rate is much lower in those countries (at least it was last time I looked).

I have the very occasional diet soda. Maybe as much as one or two cans a week during the hottest parts of the summer and pretty much none during the rest of the year. I don't let them have it. They do get the occasional regular soda though, or juice, which they think is as good as soda!

I don't let them have coffee with caffeine. They can sip my decaf, but they don't like it. I share my chocolate with them -- usually :LOL.

We also do not forbid sugar. We have very healthy food around the house. They will always choose whole grains over white and they eat a fair number of vegetables and drink water 99% of the time. But I'm very lenient about allowing them sweets when they are offered or even buying them myself on occasion. We tend to go for healthier sweets, but they've been offered their fair share of crap, too.

It's so interesting to see my daughters' different styles. After Halloween or Easter (my in-laws ply them with candy at Easter), my younger daughter eats all the candy that she really likes within 24 to 48 hours. She gives away the stuff she doesn't like and finishes the "so-so" stuff within a week. My older daughter, however, eats just one or two pieces of candy a day, for the first few days, and then forgets about the bag, and just remembers it every few weeks. That candy lasts her months! And she doesn't like chocolate!!! I wish that gene came from me


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## steph (Dec 5, 2001)

i've been a total chocoholic lately, and i don't let dd eat that yet (just ready to turn 2 yo)... so, i sneak chocolate.... my general rule of thumb is i don't eat anything that she can't have in front of her, with the exception of coffee, tea (black), and alcohol...


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## mdcanon8765309 (Jan 8, 2003)

Interesting post!









Right now I'm openly eating sweets in front of my son but it needs to stop. I'm eating way too much sugar anyway and he's beginning to beg. I do give him food, too, but he's starting to take notice if we are eating different foods and is not pleased.

DH drinks a ton of Coke but has been working on not having any at home for awhile. We don't plan on denying Ian all sugar, I'm another one that backfired on, but making it an occasional thing.


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## Tanibani (Nov 8, 2002)

My answer: no way.

I try to eat as healthy as possible. I am not into sweets, personally, so thankfully it's not a problem for me.

Though my 3 yr old LOVES







sweets! I limit it to ONE a day. Also give it if I need a desperate bribe. I know, I'm a bad







mommy.

Yes, I would LOVE to eat those Krispy Kreme donuts, and so would my son... but I don't and no way in hell am I giving it to him. (Though DH does







when they are out alone.)

I do try to avoid all fake foods/temptation. I would LOVE to drink coffee... I abstain. Instead, I grab DH's cup and get a good hit (deep inhalation) of the smell. I despise







soda. It doesn't taste good to me and it makes me burpy.

I wince everytime I see my AP friends (any friends)





















offer their kids soda/coffee!

We do share a







yummy Chocolate fille Croissant once in a blue moon. I don't bother trying to hide it. If I have to hide it, then heck, I shouldn't be eating it either.


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## CortLong (Jun 4, 2003)

Yes, and I sneak it!!!


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## Felicitymarie (Jun 19, 2003)

I've always felt that it would extremely hypocritical of me to only allow my kids healthy foods while I was sneaking or eating sugary items or other things. So we allow our kids to eat whatever it is we're eating. After all, if I am choosing to have ice cream for breakfast, it would be hypocritical of me to tell dd that she has to eat oatmeal. I don't want my kids to view me as trying to control their choices while I get to do whatever I want and eat whatever I want. So fair is fair in my house. If I eat it, then they can eat it. If I don't want them to eat it, then I don't eat it and we don't buy it.


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## teachma (Dec 20, 2002)

What about sushi? That's the main food I eat which I don't allow ds to share, I guess because I've been led to believe the possible bacterias could be less safe for a little one than for adults. If I treat myself to sushi, I usually eat it after ds's bed time. Also, coffee, which he knows is a "grown up drink." Other than that, he can have what I have, but sweets in smaller servings (he IS smaller than I am, after all). Dh eats more poorly than I do, drinking soda and eating chips quite often. I remind my ds, "We don't eat those things because they aren't healthy for our bodies." I think it's okay if he knows dh is making unhealthy choices. Also, I have a nut allergy, and we won't't allow ds to at nuts or nut butters until he is at least 3. Again, dh eats them, so A knows that he and mom are the ones who don't. We eat soy butter instead, so it seems "fair."


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## member234098 (Aug 3, 2002)

I had a cola/slushy thing last summer, but I have sworn it off for this summer.

I hope.


