Do your kiddos get a dessert or some other kind of treat every day or only on special occasions? We admittedly have dessert nearly every night in our house. Sometimes its a popsicle, sometimes frozen yogurt, sometimes strawberries with whip cream etc. I am anti-high fructose corn syrup/hydrogenated oil so I make sure the dessert doesn't contain that but other than that it is certainly not something that I would consider "healthy" and my kids know that. They aren't allowed sugar or processed foods throughout the day (no fruit snacks, cheese-its, cookies, snack bars etc.) and their diets revolve around whole grains, fruits, veggies, nuts and some cheese. I guess this is why I have always felt like having dessert daily was ok but now that my kids "expect" dessert every night it seems kind of weird to me esp since I consider myself to be pretty health conscious. I know there have got to be moms who are more strict and moms who are more lenient on this subject so I really am just curious to see what other moms do... :)
Yep. Every night. My daughter is a sweet-freak and it helps them to eat their dinner. There's worse things in the world than a bowl of ice cream : )
So far we haven't made anything taboo. I have heard research that makes it more tempting to kids and they have less control when they finally get some. My son likes fig newtons and fruit chews/leathers. Those are the main sweets he gets. Oh, and homemade banana bread. The only time we really say no is when it is right before dinner or in the morning. At the same time, sometimes his request is for bananas or other fruit, and he is a pretty healthy eater.
Yup, we have dessert very often. MOstly fruit or something similar but sometimes icecream, but made with almond milk, we don't do cow's products. We eat really healthy, almost no processed foods, no sugar and I nurse my kids long-term so I feel that it is a little treat that won't hurt at all. As long as it isn't HFCS all day long, than I don't think it will hurt at all. It's fun and makes them look forward to dinner :)
We don't always have dessert. I hardly ever go & buy dessert things, just because we are on a very tight budget & can only buy things we really need.
Sometimes my mom sends us home with cupcakes or cookies she's bought. As long as we have them, if my daughter asks she can have a little bit. But only after she has eaten dinner! (or lunch on weekends) I cut her off after a couple small cookies or so.
Now if she's been misbehaving, she may not get a dessert!
We're not strict about it, but we tend to have desserts more around holidays and birthdays (pies, cookies, cake, cupcakes, ice-cream (hot fudge and whipped cream), etc) rather than every day. If my son's hungry before a meal, he can have some yogurt, a piece of fruit (banana, apple, orange, grapes, cherries, strawberries, blueberries, etc. If local fruit - what ever's in season) or a cheese stick.
I always want something sweet after my meals, so why would I keep my kids from having something sweet. It doesn't always happen b/c I may not have anything sweet in the house. When we do, it may be fruit, homemade pie, homemade cupcakes, homemade cobbler, homemade cookies, homemade or store bought ice cream. I don't look at dessert as a reward, it is just a great way to end a meal :)
We only have dessert after dinner every now and then (I would say once a week or a bit less). We do eat pretty healthy - lots of whole grains, fruit, veggies, etc. But I'm not opposed to them eating a treat every so often. If I stop at Starbucks for some coffee, I'll get the kids a cookie. It would be a sad life indeed never having any treats!
Sounds like you are very thoughtful about what your children eat. Dessert every night is not a problem if also as careful as you say.
We also consider fruit as dessert in our home, so as long as it is a small something and your children have already eaten their dinner, I do not see a problem with it.
I also do not see a problem with children having a few processed sweets or treats.
If we do not teach them how to treat them in moderation, they could gorge on them in the "real" world. Really good ice cream (especially homemade), a small cupcake, a fabulous cookie, is going to pop up at some point, why not be the one to be the treat giver once in a blue moon?
My son is only two and only gets dessert after dinner on special occasions. or if we go out for ice-cream (once or twice a month). But during the day if he asks for a cookie, once in a while, and he ate appropriately he can have one or two.
It sounds like you are conscious in what you give and that sounds just fine. I have dessert a few times a week but it is not as healthy as yours so I do it less frequently.
Hi Robyn, maybe not a desert everynight, but we did reward with a treat when the kids ate all their dinner. Julie
My kids only have dessert every once in a while. It's not b/c we are really healthy eaters, my kids also just expected to get desserts every night so we tell them it's a treat. As long as the desserts you give them are usually healthy like it sounds you are doing, I don't see a problem with it.
Did I write this question myself?!? LOL.
