How often does your child or children get junk food?

DH loves S&V chips but he doesn't usually share his chips with DD so that's fine but since MIL moved downstairs at Anzac weekend there has always chippies and lollies in the house and I often come home to find a bowl of chips or a half eaten choc fish on DDs table (no wonder she doesn't eat a proper dinner).  It drives me nuts since I strongly believe that kids, esp toddlers, don't need to be given junk food as 'treats' and the more often they're given junk food the less likely they are to consider them as 'treats' and the more likely they are to think of it as everyday food.

I pinned down DH over the weekend and asked him how often he thinkgs our DD gets chippies and/or lollies - he said probably every 2nd day  WTF, I think it's shocking that a 2 yo gets chippies and lollies a few times a week but I also think he was being generous in his assessment, I'd say it's more likely she gets them daily (not a huge supply, just a small handful of chips and a few lollies but still since they have no positive nutrional value there's no need for them in her diet at all IMO).

So I have banned lollies and chippies from my house for the next 2 weeks to show DH he doesn't need them and neither does our DD.  I cleared out our pantry last night and all contraband has been removed.  I've told MIL she's not to give DD lollies or chippies either and if she does I'm totally prepped to go loco.

Oh man, I hadn't even thought about takeaways!  I never eat them so it didn't cross my mind but MIL does buy McDonalds and other fast food a couple of times a week and usually brings home chips and stuff for DH & Michaela.  Will have to add fast food takeaways to the banned substances list.

It's interesting that heaps of people have mentioned crackers as being junk food.  I actually never thought of them as such - we only have the rice crackers, corn thins and rice wafers in my house though so I guess compared to many cracker types they are actually healthy.

Steph, when I told MIL that she wasn't allowed to give Michaela any treats anymore she started going on about "...when my kids were growing up blah blah blah..." and I just said "did you let your kids have chippies and lollies?" "no"  "well then you can understand why I don't want mine to have them".

It's hard when they live in the same house as you.  When MIL only visited a couple of times a week it wasn't so bad, there's only so much junk she could supply in such a short space of time but now she visits a few times a day and looks after Michaela in the afternoons I have to be really staunch. 

I'm fairly healthy so when I told DH that we were giving up junk food for 2 weeks he said "but what are you giving up?" lol, I did put my dark chocolate buttons, which I normally hide in the pantry with the baking ingredients, into the contraband box.

I've allowed DH bikkies, but mostly because I know Michaela won't eat biscuits (she'll have a bite then discard them) though she loves to eat the dough when we bake them .  If I think they're a problem though they'll be gotten rid of too.

I don't think crackers are bad.  In fact they're often used as an alternative to bread at lunchtime.

Michaela has always been a pretty good eater and I don't mind her having a few treats every now and then I'm just trying to curb the habit of giving her treats everyday in place of real food because recently she's stopped eating a decent lunch and dinner.

Funny tho, MIL now looks after her in the afternoons.  I got home this afternoon and asked how it was with the new healthy food plan, MIL's response "good, not a problem at all, she just had an iceblock instead"  At least they're home made iceblocks (made with OJ and water) so not too bad in the scheme of things but next batch I make I'll water them down a bit more.

She had a really good dinner tonight and ate heaps so I'm pleased.

Jennz wrote: You would think that if they care, they would want what is best for them- health wise. Its like they get a kick out of being the ones to give them something nice and treaty- buggar the consequences.

Yeah, why is that? 

My mum and dad are pretty good and treat Michaela by lending DVDs and buying her books and playing with her but MIL likes to give her lollies and chips.

I think maybe for us it's because MIL loves chippies and lollies herself so she thinks of them as a treat (even though her bad health is slowly killing her and none of us would wish that on Michaela).

Leah has the odd cracker with marmite for morning tea, and if I have done baking she has a little bit of that, but nothing else really. She only drinks milk or water, she doesn't really like juice the odd times she has tried it so I don't bother. She eats lots of fruit, some days I think she survives only on fruit!   I don't give her anything after 3 pm so she at least has a good effort at dinner, she may not eat it all but she eats more if she has no afternoon snacks!

We try and be careful with what she has as my nephew can't have anything that has colours, additives or preservatives in so we don't really have anything in the house just in case he is here, then we know he can eat what everyone else is having.

MIL just turned up with a small bag of mcdonalds fries and gave them straight to Michaela.  So bad, firstly because this is a junkfood free house atm and secondly because Michaela's due to have dinner in 45 mins.

I confiscated them - mean mummy aye - then quickly shoved together some other bits and pieces for dinner (ham, cucumber, tomatos and cheese) and gave her a small portion of the chips, ate a couple myself and threw the rest of the bag (about 1/2) away.

I don't think I'll ever get it through to her that I don't like junkfood treats.  Why doesn't she treat her by taking her to the park?

joshierocks wrote: My MIL is the same - will give Joshua all sorts of things when he's with her that I wouldn't. DP and I have had discussions about it and came to the decision (albeit grudgingly) that when he's with her she can give him what she thinks is ok.

The problem with that plan for us is that MIL looks after Michaela every afternoon until I get home from work and she pops up a couple of times a day 7 days per week

joshierocks wrote: Stick to your guns. Perhaps you need to list out for your MIL what you consider to be junk? Maybe she thinks a few fries are ok.....

That's a good idea.  I obviously need to be more clear.  I've also wondered a few times in recent months if she is beginning to suffer from althzeimers or similar - sometimes she appears to be a few sammies short of a picnic and things we tell her go in one ear and out another and sometimes I feel like I'm talking to a toddler.  This is one of the reasons we invited her to move in so I should probably cut her a break.  Then again it probably has more to do with the fact it's only been 3 months since her DH died and also she's at an age where she chooses to ignore us because she knows it all now. 

ETA: re-reading this it sounds like I leave my daughter every afternoon with an elderly person who suffers from dementia or something... it's really not like that at all.  She is quite capable, just occassionally annoying.