Aspartame question

Brias3 wrote: Do you allow your kids to have either diet soda or other products containing artificial sweeteners or Splenda?

I myself am allergic to aspartame and still have my reactions with Splenda products as well so all of that is a big no for me. However, I notice a friend of mine's kids always drinking Diet Coke and bringing those little Crystal Light individual powder packs for water in their lunchboxes when I help out in the lunchroom. Aliyah is friends with the youngest daughter and came out after a playdate last week eating a Diet Snapple popsicle. Not sure what I think of the mom not confirming with me first whether or not my child could have "diet" things.

Maybe I'm just being anal here, it just kind of got me thinking and now I wanted to ask everyone's opinion.

C&K*s Mommie replied: no, they never have intentionally. Maybe if Chris were drinking something artificially sweetened, they may have had some.

punkeemunkee'smom replied: Nope only good old refined sugar for her here

This is a total sidebar but I realized the effects of "diet" talk the other day. I have been walking everyday and Tay has asked why. I told her mommy wants to lose weight and get skinny Well she has walked some with me and the other day she said Mom do I look like I have lost any weight..... I said OH baby you are so pretty now and you can't lose any weight. She said well mom you are pretty too and that lady says you are burning 'calebes' (calories) now so I want to burn some too...On the one hand it is funny BUT then I got to thinking my worry about my body shape/size was affecting my child too......Anyway sorry to on your topic-it just made me think of how much 'diet' soda and popcicles really does affect them. Not to mention the heath affects in 10 years

luvmykids replied:
I had a friend in high school who would always do strange stuff, like dilute her juice or methodically eat exactly half her food, finally I asked her why and she said it was just always the way her mom did. I think they definitely pay attention to our concerns about our bodies!

Bria, nope, we never have diet stuff around for them to sample! But I don't think I'd think too much about another mom giving it to them, except that with your allergy it would concern me greatly.

My3LilMonkeys replied: Only when it's the best option available. For example, Madison had some Crystal lite iced tea on Sunday because it was too hot outside to give her milk. The only other options were tap water (which IMO tastes nasty where we were so I wouldn't make her drink it) or Hugs, which are mostly sugar and make Madison throw up.

We don't generally have diet anything in our house except low fat popcorn and maybe a frozen lean cuisine meal. DH likes the "real" stuff and I try to just eat healthy foods that don't have to be made diet.

booey2 replied: No way, aspertame gives me migraines and I have heard enough about the stuff to make we want to . I use Splenda for me but the kids only get sugar if I can help it. As far as another mother giving the boys something "diet" they have always asked before giving it. My SIL gives her kids diet pop all the time with aspertame and only recently started buying CRUSH which is made with Splenda. Her DH is an insulin dependent diabetic so they only have diet drinks in the house.

Terri

mom21kid2dogs replied: We don't drink soda as a rule (because niether of us really like it) here but if we do when we are out we always drink diet. Neither Stephen or I can stand the taste of regular soda. Olivia does drink Crystal Light lemonade and ice tea as it's what we drink. She's not allergic to anything that we've seen yet. Since she tends to be heavier than children her age, so I much prefer she have those options than the high calorie options. I do generally ask the parents of O's friends if there are things their children are allergic to or they prefer not to eat while visiting our home.

Our Lil' Family replied: Can someone tell me why aspartame is bad...someone mentioned the effects on behavior.?

luvbug00 replied: I don't drink or eat diet anything. Mya drinks whatever she wants. but what she wants are juice boxes.

honestly i wouldn't think to ask either if i were the other childs parent, i never would have even thought to. I don't read labels and we eat whatever we want. i ususaly ask when kids come over if they have allergies and to what and if they can have sweets but nothing concerning diet or non diet products or not organic or whatever. I had no idea there were anything negitive in them..

just wanted to put out there why the other mom may no have asked.

5littleladies replied: We don't consume anything with aspertaime in it because, frankly, we think it tastes terrible!! I know it has negative side-effects on ones' health as well (I've heard that Splenda does too) but I'm not 100% sure what those side effects are.

TheOaf66 replied: well although he is still fairly young, we don't let our son have soda at all. Water, juice, milk. We figure if we don't get him started it will help in the long run.

Kaitlin'smom replied: not intentionally, but she has had some of my crystal light, when I mix it with water. She still is a HUGE milk drinker and now lOVES water but only in a particualr bottle (its evian and has a flip top) so in the warmer weather I woudl prefer her to drink water and on occasion if she wants something different we will out some flavor in it. Now I see kool-aid has single packs. I might look into that for her depending whats in them.

