Do you think it is ok for a toddler to have stuff sweetened with splenda? My daughter is 2½ and doesn't have much sugar but if I make a dessert for myself for example strawberries with whipped cream flavoured with french vanilla SF syrup can she have it too? She eats plain yoghurt with a small amount of honey, would it be better for her to have a little SF syrup in it? I also want to make LC ice cream, can she eat that? I have always heard a bit of sugar is better for children than chemichal sweetners but it is so much easier if we can all eat the same as a family. She is not such a big carb lover compared to most young children, she snacks on boiled eggs, cheese, cottage cheese, fruit and veg but loves pasta and always has the wholegrain type and the same goes for rice and bread. I just want to bring her up as healthy as possible, she is already a very athletic child and I want her nutrition to fuel her zest for life!

TIA

I don't know what the answer is, but I am pregnant and the only sweetener I am able to use is Splenda.

I'd use a little honey instead. A 2 1/2 year old isn't going to be harmed by a small amount of unrefined sugar. In many cultures, breastfeeding until age 3 or 4 is common, and mother's milk is loaded with sugar.

On the other hand, if you'd prefer that she grows up with minimal sweets, you can certainly leave the sweetener out of things like fruit desserts. This is what we do, and our young children think that strawberries and cream are a wonderful treat on their own. We also make ice cream with just fruit and cream, and perhaps some egg yolks or vanilla -- no added sweetener at all.

Giving her the SF syrup seems to me to be the worst of both worlds: it's not a natural food, and it will get her used to the sweet taste.

At 2 1/2, she's in the prime time of developing tastes. If you give her Splenda, she's going to be trained for the sweetness.
Try to avoid it if possible and develop a sensitivity of sweetness found naturally in foods.

On the other hand, if you have children who are already trained to expect/desire sweet, I would not hesitate to recommend using Splenda instead of "natural" sugar to start weening them off the desire of sweet. In my mind, Splenda is a lesser-evil than sugars in any of its form.
But always with the ultimate goal of decreasing the need/desire.

Thanks everyone, I actually looked into what splenda is a bit more and I am not giving it to her, I am going to use xylitol instead. She definitely likes sweet stuff but she doesn't get it regularly, last week we bought her an ice cream and my DH asked if she wanted to go on the beach afterwards and she left the ice cream in favour of running on the beach She doesn't like flavoured yoghurts and only has a bit of honey in the very sour ones. I didn't think of making ice cream with just fruit, before she was born I used yoghurt and fruit in the ice cream maker all the time but she had a dairy intolerance until recently so even now she only has cheese and limited yoghurt, no cows milk.

Thanks for you advice, I guess I will carry on as we are and if I make her anything sweet it will be homemade with xylitol

Have you tried it yet? Xylitol gives me the most *horrible* painful intestinal gas, and non-stop diarrhea. I had it for the first time at lunchtime at work one day, given to me by someone who insisted it was the best of the sweeteners. I was in such agony I could not work all afternoon, and for the longest time was afraid I'd never get out of the bathroom long enough to be able to go home at night!

No I haven't tried it, I don't think it is available here in Denmark, thanks for the heads up I've decided she can stick to fruit and yoghurt and the occassional treat if we have a day out, she is very happy with her pure fruit puree ice lollies I make and they can't be that bad for an active toddler especially as I use mostly berries in them.

Xylitol is okay in small quantities, but when you eat too much you get the gas and/or diarrhea the PP was describing. Everyone is different, so some people can handle more than others. I think it's good for making small, individual peanut butter cups or something like that where you know you'll only be popping a small amount in your mouth - but for ice cream or something you may eat more of, it could be a problem. It doesn't hurt to play with it - just test it on yourself before you give it to your child.

Yes I think I should give it a go as it is apparantly good for ear infections too and my DD has just had her 3rd lot of tubes. The main reason at the moment for me not wanting her eating too much sugar is her teeth, it's not always easy to brush the teeth of a wriggley toddler and apparantly xylitol is tooth kind.

I'm glad you decided against giving your daughter Splenda. Even though it's considered "safe" now, it is still a relatively new sweetener, who knows what they will find wrong with it in the future.
I would worry about giving too much xylitol for the gas, bloating, diarrhea. Have you tried erythritol? It is also a sugar alcohol but is much more tolerable on the GI tract than xylitol.
I feed my 2 year old son erythritol and small amounts of sugar, honey, molasses. If I had to make a choice, however, I would always choose a high sugar product over an artificially sweetened one to give to my son.

Reaction to sugar alcohols could be a sign of Fructose Malabsorption, which is a very common problem (it affects about 1 in 3 Europeans). One relatively new treatment is the "low-FODMAP" diet that eliminates certain grains, lactose, onions, beans, cruciferous vegetables, most fruits and many food additives like sugar alcohols.

I understand wanting to eat the same thing as your kids - cooking can get complicated very fast when everyone in the house has a different diet! Maybe it's time to wean yourself off of sweet tastes? Cream and coconut milk can taste very sweet by themselves when you're not accustomed to using sweeteners. Many dessert flavorings like vanilla, cinnamon, nutmeg and cardamom can taste sweet too.

Hi and thanks for your replies I have heard of erythritol but don't know anything about it. I actually don't eat so many sweet things anymore, I just have some Davinci in my coffee if I fancy something sweet, I was more thinking of the future. I guess I am lucky as of yet SA don't cause me any gastro distress or stall me. I'll keep my daughter's diet the same as it is, full of fruit and veg and the occassional treat