Do you let your toddlers and older kids drink soda?

Chantel - posted on 07/15/2009

We call it pop too! I love Pepsi but we don't have it in the house very often because I'll drink too much of it:) I've let Breanna try it out of my straw but she doesn't like it. (which is good, since she's only 15 months!!) She does like iced tea though. I usually get iced tea when we go out for supper and she usually gets some from my glass. She just loves it. I don't let her have her own though. Caffiene, sugar, not good for babies:)

Jenny - posted on 07/15/2009

We call it pop too.



I haven't had one myself in about three years and except for an occasional small cup at a birthday party or something my daughter doesn't have any either. My son is a baby so of course he's never tried. It's just never around.



When my daughter was in Kindergarten last year we went to one birthday party where the moms were requesting diet pop for their kids because they didn't want them to have too much sugar. That stuff is SO bad for kids. I was very proud as my daughter went to the cooler and grabbed a bottle of water.

Sarah - posted on 07/15/2009

Thanks Jennifer! I'm going to call my husband 'Willy the Hillbilly' from now on!! :)

~Jennifer - posted on 07/15/2009

The only time I drink soda (that's what I'm used to calling it) is if there's rum in it. We never have it in the house - unless my parents are visiting - my Mom & Dad are addicted to Coke Zero.

I'm more of an iced tea person.



Oh and "Mountain Dew".......

Mountain Dew was born way back in the hills of Tennessee in the 1940s. The name Mountain Dew was first trademarked by two brothers, Barney and Ally Hartman, who ran a bottling plant in Knoxville. The Hartman's Mountain Dew, however, was a lemon-lime drink used as a mixer with whiskey. The first sketches of the original Mountain Dew bottle labels were devised in 1948 by John Brichetto, it depicted a character known as Willy the Hillbilly shooting at a revenuer fleeing an outhouse with a pig sitting in the corner. Under the label were the names of individual bottlers, this was supposed to give the feeling that the person drinking the product was drinking illegal moonshine. In fact, Mountain Dew is a slang term used for moonshine.

Lindsay - posted on 07/15/2009

Ok, I just call it coke. It doesn't matter the brand, our general term is coke. I drink it a lot but only diet. I typically drink either diet dr. pepper or diet wild cherry pepsi. As for my kids, they have had it on occassion but never a regular basis. If we are home, they aren't allowed to have it but can have juice, milk, water, or tea. If we are going somewhere that requires taking a cooler, we pack our cokes and beer and capri suns or bottled water for the kids.

Esther - posted on 07/15/2009

My son always wants whatever we drink, including my Diet Coke (or Coke Zero), but he thinks it's absolutely gross. Rather than argue with him, I'll let him try it and as soon as the liquid hits his lips and starts prickling he pulls this disgusted face and he won't ask again, at least for a while (he does need reminders every once in a while as to how disgusting it was again :)

Sarah - posted on 07/15/2009

Can i just moan about the fact that my husband just had a huge crate of Mountain Dew delivered!!! NOOOOOOOOO! :)

Louisa - posted on 06/29/2009

hello all im new to this :-) my kids are good in that they have never asked for fizzy drinks so i havent had to say no!! my eldest daughter only drinks water and my other two have either juice or water. if they did ask for fizzy i would prob say no unless it was an occasion like at a party. :-)

Joy - posted on 06/28/2009

I saw the same tv special about the "hillbilly's" drinking so much Mountain Dew and it was actually pretty sad. Kids' BABY teeth were rotting out of their mouths. It was not pretty. We never drink it, although when I was younger I used to drink it a lot to stay awake for 3rd shift. After a few months drinking it, I ended up with a really bad bladder infection and haven't had it since. On the rare occasions that I do drink a soda (in the south, we call it "soda"), I have either Sprite or Coke. Pepsi is just too sweet to me. And I can't stand anything diet. It doesn't matter what kind of sweetener they use, it all has that "diet" after taste to me. I'd rather not drink it than have diet lol That's why it's so rare for us to have any at all.



Not long ago I saw a baby at the grocery store with her bottle full of what looked like either coke or pepsi and I wanted to take the bottle and throw it away. There are so many other more healthy things to put in a baby's bottle! A taste or a sip now and then is one thing, but to fill a bottle with it? I just don't understand that. All soda is loaded with sugar....why would someone want to wire their kids out, just to yell at them later when they won't calm down??? I don't get it.

Sarah - posted on 06/28/2009

Glad i'm not the only one who doesn't like Mountain Dew!
Can't wait to tell the hubby it's a 'Hillbilly' drink!!! hahaha! :)

Traci - posted on 06/27/2009

It's weird, I think Diet Coke is gross. But I love Diet Pepsi or Coke Zero. ????

Erin - posted on 06/27/2009

We call it fizzy, and I will admit I LOVE it. But because I love it I rarely have it at home (if I did I would drink it all day). Coke is my favourite, and it cannot be diet - the artificial sweetener tastes gross to me. So I probably have it a couple of times a week if I'm out or at someone else's house.
I have absolutely no intention of offering it to my daughter, but if she asks for a taste as a toddler I'll let her try it FROM MY CUP. I would never let her have her own, but I tend to think depriving her of fizzy completely if she wants it is only going to make it a bigger issue.
PS - Mountain Dew is REVOLTING

Traci - posted on 06/27/2009

I'm from Chicago, and it's called "pop" here. I LOVE LOVE LOVE it. It's a staple in my home. My favorite is Coke, but I drink Diet Pepsi or Coke Zero because I don't need all those calories. I don't buy anything but diet.



