I think moderation is key when it comes to treats & toddlers. My son is now 9 months & obviously isn’t ready. But when he is – I will allow a treat every now & then. I wouldn’t forbid candy 100%. Soda pop – I will opt out of completely.

As a child my Mom never really forbid sweets. She wasn’t very strict on that. As long as I was eating a balanced meal a treat didn’t hurt. I think most of the healthy guide lines for children are a bit exaggerated. I’ll use my judgement & not a medical chart.

I wouldn’t even forbid anything completely, but I would put limitations on things.

My mother gave us treats, but it was never like all the candy you can eat, or soda you can drink. She handed us the amount of ccandy we could have, and she rarely baught soda, but we still got it once in awhile.

Now with my youngest sister being 10 she is not strict enough on what she eats. My 10 yr old sister eats nonstop all the time, junk food and all. She’s getting fat, and even though I try and tell her that eating that much of the kind of things she eats, she still does it. My mom tried to put limitations but it didn’t work for her. Lol.

It just depends on the kid I guess.

Honestly my opinion is that it has less to do with what is “forbidden” or not, and more to do with the example mom and dad set. If mom and dad eat junk, so will the kids. If mom an dad either exercise judicious eating habits or don’t buy junk altogether (like me cause if I have it in the house I eat it) then the kids won’t even know the difference.

this is a very interesting question and I’ve been thinking about this lately. when I was a kid, there was no cereal, soda, or sweets in our house. we just didn’t have them. I hated soda when I was younger and once in a while if I went to my grandmother’s house I had sweet cereal or cheetos, but that was about it. when my sister was born, my mother kind of caved and let us get sweet cereal but still to this day, I don’t really like it. I do like chocolate and soda, but I never binge on it. I prefer to eat healthy things but I do indulge.

I don’t think there was ever a stigma on treats or anything like that in my house though — it was never forbidden, my mother never said it’d ruin our teeth or ruin my appetite or whatever. in fact, now that I think about it, I was always allowed to eat chocolate and stuff on christmas morning (out of the stocking) — my father said it was christmas, I could eat however I wanted. same with birthdays. that kind of attitude of ‘sure’ instead of ‘no way, you’ll ruin everything’ has helped me not become a ‘binger’ of sweets and soda. I’m pretty healthy and aside from when I was very young when that stuff just wasn’t around (which it shouldn’t be for a kid under 6 or so, in my opinion), it wasn’t forbidden. I’m going to try to follow suit with my son who is 6 months old now.

good questionnnnnns.

No. However, I strongly believe that poor eating habits at an early age continues in adulthood.
For example, my MIL is just like your mother. She let her kids eat whatever they wanted and never had any limitations on junk food. I on the other hand, had limitations ie. two cookies a day, one soda drink every other day etc.
Now as adults I see that difference between both of us. I don’t splurge in junk food. I have a schedule on when to eat. My husband on the other hand eats all the time and wants to snack on junk food all day long. I don’t have junk food in my house because I’m not used to it and as long as there’s no temptation he will not want it. However, when we go to my in-laws he will spend his time eating chips, soft drinks, cookies, Gatorade’s etc.
My MIL and I are always in disagreement with this issue because I don’t allow my girl to have junk food at the house. I’ve lost the battle whenever I go to her house. It this point I allow my MIL to give her anything except soft drinks. She tells me that I should always have sweets, junk food accessible to my children so that they grow accustom to them. She believes that having them available will allow the person to have self control of that particular junk food, however, I disagree. I see first hand the damage she’s caused to her children.
Her three children are overweight and HIGH risk of diabetes and have poor eating habits.She’s tried to give at the time my 11 month old girl soda and I told her NO. I told her that my girl had the rest of her life to taste soda and that the time was not now ( and it wont be for at least until she’s 5 years of age)

I constantly tell my MIL that she did more harm than good but she’s in denial. Now that I have my children she wants to do the same with them but I’m making sure I break that cycle!

You said you ‘are all thin, healthy adults with healthy eating habits’ well thank God for you because most people don’t turn out that way. I’m sure if you google “good/bad eating habits at an early age” you will get tons on info on the end result.

Now as far as what sorts of things to let your kid have depends on you. Just because you are ‘healthy’ doesn’t necessarily mean that your child will pick up healthy eathing habits. Also, I’m not saying not to ever give your child a candy, I think they should at their appropriate age and with some limitations.