Very simple question. No need for a poll because there’s just too many options.
How old should a child be before they are allowed to eat their first piece of candy?
Obviously some types of candy are going to be more inappropriate than others, so use your judgment.
If you can think of different ages for different types of candy, that’s fine too.
If you have had personal experience with children and candy, please post about that too.
Thank you!
They can have a pice of a candy when their chewing and swallowing are developed enough to handle it.
That means that they can have a bite of cotton candy before they can have a piece of saltwater taffy before they can have a piece of starburst before they can have a skittle.
I believe my mom was slipping my son brownies about fifteen minutes after he started solid food at all. Certainly by six months he’d had a chocolate chip or something.
We are pretty cautious about choking hazards, and our family sins run more in the directions of ice cream than candy, but he certainly had intense-sugary goodness pretty young.
I guess I should have been more explicit in my OP. Instead of candy, pretend I said “sweets”, so that would include things like ice cream, cookies, and others.
Thanks for the responses so far.
As soon as they’re old enough to process them safely from start to finish.
So, no choking hazards, and no major digestive problems. I have a feeling that icecream or chocolate syrup will be really early. Chocolate chips or skittles might have to wait a while.
I’m sure there’s some rule out there about how you’re supposed to wait til a certain age to intro sugar treats, just like they’re magically never supposed to see a screen until their 3rd birthday, but in the real world, if I have any, I’m just going to try to keep the amount very limited, and enjoy their expressions as they discover nifty new tastes.
Agree that it’s all about the choking hazards. I allowed a neighbor to let my daughter lick chocolate ice cream off of a spoon when she was two months old. These-a-days she’s two and a half and I’m still withholding gummy candy and hard candy unless it’s on a stick.
I agree about the choking hazards. My kids didn’t get candy - from me - until they were about 2, possibly later. But I had no problem that they got it at daycare every once in a while. I just don’t keep it around the house. If I did, I’d eat it.
I walk by a very popular ice cream parlour every Saturday, and it’s a great joy to watch the tiniest children experiencing ice cream. Some of them are barely past the infant stage, but they all seem to instantly grasp that ice cream is one of the best things ever.
Obviously, kids can experience ice cream early (I said experience, because it’s not all going in their mouths). And of course they get cake on their first birthday. And when my nephew was toddler age (can’t remember exactly how old) he and I shared a lollipop.
My mother heard and acted on the advice that babies shouldn’t be given chocolate before they’re two years old because it increases their chances of developing an allergy. Any truth to this?
Children should be given Sour Patch Kids as soon as it is safe. Then post the videos here.
The thinking prior to 2008 was that delaying the introduction of potentially allergenic foods could prevent allergies from developing. However, the current thinking (as of 2012) is that delaying the introduction of these foods may actually cause allergies to develop. The American Academy of Pediatrics currently recommends introducing foods like wheat, eggs, fish, cow’s milk and peanut butter between 4 and 6 months. A highly publicized study found that Jewish babies in the UK, who were introduced to peanut butter late, had 10 times the risk of developing a peanut allergy as Jewish babies in Israel, who were introduced to peanut butter early.
I think my son got his first piece of chocolate some time after he was one. He’s 21 months now, and the past three weeks my dad has given him a lollypop on our Saturday morning market visits. He’s taken it well, and we keep a good eye on him.
Just wanted to add that the one sweet food that should not be given to any child under one year old is honey. Honey can contain botulism spores that are dangerous to infants with undeveloped digestive systems, even if it may be fine for older children and adults.
Wow I’m a bit surprised by the responses to your question.
I have a number of friends with young children and this type of conversation focuses around childhood obesity, introduction of too much salt and sugar at a young age, the development of sugar dependency and nothing about whether the child can actually swallow the item!!
One of my friends has a 22 month old that has never had cake, chocolate or candy; another friend has done photo shoots of her under 12 month old covered in cake.
It would be interesting to seek out the research on early childhood feeding of excessive calories in the form of treats and adult weight and food choices.
Watching a 1 year old eat an adult sized cupcake with a huge amount of frosting for its birthday was actually quite disturbing for me - it would be like an adult sitting down and eating an entire full sized cake and no one commenting that it was a bit odd.
My older one didn’t have candy till she was 3, and started going to other kids’ birthday parties. This probably makes me a mean mum, but I figured she wouldn’t miss what she didn’t know, and there was no particular reason to give her sweets. She did have a birthday cake for her own second birthday.
Her little sister started earlier, because the older one brought lollies back from the afore-mentioned parties. Maybe around 18 months.
I don’t think it made any difference to how much they like sweets now (as teenagers). They seem to like them a normal amount (i.e. a lot, but not obsessively).
I think you’d be getting a very different answer to the question “How many sweets should a child eat?” or “How often should a child have candy?”
I try to limit the sweets my son has access to–they certainly aren’t a daily thing–but that’s very, very different than a sort of “no refined sugar shall ever pass my baby’s lips”. To me, that sort of attitude can be almost superstitious, or ritualistic, or something.
I think I managed to keep candy away from my kids until they were at least two. By then, loving grandparents or dad would have slipped some sugary treats their way. I’ve always had a giant sugar monkey on my back, (and oh the stares I get), so I’ve tried limiting the kids a little.