Yes, we have gotten in the rut of a "mandatory"(by my son) dessert everynight. We do find that it helps to get him to finish eating his dinner (but the flip side is sometimes I wonder if he only eats 'just enough' so that he saves room for dessert - a couple nights ago, we had tacos for dinner and he declined a 2nd helping (as did my husband who had a hearty lunch). Then as I was still cleaning up from dinner, he said he was hungry! So the next day, I put the food on his plate, and expected him to eat it all. Took him a while to get through it all but he had to eat it before he could go play with the neighbor. Then when he was over there, she told me he declined ice cream because he was too full! (but he and I were hungry by then and had a fruit popsicle and a piece of toast with homemade strawberry jam before bed)
I make my own popsicles - sooo easy! throw fruit in a blender, add ice, scoop of lemonade powder or orange juice, maybe milk, ice, whirl and enjoy homemade smoothies/slushies, and all leftovers (often I have to make a 2nd blender pitcherful!) go into the popsicle trays. I love it because my husband and son devour them and I don't have to worry about how much (ok I squeak if my son has more than 2 at once!) they eat of it, because it is like eating a cup of fruit with a drink of lemonade.
So on days our son didn't eat dinner to my satisfaction, I only yield to fruit, toast/bread & jam, bagel, popsicles, cucumber, carrots, celery w/peanut butter, etc. But I do admit our standard dessert is ice cream......
It frustrates me because growing up, we did not have 'dessert' we had 'bedtime snack' and they were things like toast with sliced bananas and brown sugar (mm! my son wont try it tho), cucumber spears, bowl of canned fruit, popcorn, carrots, fruit, pumpkin date cookies that my mom made (those were the only cookies that weren't rationed since it was more "good" than "junk" LOL) that kind of thing. Ice cream was a treat, I don't think we had it more than once a week and probably not every week either.
I do have granola snack type bars and I am not a sugar nazi, and don't want to be because I have seen where some kids get NO sugar whatsoever at home and consequently they pig out (awful!!) whenever they are outside the home. Watch what you eat, control what junk goes in your home (and their bodies), but don't forbid it because the forbidden fruit is the most tantalizing.
We always had some type of dessert-y thing after dinner. Sometimes we would have some home made pie or something, but usually it was fruit, strawberry shortcake with home made "cakes", things like that.
My kids favorite was yogurt "sundaes".
I crumbled home made brownies or cookies and put them in a bowl with yogurt, banana slices and whipped cream.
Super easy, pretty healthy and a treat.
Home made milkshakes were another favorite too. Fresh fruit, milk and vanilla ice cream.
I don't think there's anything wrong with a treat after dinner as long as the kids eat their meal. It's easy to get creative with pretty healthy things.
i do allow my children to eat "junk food" but because i do dessert is iffy. they will ask for it sometimes and the answer is sometimes no or i will give them fruit as their dessert ir they may get ice cream or a popscile. but mine are 4 and 6yo and the 6 year old is not mine but her mother lets her eat whatever and she has more silver in her mouth then some adults that i know but my son has no cavities at all. and i take it upon my self to keep it that way because though he does a good job of brushing i still check and if he has cavities at this age i feel like that is my fault because he is so young. I do wan tmy kids to eat healthy but i have also heard that the high fructose corn syrup is ok as long as it;s in moderation. but i don't give my children dessert every night because i don't want them to expect it. but keep doing what you are doing because that works for YOU! and that's all that matters! good luck
Its nice to hear a parent that teaches healthy eating habits while there habits are still forming. I think as long as the dessert is healthy like a small bowl of berries. It is still healthy your just putting the word dessert in front of it.
Also check out superkidsnutrition.com its an amazing web site geared to healthy snacking for children.
If they eat their dinner, they can have dessert. I'm pretty lax. They still eat healthy meals and snacks. But if they don't eat great throughout the day... No, they don't get a dessert.
ETA- I love to bake and we all bake together. I try to use as much natural as I can possible... Baking it, I know there's no HFCS or other manmade "garbage", but there are times when I don't feel up to baking... So sometimes they'll get the processed garbage... It's just not all that often.
For us we do it only every so often. But my kids are not big sweets kids. When we do dessert, I'll generally do an ice cream sundae bar or make smores or something with them. Sometimes they ask for a pie...it is so rare that they ask, or we may do it more often.
I'd say you're doing a great job, and if it's just desert once a day, you're WAY ahead of most of us!!! There's so much sugar and high fructose corn syrup in EVERYTHING, that you're already 3 steps ahead. I wouldn't worry about it :)
I agree with Caroline B.