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I never eat sugar or even simple carbs. I hope the kids can limit their intake of both!

@Coco Bee: my mom was the same way as you are. She use to pay me for my Halloween candy haha...I'd get $45 if I didn't eat one piece. Of course that might not work with a 2 year old but I remember being ALL for it!

My parents took my candy from halloween, birthday parties, etc, and replaced it with a shopping spree at the health food store where I could buy any healthy candy, snack, etc, I wanted. I loved it!

@ Coco Bee - I couldn't agree more! Sugar is actually evil! Tooth decay, diabetes, childhood obesity, hyperactivity... the list goes on!!

I didn't know candy existed until I went to school!!! My mum just didn't mention it, never bought it and, as a result, I never wanted it. I have vivid memories of being taken - as a special treat - to the greengrocers (fruit and veg shop) and being allowed to pick a piece of fruit - whichever I wanted! Lol! I'd stand and marvel at the red apples, the juicy pears, the plums... and agonise over which to choose!!

My dad grew vegetables of all kinds in the garden - and I was his special helper! I LOVED vegetables as a kid, more than anything in the world, because, to me, they were so, so special! It was a treat to go out to the garden and pick my vegetables for my dinner.

The point of mentioning the vegetables is this: I think it's all about how you "sell" these things to kids. Parents who talk about candy as if it's a treat will make their children want it.... I plan to talk about fruit and vegetables as if they are mmmmmmmmm delicious and just not mention candy at all!!

Of course, once they go to school, it all goes out the window! But what I will say is this - 1) I still don't really like the taste of sugar, even now. And 2) At 31, I've never had a single filling or a tooth out. Sugar is EVIL people!!

I think its all about moderation. I like my sweets, and they're a treat for me and will be for my lo too. I don't have dessert or ice cream every night.

My mom didn't limit my halloween candy.... but I had enough self control to only eat a couple pieces at a time because I wanted to make it last. I guess ill just wait and see if lo takes after me or her daddy with that to see what we'll do.

I let her have sugar but I try to do things that I can control. For example, homemade cookies where I can reduce sugar in the recipe.

I don't think we will be letting her have candy for a while. She's only 1 now.

Everything in moderation but not until she is older. She is 2 and hasn't had any candy yet. I am not sure when I will start allowing candy treats, 5 years+?

Eating all different kinds of foods is an important part of our lives (and definitely the Mexican culture). Although we try to keep him away from candy when we can, I'm not going to take him to a party with a piñata and then not let him have any of the spoils! And it's not candy, but when it's Day of the Dead or Epiphany, of course we all eat the special pastries associated with those holidays!

Totally agree with @looch.

DH and I really aren't into candy, so we won't have any around for the LO! And we def will limit it

Only on special occasions like Halloween or birthday parties, otherwise, no sir!

No sugar or candy for a long time to come. ofcourse my LO is only 4 months old, but I dont think she will have any added sugar or candy til atleast 3 if not longer. I have had a lot of issues with myteeth because of eating too much candy, soda and sweet things as a child so I will be very strict with this

I don't believe children should have candy but....my husband (we call him the cookie monster) is huge on sweets as is my dad. So I'm going to have a hard time implementing candy rules with those 2 around!

she gets candy when I have some. Which means tiny bits a quality dark chocolate. And yeah, she can have some at parties when everyone does. That's about it. When she was 1, people kept asking her if the Easter Bunny had brought her candy, and I just couldn't see why you would give a baby (practically) large amounts of candy before they know what they're missing.

@sloaneandpuffy: so true! My son never met a banana he didn't like, but everything else, forget it.

I don't have a little one and I have still waivered back and forth on this subject for years now. I wish it were only an issue at birthdays and Halloween but I feel like kids get candy all the time!!!

With the kids I take care of it is a constant bombardment-- the grocery store has lollipops, they get candy after tennis lessons, school does a junk food treat once a week plus birthdays, art club does big desserts every week, there are constant birthday parties and they all give out bags filled with candy. Plus, there are always multiple events for Halloween, Christmas, Easter, Valentine's Day etc and they all involve candy.

I am actually pretty bummed that even if I say no to 50% of all of that it is still more candy and junk food than I am okay with, plus it means I have fewer opportunities to take my own kids out for ice cream or to roast marshmallows for s'mores!

One tactic I do find works pretty well is they get 24-48 hours with the candy and after that we pitch it-- if real food doesn't last indefinitely then candy can just pretend it is real food and "go bad" too.

DD has had some candy before, but not often. Most of the time her daycare hands out healthy alternatives to candy for holidays/birthdays like dried fruit, nuts, muffins instead of cake, granola bars instead of cookies, etc... And we just don't usually have candy around the house for DD to eat.

Last year, we traded all of DD's Halloween candy for little presents like stickers, Halloween rings, plastic spiders, etc... She LOVED it, and was none the wiser about not having candy. I think we'll do the same this year. Eventually, if she wants to keep her candy instead of trading, I don't mind if she has a couple pieces. I just don't think she needs to eat ALL the candy from her bucket! People in our neighborhood give out huge handfuls, and we ended up with a ton last year!

I want to teach DS moderation. Right now he's had cake a few times, his birthday, birthdays for the kids at his daycare, and a quarter of a cupcake now and then when he sees them on the counter at my in-laws.

I think when you make something totally off limit, then you make it a bigger deal than it is, making the child want it more and overindulge when he/she is able to. I think healthy habits and beliefs are more important than only giving out healthy foods and eliminating the rest.

That being said, we aren't giving DS juice until he's older (I'd rather he eat fruit and drink water or milk) and soda and candy are out until he's much older too. Right now he doesn't know any different, so I'm going to wait until it comes up.

Only for very special occasions.. Doctors office, haircut, potty training so far. We also didn't give cookies or cake til recently, only to discover he doesn't like them. We also just tried juice for potty training and he doesn't like that either.

He does get 2 gummy bear vitamins a day which he loves.

We also don't give fruit snacks or chocolate milk, but other kids at school bring those in their lunches so I'm not sure how much longer we'll prohibit those!

DD hasn't had any candy or really any sweets yet & I like it that way! I hope to hold off on candy for a long time.