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## water (May 15, 2003)

Well I voted "other" because ds is allowed to try everything that we eat, including sweets, coffee, soda and alcohol.

But "Try" is the operative word here, he knows that coffee and beer are grownup drinks and that he gets one sip.
Don't drink soda except for once in a blue moon, I will let him try it except for diet soda, but I really try to never drink it myself.

Sweets we don't eat that often, and don't have them in the house, so when we do, we share. I also grew up in a house where sugar and alcohol were forbidden, and I drank like a fish in highschool and snuck sugar every chance I got. I would steal handfulls of brown sugar out of the package and squish them in my hand an eat them in secret...pathetic!!

So everything in moderation is my goal.

Oh yeah and spicy foods I don't think are a problem at all, he loves fresh salsa, and eats it by the handfull!


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## Missgrl (Nov 18, 2001)

Moving this to Good Eating Forum now.


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## sha_lyn (Jul 27, 2002)

Quote:

Well I voted "other" because ds is allowed to try everything that we eat, including sweets, coffee, soda and alcohol.
Same here. They can taste items like alcohol, and at aroudn 12 or so we let DS start having a little wine/champange (2-3 oz) for speical occasions (new yrs eve, Circle celebrations etc).


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## tessamami (Mar 11, 2002)

I drank black coffee on occasion as a toddler. Coffee was regularly offered to me as a child. I drink it only occasionally now as I drink herbal teas, mainly. I don't have a problem with it. Maybe that is because I have seen no harmful effects in myself, maybe it is because I am Puerto-Rican, daughter of a mom who grew up on a coffee farm. . .or maybe because I am addicted?

But I rarely have a cup of coffee now so I don't think addiction is a problem. Also, I would never drink decaf after I read how harmful most of the decaf processes are. And if I want a caffeine-free hot drink, I will drink Cafix or some other "coffee substitute", or a nice tea.

I have no reservations whatsoever about giving DD a sip or two of coffee.

I have read the other posts with interest about different food choices. One man's food is another's poison, I guess because though I enjoy soy in the form of miso and tofu with greens or meat, I don't have soy milk in the house because of what I have read about the dangers of soy.


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## jenP (Aug 22, 2002)

It's getting easier to feed DD now that she's one. She can pretty much eat anything I do now! And she definitely wamts what I have, even spicy food. I'm VERY picky about my food, though: vegan, no white flour, no sugar, no artificial colors, flavors, or preservatives, no chocolate or caffeine. And I don't do wheat and soy real often because DH is allergic. I let DD have wheat and soy now that she's one, but I'm glad we also use so many other grains and beans so they arent' heavy parts of our diet. So she can eat whatever I have. But we still have to keep working to get more fresh veggies in our diet! It's so much easier to reheat some beans and rice...

Jen

Oh yeah, I do indulge in the occasional french fry and then she gets them too!


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## sillypants (May 16, 2003)

We all eat the same thing. One thing different I buy are hot dogs. I buy the kids Hebrew Nationals but they are quite a bit more than regular nitrate loaded ones. So they eat those and DH and I will eat the chemical stuffed ones. What's amazing is eating a Hebrew National and then taking a bit out of a "regular" one. You can literally taste the chemicals









As far as sweets go, we don't really have them in the house that often and when we do, I just let the kids eat them.


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## joyfulliving (Aug 23, 2002)

Yep, and for the most part i do it openly. "Chocolate is strong, it is not right for you yet but when you get bigger.' I said the same for wine and coffee. i don't actually eat that much of it anymore so It's not that big of an issue. However, i must confess that although I strive to be a completley honest and above-board mommy, there is no way in *&%! I will let him see me scarf down a dougnut when I get one of the fortunately rare cravings for one. Those I sneak.
Joyfulliving


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## Jelly (Jul 2, 2003)

I do, occasionally and I sneak it. Mainly chocolate - I eat too much of it.









On the bright side, I do eat healthier than ever before, now that I cook healthy food for my children.


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## mpeel (Nov 20, 2001)

Like some others said, we have some stuff we tell them is strictly for adults - coffee, tea (regular, not herbal), alcohol, some foods. Also, my youngest has food allergies. So the whole family eats some things she cannot have. She is three but getting great at asking "Does that have wheat or milk?" And, occasionally, especially if they are asleep or not around, I will have something I do not like them having. But, we are not big sweets eaters, any of us. We would rather have something fresh than manufactured. And, I hope because my DH and I model good eating habits (mostly), the girls will pick up on that and do it them selves.


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