How much is too much?

We're lucky that ours doesn't seem to be very interested in anything sweet.  He wouldn't even eat any of his birthday cake!  I know that will change, and we've agreed that moderation is the best policy.  I refuse to be one of those "no tv/no candy" parents, because you're just asking for trouble as they get older.  And the kids end up resenting you for it.

In the future, could you intercept the gifts before they get to the kids and tone them down a bit?  Maybe mention that small toys/stickers/etc instead of candy would be better because then they could enjoy them longer.

Can't really join in the debate about how much is too much, but one idea for kids getting sweets from other people on holidays is to have them trade it in for something non-food related.

For example "The Great Pumpkin" brings my sister's kids a surprise the day after halloween if they leave a bunch of their candy out overnight for him.  They love it. 

I normally wasn't allowed to eat any sweets, including soda, as a child. However, on a special occasion, such as Halloween, another child's party, etc., I could eat whatever I wanted.

My point being that, as long as the child doesn't have a medical reason to not be allowed sweets (diabetic, ADHD, etc.), I think overloading on sweets a few times a year is fine, as long as his sweets are restricted the rest of the year.  I think it's also good for the child to learn that sweets are special occasion food, not everyday food.

I think it's a lot healthier for a child to eat a whole bag of chocolate one day a year than to drink soda with  his meals or have dessert after each meal 365 days a year.

I think there's a lot of middle ground between binging once a year and having candy every day.   I think it's better to practice moderation. 
Like I said, I've had horrible experiences with other people kids who weren't allowed candy at home and absolutley drove everyone crazy when they came to visit or God forbid came to a birthday party and went candy-crazy.   

I also moderate the kids pop intake. And when they do get pop its usually diet. I always have juice and sugar free squash in the house.

Oh I also wanted to make a comment about binging on the sweets. The boys recently spent a week with their idiot father and he gave them chocolate for each meal I think because they both came home with horrible diarrhea.

Is diet pop the kind with known carcinogens?

*gulp* hides tons of sweets for the hunt under bed


with jess she tends to be quite good and is more into fruits than sweets (mind you not always) I don't buy sweets or junk food in the house because I don't really have a taste for them when it comes to holidays we get a lot of junk . DH's dad works for a major sweets manufacturer , and every relatives sends us tons of stuff . You are not doing anything wrong really you're helping them learn about moderation. We get an excess of junk food and I what I do is pass it on to the day centre I work at mostly or to jess' reception class.