What is your family dessert policy?

[Anonymous]

Dessert except once a week is fruit and generally kids are allowed to eat fruit after their meal even if they haven't finished their meal, as long as they have made some effort.
Actual dessert (like pie or whatever) is only available if all of the main course (or all of what I consider to be the healthy parts of the main course, e.g. the chicken and vegetables (I dont care about the potato)) has been eaten.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We have dessert night once a week, on Wednesdays, when they can have dessert regardless of how much they eat. Neither of my kids are big dinner eaters, and we'd had too many battles about eating a certain quantity or variety.

Other nights, often weekends, outings, etc, (maybe 1x per week) the rule is they have to eat at least half of what they are served to get dinner, because it's not dessert night. That happens maybe once a week, and they earn it about 75% of the time. We are pretty lenient about the actual qty so both sibs get dessert; we rarely give it to one but not the other (and if that does happen we split them up so its not rubbed in).

I have no issue saying no to either grandma if they ask me if they can serve dessert (at least they've learned to ask first!) and I don't want my kids to get it that night.

No issues with cake at birthday parties.

Oops, eat half to get DESSERT.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We don't have a policy. I usually let my kids have desert (cookies, ice cream or whatever we have around the house), unless they didn't eat dinner. if they've already had too many sweet things that day, then I say not tonight.

We do exactly the same.

[Anonymous]

dessert once a week on weekends, except kids can always have fruit after dinner (it's sort of a habit with my culture, where sweets are for rare and for occasional snacks not after dinner) or yogurt

they end up having treats like cake or cupcakes probably another once or twice a week because of grandma or birthday party or whatever

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Never? You *never* have dessert?

No. We have special occasions like birthdays and holidays but don't keep sweets in the house. Like the other poster it's more for DH and me. The children aren't deprived. They have plenty of dessert at restaurants or if we go out to get sonething. We always have a lot of fruit in the house and they can eat it whenever they want. They often grab something after dinner but I don't really think of this as dessert.

[Anonymous]

They can have dessert after dinner but it's not like I make one. But go grab some Oreos, that's fine. I am not super strict about sugar because I think it leads to some really unhelpful attitudes towards sugar as kids get older. Mine can eat a couple pieces of Halloween candy and be done because it isn't "rare." Meanwhile other sugar limited kids lose their minds at parties for cake. I'm not into restricting food groups.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We don't have a policy. I usually let my kids have desert (cookies, ice cream or whatever we have around the house), unless they didn't eat dinner. if they've already had too many sweet things that day, then I say not tonight.

We do exactly the same.

Us too -

[Anonymous]

We eat dessert every night, but only if they've eaten their dinner. Usually my 6 and 4 year olds have ice cream; I give them a really small amount.

[Anonymous]

My kid used to eat no sweets. But he does now. He's 9. I give him something sweet each day. One little brownie. A couple of Dove chocolate squares. I think of dessert as after dinner, but he sometimes gets them as a dessert for lunch, or after school/camp, and sometimes after dinner. Every few weekends we go get Jamaican ice cream.

I haven't had to tie it to finishing dinner. I don't force him to eat anything at dinner, but I encourage eating a little bit of everything. And if he doesn't eat much, and is hungry later, he has to pick from healthy snacks or dinner leftovers. Not sweets.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We don't have a policy. I usually let my kids have desert (cookies, ice cream or whatever we have around the house), unless they didn't eat dinner. if they've already had too many sweet things that day, then I say not tonight.

This. My daughter is learning to read her body signals. Some nights she gets ice cream. Some nights she wants fruit or vegetables with ranch. Some nights she asks for a second helping of dinner. My son however things that the 4 food groups should be ice cream, candy, cake, and cookies.

[Anonymous]

We have dessert randomly. A popsicle or a small bowl of ice cream or something we baked maybe twice a week? They are good eaters so I don't incent them with food, they pretty much always eat their dinner.

[Anonymous]

Fruit for dessert on weekdays. Friday is a baked sweet for dessert. Parties, grandma, weekend is whatever. Dessert consumption not tied to how much dinner is eaten. We also wait a little between dinner and dessert so it's not immediately after. Let the food settle and that way you eat less sugar because you're already full.
DH and I sometimes have a late night cup of tea and a cookie. Long after kid bedtime.

[Anonymous]

No policy. If they happen to remember to ask, and if I happen to think they didn't already have a bunch of junk that day, they can have whatever dessert we have around. Usually something like a donut or a popsicle. It's not a big deal. We don't make a big deal out of food in general. One pick eater, one great eater, but both are healthy so whatever.

[Anonymous]

We're still in review mode on our family dessert policy. It's under Board review right now, and will be finalized by the end of the fiscal year.

[Anonymous]

Question for the 'fruit as dessert people' - do you guys not have fruit unless it's dessert? My kids love it; I add it to almost every meal at home. Apple, orange, strawberries, blueberries, bananas, mangoes are consumed throughout the day and also goes into the lunchbox. I might stick a handful of blueberries on the salad I'm trying to get them to eat. Do your kids really accept fruit as different enough to qualify as dessert? Why do you eat so little fruit? Or, when you say fruit, do you mean something more special than an apple or orange?