Hostess Snack Cakes = Still Popular?

I, personally think Hostess cakes Rock!! Im such a fat kid! lol. But, no, I wouldnt let me kid have one everyday. Sometimes, if Im feeling cool, I will pack her a rice krispie treat that is 90 cal. Or some Teddy Grahams. No, Im not trying to have my 5 year old diet, but Im not much on my kids eating junk food. I dont like wasting my money on empty calories. It would have to be a special occasion.

Yeah--the thing is everyone says *someone* is buying them but *no one* says they do! Haha Everyone only gives "fresh fruit, Kashi, packing peanuts and hummus"!

My 5 year old does not like that kind of snack, but my 7 year old does.
I do not send any of the hostess type products in their lunches though because I think they are junk, I don't even buy that kind of thing. Neither of my sons ask me about these kind of snacks so I don't think they feel they are missing out.
They do get treats at home though, usually home baked that we've made together.

Yep-they are still popular with us bad moms that feed our kids junk food! Mine get a treat of some sort every day in their lunch. They love hohos. I don't get twinkies cause I love them too.

Some kids still love them.. Funny, our daughter did not care for anything like that till puberty and all of a sudden Hostess cupcakes looked and tasted really good. PMS is a powerful thing..

I haven't yet read the other answers.
I'm guessing there are very opposite attitudes/answers.
I think this is a cultural subject.
I think the people who think Hostess DingDongs, etc.
are OK are totally different from the people who think they are not.
I don't think there's any middle ground here.
Now I'll read the other answers.
========================
I was wrong.
There was some middle ground.
It's good for me to be wrong occasionally.
Keeps me humble.
hee hee hee.

Those are ALL my favorites, mmmmm. He He. But, no I do not buy them for my kids. I can say maybe once I twice I have seen them sold individually and I have caved and bought one for myself, but again, never have bought them for my kids. I know how addicting they are (haha... just being honest with myself.. I LOVE them, hehe). So to control the urge I just do not buy them.

My kids do get something sweet eachday, but we have a rule that goes with it - Did you eat your vegetable and fruit with your meal? If the answer is yes - than you can have a treat. Our treats consist of "fun" cereal (ie Fruit Loops, Lucky Charms, or something to that affect) since usually they eat oatmeal or cherios. Or we sometimes bake chocolate chip cookies too.

Uh, Yeah.

I work at a grocery store and I can GUARANTEE you they are still popular! We will get them when they go on a BOGO sale...my hubby is a sucker for a ding dong! I am more a Zinger girl myself!

My only school aged kid gets Hot Lunch so we don't send him to school with snacks but if we did do packed lunch he would probably get some sort of "treat" everyday...but my sons are real good eaters and will ALWAYS eat their veggies and meat first, they are just that way, have been since they could eat people food-I think it has something to do with all the veggies I ate while prego with them! :)

Never. They are not real food. Congratulations your daughter doesn't like the taste of not real food. Kids will eat anything with sugar. I give my daughter fruit leather, yogurt, home made cookies... I am boring. I personally love sugary treats but I don't think I have ever had a Twinkie or a Ding Dong or any other hostess treat so I guess I am not the best judge. lol

we like to go with the 100 cal pack options when/if we get them. we usually keep them in the freezer for two reasons:
1. they stay longer
2. we have to work to get them we can not just unwrap and eat
3. i would not use them for school lunches, rather sandwich/wrap, fruits/veggies, and we get yogurt and freeze them so the thaw by lunchtime, and maybe some annies bunnies (whole foods version of goldfish) with a beverage of sorts.

I rarely got the ding dongs etc, but they are pretty good! if you want a chocolate treat/cake option to give her so she does not feel left out try a chocolate cake recepie with beets as a substitution ... there is a good one from Eat Yourself Thin, we love the chocolate cake, carrot cake, and red velvet ... and yes we cut them into portions and freeze so we have to work for them too!

I think that if your kids eat a balanced diet of the important food groups that 1 snack cake in their lunch here and there or everyday is not going to hurt them or make them fat or unhealthy..now if all the kid ate was junk then ya i would be concerned..they are kids and need to experience all sorts of food good or bad!

mmmmmm I use to love twinkies and ho ho's. :) Haven't had either one since I craved them during pregnancy. My kids don't get any of that but I'm not a health nut with them either. They are not great eaters so if they eat everything they get a snack. They will usually pick an oreo or chocolate chip cookie. My oldest will sometimes pick ice cream after dinner. She also brings a snack for snack time (still has snack time even though she is in second grade) but snacks at school cannot be sweets or junk food of any kind. She usually takes cheese & crackers or those cracker sandwiches with peanut butter. We also use sugar cereal as a treat. My youngest loves crunchy things, so her favorite thing is to have Fruit Loops in a bag. She only gets that if she eats all of her breakfast or lunch. It's funny what you said about your daughter trying her friends snack and not liking it. My daughter was at a birthday party where they served Sprite with pizza. My kids do not get pop, of any kind, ever. They are only 7 & 4 and I do not want to start the pop thing, when they will drink milk or water. Well, my daughter must have thought that the Sprite was water and when she took a sip she just about spit it out and said she didn't like it and could she have water? I'm not sure if it was the sugar or if it was the carbonation, but I'm glad that they don't like it right now.