When my daughter was very little (just under one) we were living with family because we had just gotten out of the Air Force. My mother in law would give my daughter pop from her straw here and there. It didn't bother me much, but it's not something I would have done. She's now 6 and LOVES diet pop. She doesn't get it all the time, but if we get her a Happy Meal, she'll get diet sometimes. Every once in a while isn't going to hurt her. My son is 4 and he loves pop too. My 1 year old hasn't had it yet and I'm in no hurry for that anyway. It is such a pet peeve of mine to see babies with pop in their bottles or sippy cups. I've seen it before and that drives me mad.



Mountain Dew is sort of a 'hillbilly' drink. I saw a special on tv about Appalachia and those people had no teeth because that's all they drink. Haven't they ever heard of DIET Mountain Dew??? And they were giving it to their babies and stuff. Probably where it gets its lovely stereotype as a hillbilly drink, huh? LOL I like it, but don't drink it much. It's funny, caffeine doesn't effect me at all when it is in pop. I could drink 6 Moutain Dews right before bed if I wanted to and would still sleep like a baby. Caffeine in coffee will effect me though, but only if I drink more than 3 cups. Weird.



Pop is a very American drink, I think. When I lived in Japan it was odd to me that when you go to McDonald's over there, the LARGE size pop was only the size of our medium pops over here. They didn't have the monster 44oz cups we have here. We drink pop for thirst here. That's not a good thing, but sticking to diet pop isn't as bad, at least.

Christa - posted on 06/26/2009

I try not to drink it much myself and my daughter is only 18 months so she hasn't had it yet. But as she gets older it will be a treat, not an everyday thing.



I haven't had it in a long time, but I actually LOVE Mountain Dew. :-) I really can't handle the caffeine anymore otherwise I would probably drink more often. :-) Oh and I call it Pop, but my mom calls it soda, I think it all depends on where you grew up.

Cathy - posted on 06/26/2009

My eldest will drink pepsi or coke any chance he gets! He only ever gets to drink it at the grandparents on a weekend and he gets it watered down 50/50. I also let him have it neat when we are eating a meal out, which is very rare. Everything in moderation is fine.

Megan - posted on 06/26/2009

I don't drink soda very often, so we don't have much in our house. We are constant dieters and so we see soda as empty calories with no nutritional factor. I hate sugar free soda so i would rather go without. So except if she is elsewhere I don't think my daughter will have them. I wouldnt have a cow if she had a sip when she was 2 or 3 but i do see kids who live off or pop and not to be rude- but most of them are a little chunky. I think that your kids can drink all sorts of yummy stuff and not have soda and they wont miss anything! Even so, I loved shirley temples (a non alchoholic fizzy coctail)- and i would let my daughter have one if we were out to eat somewhere. I think everything in moderation- and that soda shouldn't be a staple in your home.

LOL! Mountain Dew is vile AND addicting- in college i think 2-3 of my "freshman 15" lbs were mountain dewy goodness.

Amie - posted on 06/21/2009

With so many options on things to drink it's not something any kid should be getting a lot of. We call it pop. My kids have had it before. Never a lot though and it's rare. When I first read this I actually sat to think about it. It's a treat for them yes but it's not something they get very often. I'd have to say they get chocolate milk more than they do pop.
I'm a pepsi addict though so we do have it in our home. =) My kids know not to touch it though without asking and if I say no it means no. They rarely ask though, if their thirsty they want water. If they want something sweet they get their juice. For meals it's milk or chocolate milk if we have that.
Pop is something they only really have if we're doing a pizza night with them or something like that.
As for the sippy cup issue, if they are still using a sippy cup they are too young for any pop. That's the way I think of it.

Joy - posted on 06/21/2009

We rarely have soda in our home. My husband prefers Pepsi and I like Sprite. On the rare occasion that we have it in our home, I must admit that I've given my son a few sips of my Sprite. The way I justify it is that he's only had it maybe 3 times in his 20 months, I never put it in a cup or sippy for him, and Sprite is dye free and caffeine free. A little sugar won't hurt him. My best friend LOVES Mountain Dew (I can't stand it) and she asked me once if she could give him a sip of hers and I said no. A few minutes later I caught her catching some in her straw and giving it to him and I got SOOO MAD!!! LOL Mountain Dew is all sugar and caffeine and that's the LAST thing an almost two year old (or any child, for that matter) needs.

Mel - posted on 06/20/2009

im in australia and we call it cool drink or fizzy drink. i have given my daughter tastes but only a bit on her tongue she loves it tho always goes back for more

Alison - posted on 06/20/2009

I hate to admit this. I found the movie Talladega Nites (sorry if spelling is wrong) so funny about the cheeky boys being 'jacked up' on Mountain Dew that I couldn't resist giving it to Joseph. It is bad for a childs health if drank as a regular drink. Any kind of fizzy drink is like other junk food, ok in moderation as a treat.

Sarah - posted on 06/20/2009

I had one sip of it and felt SO thirsty afterwards it was mad!! It seemed to suck all the moisture out of my mouth!! Can't understand the appeal myself! :)

Sapphire - posted on 06/19/2009

Mountain Dew IS disgusting! No offense here! There was a sad study on a rural part of Southern America and how addicted 5 year olds are to Mountain Dew. These kids all came to Kindergarten with rotted teeth and gum disease.

Sarah - posted on 06/19/2009

We just call them fizzy drinks. No, my kids have NEVER had fizzy drinks, i don't drink them myself either. My husband drinks them a lot tho, and he has offered some to my eldest, but she's never wanted to try them.

My husband orders Mountain Dew off the internet, and at the risk of offending my American friends, it's the YUCKIEST drink i've ever tried!!! hahaha!!

:)