~~*Missi*~~ replied: Ok.... When you say you are allergic, do you have PKU??
The only reason I ask is cause that is all I ever found (illness) that has a reaction with aspartames on amino acid phen....... PKU is a heel prick test we all had and still have when born.... if you have it your would have been told by now....

I DID a LOT LOT LOT of research when I was pregnant with Sabrina on splenda, aspartame etc.... Not so much nutra sweet cause i never use it.
I was borderline diabetic and needed to cut out sugars and stuff, so I switched to those flavored carbonated waters that walmart carries .... The nurse who was doing my gestational diabetes test 3hr told me i could have water as long as it contained NOTHING.. These are calorie less, fat less, sugars less carb less lol nothing in them but artifical.. .well she got nasty with me so I did lots of research and brought it all back to her LOL.

Splenda I cook with cause I am still "border" line diabetic or pre-diabetic. So sabrina has had that in stuff I cook... She has had crystal light and juices made with aspartame or splenda. Diet pops and stuff no only cause I don't want her to like pop and I rarely drink it now anyway...

Aspartame is two AMINO ACIDS that are naturally produced in a wide variety of things naturally.. I emphasize NATURALLY! Parts of both the amino acids are produced in the human body naturally also....

The body doesn't hold aspartame in like it does sugars.
I guess here read the articles LOL .... I am all for it. I don't give it to my kid per say only cause I am more about 100% fruit juice or spring water ONLY because I think Mommy should have her drinks nad baby should have her drinks that way i can drink with out her thinking its hers and etc....
Also I think that if there was SO MUCH DEFINIATIVE information on the "diseases" and "illness" that Aspartame causes 1. it would be removed by the FDA and food administartion not to mention who the heck is going to want the law suits this day in age.... If you got sick cause they mislead you, most would sue, and most would win and well they would be bankrupt and not in the market make sense????

http://www.aspartame.org/index.html

http://www.aspartame.net/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aspartame

There are many in FAVOR and many NOT in favor of aspartame... these are a few i remembered and i read the pro's and con's......

~~*Missi*~~ replied: I never heard of a Diet Popscicle????? I have heard of all natural fruit bars but diet popscicles??? Is this what you are talking about....
My mom is insulin bound diabetic and has to eat splenda or aspartame or not enjoy a goodie once in awhile so we by 100% natural fruit bars by eddy's.... (me also being pre-diabetic) but even fruits have to be eating in moderation cause of the natural fruit........
WHat is the name of diet popscicles I ask for me LOL...

CantWait replied: Not so much intentionally. I do give the kids Crystal lite if I'm drinking it, but my kids are much to thin to even be considering giving them light, or fat free products. I even had to start giving homo milk again so they could get some meat on their bones, (not that it worked).

I think what your friend is doing is definetly going to put things in her kids head that don't need to be there. It's kinda sad actually

coasterqueen replied: My understanding when DH did research while I was pg with Kylie was that aspartame is like formaldihyde (sp?). IF drinks that contain aspartame are set out in extreme heat conditions it's as if you might as well drink formaldihyde. And since I've seen numerous times cases of soda sitting outside gas stations in extreme heat, etc and don't know how long soda is on a truck in what weather conditions, etc. I don't trust it. Now I do have some, one or two a day but I never drink a full soda. I waste. But I quit buying aspartame soda and started buying splenda soda ONLY because Dh likes the taste better. I don't really like the taste and I don't trust it because there is no long term research on it, so I limit myself as well.

My children do not get anything with the stuff in it.

mysweetpeasWil&Wes replied: Nope, I would never give my children artificial sweeteners. Good old refined sugar is better (in moderation of course) IMO. Or you can sweeten things with natural apple sauce or real maple syrup.

Brias3 replied:
The popsicles are made by Snapple- they're called Diet Snapple pops and they come in iced tea flavor and a couple fruit flavors that they offer juice in to my knowledge.

I have not been diagnosed with PKU but my allergy to fake sugars was determined by my doctor when I was around 12. My symptoms after consuming anything containing such products were intense migraines that made me physically ill, sudden high fevers and hives outbreaks. Since those are three common allergy symptoms, they left it at me completing cutting those products out of my diet since I had no further reaction of the sort from anything else.

I do understand why the mother didn't ask me about it, especially since diet products and fake sugars are such common staples in many products, I guess I'm just more on the "alert" due to the side effects I have from them. I guess I shouldn't worry too much- I just will purposely try NOT to give it to them myself.