Kids and Sugar

Everything seems to have some form of sugar (glucose, fructose, sucrose, galactose, lactose, maltose, etc). Sucrose being the natural form and the others the chemical/processed forms.

Our family tries to stick with natural sugar ingredients if we do sugar (fruit) and away from processed sugar products unless it's for a treat and treats we do a couple of times a week. Check the labels on your food - even "healthy" snacks such as peanut butter, yogurt, etc has sugar.

My kids eat a lot of foods with natural sugar (mostly fruit) but almost no processed foods with added sugar (Pop Tarts, soda, cookies, etc.). There's virtually no nutritional value to things like Pop Tarts, and sugar increases behavior problems for almost every kid I've ever met so I just don't buy that kind of stuff.

The easiest way to limit the amount of refined sugar your daughter eats is just don't have those foods in the house. That means that in the morning if she's hungry, you won't be able to just grab the Pop Tart to hand over. Instead, give her a cheese stick or piece of whole wheat bread to munch on. She'll be getting calcium, fiber and protein rather than sugar and chemicals.

I dont allow my kids to have very much sugar at all. I have just always figured it is not that healty for them. They eat a well balanced diet that contains fruits and veggies and drink fruite juices,I fugure they get enough from that. I still chase their juice with water at times... I hope this helps.

When you say that you do not give it to your daughter every meal what are you referring to?

I do not give my kids much at all.
I check the sugar content of everything because 1) I have cavity prone teeth and am afraid they will get them too and 2) I can always tell when they've gotten into some sugar somewhere , they have major attitude problems.

Well, there's sugar in a lot of foods, "natural" or processed, so I'm not sure what you mean by giving your daughter sugar...