Yes, they are still popular. More popular (and I think more troubling) are "fruit" snacks. I don't send pretend food with my kids or eat it at home, but every once in a while my kindergartner will have an empty package in his lunch box that some kind child "shared" with him.
We do fruit. We don't eat dessert. Ice cream and cookies are a special treat to be enjoyed occasionally.

I was a swiss cake girl myself...LOVE those things. I haven't eaten one in years, but my mom very often would pack one in my lunch at school. Nowadays, I have a 2 yr old. She eats mostly all real food and when we do eat cakes, I make them myself. I don't really even like for her to eat bread. I don't understand how anyone could casually feed their kids that stuff ALL THE TIME. Plus, that stuff is expensive..more expensive than real food.

My kids love ho ho's and ding dongs, and they are 11 and 15! I don't send them in their lunch because all the kids beg for them, so they get one after school occasionally. I don't buy them too much because they have a lot of sugar, but my kids get one treat a day anyway, so if it's not a ding dong, it's something else.

My kids don't ever have those. I buy organic, natural cookies and treats from Sprouts and they have that instead. They had marshmellow's once and didn't like them. =) I get them treats when I go to the store once a week and that's it. And never hostess snacks.

I don't know about kids these days, but *I* still love them! Give me a hostess cupcake any day and I'll be happy. : ) My son is allergic to dairy so I can't buy them for him. He's only three and doesn't take lunch to school yet. He does not get dessert on a regular basis at home, but does get occasional treats here and there.
I grew up getting dessert in my lunch every day and after dinner every night, and I still treat myself to both daily. Not sure what I'll do for my son, but I will probably lean more towards giving dessert/treats than not.

K.
http://oc.citymommy.com - looking for a great network of OC moms with message boards, events, business listings and more? Come join today - it's free!

I just have to say that Hostess was one of the "forbidden fruits" in our home growing up as well as sugar cereals. As a parent, I do think it's the right move to not have that stuff around all the time, but let me tell you, my BF growing up was allowed ALL that stuff and more and we slept over at her house A LOT! ;) I did go a little crazy with Hostess when I was in college...my big rebellious stage! I think once in a while that kind of junk is okay, but I do agree with limiting it!

I love them, and I'm sure my 8 year old son would love them too! But I am a mean mom, lol, and don't buy that kind of stuff on a regular basis. I allow him to get ice cream at school on Thursdays and he also gets hot lunch once a week and they get a pudding or cookie with it. He has one sweet treat a day, but If it's wrapped in plastic There is a slim chance we have it in the house.

I see a whole lot of this kind of stuff in the lunch room at my kids school. Somebody is buying them. It is the first thing most kids eat. You can always tell when it is apple day in the cafeteria in our school...the custodian is complaining about how heavy the trash is....

Congradulations to the Moms who are not afraid to be who they are.

M.

Heehee heee
I wasn't privileged enough to get those when I was a kid. Too much $ for 3 kids who would probably scarf the box down in a single day. We did however get the occasional Little Debbie after school. I LOOOOOOOVED the swiss rolls! (I still do, and sometimes buy them and hide the box in a "non food" cabinet so the kids don't know we have them... because they love them too!)

I usually let my kids (12 yrs and 9 yrs) take turns picking a "treat" at the grocery store. They choose a box of some variety of Little Debbie snack cakes or something, and they will get those either after dinner for a dessert, or as an afterschool snack/treat a couple of times a week (not every day). When the box is gone, the other kid gets to pick. Sometimes the one who didn't get to do the picking doesn't care for the choice, and will choose a much healthier after school snack for himself until the box is gone. :)

They usually have things like go-gurt or danimals yogurt drinks, cheese sticks, trail mix, kashi cereal bars, craisins, popcorn and yes Cracker Jacks sometimes too... lol. But I don't really put a "sweet" snack in the lunchbox for school. On most Thursdays, and every Friday, I give them ice-cream $ for school though. That was what my treat growing up was. Ice-cream $ for recess. But nowadays, they can't buy it then, they have to eat it at the end of their lunch. Seems silly to me... I'm sure all the kids rush through their lunches just to get ice-cream. But we only do that at the end of the week... not everyday.

We had them when I was little and I do occasionaly buy them (twinkies, cupcakes and maybe a Suzy-Q). But my kids are not allowed to take them to lunch and they are more for a small dessert then to have with a meal. They are not the greatest thing anymore--fake chocolate and so much sugar. Personally, I think HO HOs are disgusting, waxy and such.
The school my kids go to sell snacks and I have a huge problem with that, even if it is to raise money.

of course, they are way popular! I don't pack them for lunch, but i would buy a single one at the market for a treat. I do like to have a treat for my daughters lunch, but it just depends on whats in the cupboard! Sometimes we have cookies, or a fruit snack, fruit roll she likes. Sometimes i ask her to pick a lunch treat out for the week when we are at the market. My daughter eats healthy-prefers veggie burgers and salads over anything else for dinner-so i don't worry about her having a treat. She is active as well....so sometimes we have a pop tart or doughnut. But otherwise its healthy-oatmeal/good cereal.

