Easter candy for toddlers
(Courtesy of Betsy)
Sorry this is late, but here's Betsy of Fluffy Windover's Diary with this week's Toddler Thursday:
I am not one of those parents who is opposed to sugar for their kids. I try to make sure Edwin eats a balanced diet, and that includes the occasional treat. If he behaves himself at dinner and makes a decent effort at eating (sometimes, a rare occurrence) he can have dessert. Dessert is usually a cookie or maybe some ice cream. He also enjoys the occasional popsicle and pudding cup. But while I am OK with sweets sometimes, there is something about giving candy to a toddler that bothers me.
Don't get me wrong-- I have no problem eating candy myself. And I remember eating gobs and gobs of Easter candy as a kid. But for some reason I'm just not comfortable with Edwin eating it quite yet. I worry about him eating too much and getting sick. So Easter posed a bit of a problem. I wanted to go the route of not putting any candy in his basket. But my husband thought that was a little harsh, and besides-- I wanted to enjoy some Easter candy myself! So I went ahead and got all the usual suspects: jelly beans, peanut putter cups, peeps, and chocolate eggs.
This was really the first time Edwin had free access to candy, and he was a fan. I relaxed and allowed him to sample some treats from his basket in the morning. Thankfully, the peeps went completely untouched. I don't think Edwin realized they were edible (are they?) Jelly beans were a big hit, but I was nervous about him choking on those, so I had to remove them after he ate a couple. The peanut butter cups were a favorite. He really liked the whole unwrapping process. We did have a problem later in the day with the candy we put in the plastic eggs for the egg hunt. There was some melting, which lead to a meltdown on Edwin's part. But mostly, his first experience with Easter candy went OK. He didn't overindulge, and since we spent Easter at my parents' house I didn't bring any candy home. (Though I wish I had, if only for myself!)
If you celebrated Easter, how did your toddlers do with the candy?
Comments
We didn't have too much candy this year. I bought some Play-Doh filled eggs and some sidewalk chalk shaped like eggs, and then a couple of eggs with a bit of candy in each. A co-worker whose parents hand-make candy gave us a small chocolate bunny. That seemed reasonable.
But then Saturday we stumbled into an egg hunt at the grocery store and got some jelly beans, which wasn't too bad, plus the boy "won" a tall chocolate bunny. Ack! We haven't broken into either chocolate bunny as of yet, and honestly, I'm kind of hoping he forgot about them. We shall see.
He definitely enjoyed the M&Ms and some jelly beans. I ate all the Peeps myself.
Posted by: SarahKK | April 29, 2011 12:03 PM
We have always treated Easter and Halloween candy like any other treat we give to the children after dinner has been consumed in its entirety and bedrooms have been cleaned. We put all of the candy in a big bowl, if it is wrapped, or a ziplock bag, if it is unwrapped, and ration it out 2-3 pieces at a time until it's gone. The candy will keep for a long time and if you have an abundance of candy you can put some of it in the freezer.
Posted by: Lisa | April 30, 2011 9:30 AM