At what age do you think it's ok to give a baby/toddler chocolate?

Maybe as an occassional treat over 2 or 3. There are better things to feed them and there are also much worse.

My cousin's friend used to stick McDonald's cheeseburgers in a blender to feed to her 7mth old. The fact someone even thought of such a thing just destroys my brain. There is SO much wrong with it.

Chocolate is a kids right but only when they can say in properly.

not chobolap or socklet but chocolate.

Only the occasional organic dark chocolate is okay. They won't miss bad foods if they haven't tasted them, like you said. Personally, I believe this is setting children up for obesity later down the road.

I agree. I really disagree with feeding children unhealthy food. Perhaps a little treat here and there, but for those cases were the child is mainly eating unhealthy foods, I actually do consider that neglect. It's not fair to the child at all.

My sister gives my 2 year old nephew chocolate every now and again, and she knows how much I dislike what she feeds him. It really annoys me. I'm not sure what age I would vote for, to be honest.

This might be a weird thought, but stay with me.

Chocolate is a drug. Let's be honest, it's a drug. It triggers a reaction in your brain to make you feel happy. The large amount of sugar in a bar of chocolate provides a high, we call it a sugar rush or a sugar high. It is, relatively mildly, addictive. It's unhealthy in large doses. It's a gateway drug to other even more unhealthy eating habits. I think a lot more parents would be responsible with feeding their kids sugar-laden food if they thought of it as a drug.

Granted, it isn't very dangerous when you compare it to other drugs. It's like drugs lite. And, with that said, kids are going to eat chocolate. You can't control them forever, and in the same way people who are banned from alcohol often tend to have problems with it later on in life, maybe kids who are banned from chocolate will have chocolate problems when they're older? Solution: responsible chocolate-eating. Parents introduce their kids to chocolate, let them find their limits, and encourage them to stick to their limits.

I wonder if I'd be a good parent? XD

I don't have kids nor do I plan on having any in the near future, but I probably wouldn't introduce them to chocolate until they are 2 or 3 and in small bits and pieces. Maybe ice cream or a cookie.

I want to say I'd feed them all organic, healthy food but I'm not hugely meticulous, I can only try. My only deal would be snacking... I don't like the idea of giving kids snacks as entertainment and if they're going to snack, why does it always have to be cookies? That's my concern... healthy snacking habits. When kids start thinking of food as entertainment, that's when we get problems with boredom snacking.

If you get busted snacking by a 15 month old you have to share. 1g of chocolate won't hurt them.

Probably not until like 5/6 years old really. Whats the point otherwise? It's just another thing that'll make the child fat or that it'll cry about when you go to the shops. They're addicting too and can fuck up a kids behaviour with all the sugar. Just keep it natural until the kid is less......kid like.

P.S. I fucking hate kids.

My kid will be deprived of so much junk food. There is no reason to give a child that type of food. And check your bread for high fructose corn syrup. No one needs that.

But the grandparents will probably feed him chocolate at some point. Hopefully I can prevent that from happening for as long as possible. When I do decide to introduce my little one to chocolate, it won't be a candy bar. It will likely be a homemade chocolate chip cookie or chocolate beverage. I don't have an age in mind.

I saw something sad a while back. A clearly over weight baby being fed mcDonalds by it's parents... I had to shake my head at that one...

NEVER

I have no idea. I think its a question best asked to a doctor. There are much worse things to feed children, like fast food. Dark chocolate can be healthy when its produced right without so many added sugars. Its like the question of when is a good age to give kids coffee? I wouldn't suggest giving it to a toddler or a even a kindergarden.

(What else was I going to say?)

I don't think I would give a really young kid straight chocolate but like maybe a small taste or if it was in a cookie or something. I'm not going to completely cut my kids off from junk food when they're little but I'm going to give them a lot either. Once they are about 2 I feel like giving them SOME sweets on occasion really won't hurt.

I don't have kids and I don't know a lot about them so this is purely based on personal prejudice and doesn't have any real "fact" in it.

I know I had a lot of artificial colourings and flavouring in foods when I was little and I used to bounce off the walls, according to my mother. If I had kids and wanted to give them something sweet, I'd prefer it to be something naturally sweet (like fruit). But I'd also want to introduce them to chocolate at some point (so they don't feel deprived or use it to comfort eat later). So, aged five or six for me, and nothing with stimulants like caffeine, guanine, taurine until they're a teenager.

I'd be a such a mean parent! :/