Comments on: Should Toddlers Eat Dessert?

By: Hannah

Hannah — Sun, 10 Jan 2010 14:39:58 +0000

Ariela, I agree with her premise but I’m not sure I agree with all of her points. Thanks for emailing it to me.

By: Ariela

Ariela — Sat, 09 Jan 2010 16:03:04 +0000

Hannah, there was an article in this week’s makor rishon newspaper about breakfast cereal (and how unhealthy it is). I was shocked and upset and interested in your opinion.

By: Tamar

Tamar — Fri, 08 Jan 2010 04:25:46 +0000

We have the opposite problem around here – the little guy (2 years old) eats like a bird. My own policy is high-quality ingredients and homemade as much as possible, rather than pro- or anti-dessert (although dessert is only after filling up on the healthy stuff). I often use sweeteners other than refined sugar and usually cut the amount of sweetener by half. That being said, I agree that it’s important to limit, though I’m a little more lenient – I can’t wait for just holidays to eat chocolate!

By: Dena Lerner

Dena Lerner — Thu, 07 Jan 2010 17:43:43 +0000

having had two very large children and a family history of obesity, calories counting sometimes sounded like a good idea. But i spoke with my Dr, who gave me very sound advise. Feed your children good healthy food (snitzel is not one of them) and keep them active. Instilling good eating Habits and exercise habits are more important in the long run than a cup cake at a birthday party.

By: Yonit

Yonit — Thu, 07 Jan 2010 15:07:46 +0000

My struggle is not comparing one day/meal/minute to another in worry that they aren’t eating enough the day they only have half a yogurt when usually they eat yogurt, cereal and a sandwich for breakfast. Hubsters is of the “clean your plate” style of parenting, need to better explain that since I serve it’s not them wasting, it’s me wasting.

By: Hannah

Hannah — Thu, 07 Jan 2010 13:51:34 +0000

Hi Leah, small cupcakes are a great idea. I think toddlers vary a lot in the amount they eat from day to day.

By: Elise

Elise — Thu, 07 Jan 2010 13:20:27 +0000

I agree, calorie counting for a toddlers is mentally unhealthy. A child should be given a balanced diet and taught from an early age healthy eating habits. It is also not a big deal to let them have a cookie.Being able to balance healthy eating and sweets is something that will last them a lifetime. Sometimes you need to let kids be kids.

By: Aviva_Hadas

Aviva_Hadas — Thu, 07 Jan 2010 12:24:29 +0000

I think that my 13 month son has a hollow leg. He recently ate (with gusto) the amount of meatloaf that I gave my husband, several small latkes with apple sauce & a serving of green beans. & this was not unusual…

By: Devo K

Devo K — Thu, 07 Jan 2010 11:43:08 +0000

Sorry but calorie counting for a healthy, active 2-3 year old makes me cringe.

By: LeahGG

LeahGG — Thu, 07 Jan 2010 11:31:05 +0000

in our family, the general rule is that we pretty much never have dessert except fruit. If we do have dessert, though, then everyone has dessert.

When we had a birthday this week, I made small cupcakes. It’s easy to make serving sizes when a serving size is a “whole cake”

My kids tend to be on the large side. My 2.5 year old will eat an entire package of cottage cheese and half a tomato at one sitting, which I think is quite a lot of food for a kid that little, so I try really hard to make sure it’s healthy stuff, but I really don’t think that the one krembo a week that my daughter gets at shul or the piece of cake she gets at a birthday party once in a month or two is going to make the difference.