Heck no! I didn't grow up on them and my daughter has never had one and won't from me :) We shop at Trader Joe's, Henry's and buy stuff like granola bars for lunch box "treats."

I grew up with having these things for a treat once in a while. The best was freezing the dingdongs. However, I don't buy them for my kids, they would be to tempting for me...lol

Yes we do, it's not every month because I prefer to spend the little bit of grocery money I have on fresh fruit and stuff but I will buy them maybe once every other month. They last a day or two because I hide them, mostly from my husband.

We actually like Little Debbies stuff better, they are often moister and the fig bars just downright taste better by far. I also buy Sunbelt items at Wal-Mart too (they are often granola bars or fudge covered granola bars sold at conveneince stores).

Let me answer your question with a question.
Would YOU eat something that can sit in a package and NEVER go bad?
Would you put something in your body that can sit for YEARS and never mold or decompose?
Would you eat something that has:
Calories 360 - this is the same as a small breast of chicken, potato and salad.
Total Fat 19 g – (total daily is 20 g)
Saturated Fat 12 g (that's one of the bad ones: Saturated fats raise total blood cholesterol as well as LDL cholesterol (the bad cholesterol)
Cholesterol 15 mg
Sodium 240 mg (that's more than 25% of daily recommended)
Total Carbohydrate 44 g (The same as 3.6 slices of bread)
Dietary Fiber 2 g (kids age + 5 so a 5 year old should eat 10g)
Sugars 32 g (that's 6.7 teaspoons)?

I know I wouldn’t NOR would I give it to my children.

B.
Family Success Coach

I grew up with it.... but my kids don't know what it is.
They had it once, but didn't like it.
No kids at my daughter's school eats it, nor everyday!

I remember as a kid I loved the Hostess fruit pies and I got one as a treat every once in a great while. But my mom never packed anything like that in my lunch - it was always a sandwich with a piece of fruit and maybe a pudding cup.

My daughter is only 3 and sometimes has a great appetite and sometimes doesn't so I am careful about what she eats - she's never had a Pop Tart, or a Hostess treat, or a Little Debbie snack or soda, and I know better than to even allow the stuff into the house. She really does not need it. She will get a cupcake or a donut or some ice cream once in a while for dessert if she does a good job on dinner. Most of the time she has fruit or a yogurt. She mostly just drinks OJ and water; chocolate milk is another treat for her too.

Funny you mentioned that, at my son's parent-teacher conference yesterday she mentioned they later in the school year disect a twinkie and look to see what is really in there. I had mentioned that I hadn't seen one of those in years!! Anyway I don't think my kid's have ever had one. I had a ding dong about 115 years ago and it wasn't what I remembered it being, so haven't bought one since.

I also buy most of my goods at Henry's or Trader Joes so In my kid's lunch I give them fruit and sometimes ginger snaps, fruit leather, or some homemade goody that I made. Frequently they don't get any treats.

My kids love them! Are they good for you? NO. But that doesn't keep you from liking them. I like them too, however, I DO NOT eat them because they're not healthy nor are they conducive to keeping weight off! LOL :-)

Hey! We are very close. My daughter goes to school in Laguna Niguel but we are in Dana Point. I never give those to my kids. They don't even know what they are! For my kids I usually pack them a PB&J, string cheese and some type of fruit and water to drink. I don't really ever pack them a "treat". They usually get dessert (ice cream or chocolate chips) after dinner, so that's their 1 treat of the day. Most of the time they eat pretty healthy.

I grew up eating Hostess cakes - my daughter has never had them.
We usually make our own treats, and occasionally buy prepackged treats from Trader Joes, Sprouts, Whole Foods. I don't restrict these treats, as long as she is eating a balanced diet.

We have conversations about unhealthy ingredients in food, and she (at least for now) doesn't want anything to do with high fructose corn syrup, trans fats, etc.

If you are used to quality health food these things might shock your system, and your kids would probably have to learn to like them.

I did not grow up eating them but I remember feeling jealous of friends who had them! We don't buy them for our son but he does get a sweet treat in his lunch box every Friday, like you! Usually it is cookies but sometimes fruit chews. He would think he died and had gone to heaven if I started buying Hostess treats...I'm sure he'd love them.

It's funny, I can remember getting those probably every day for lunch, but I would NEVER give them to my kids. Don't know why. I never had a problem with obesity and I doubt my kids will either. I'm not health nut, but I do like them to eat healthier than I did as a kid. Their favorite treat are Hostess Pop 'Ems (donut holes), but they probably only get them once a month.
Our schools really push the school-provided lunches for allergy reasons, so I really don't have any idea what sort of treats would be popular outside at home. It does seem like other moms are really big on giving their kids tons of fruit snacks, which I'm not a fan of. Cavaties are not cool.

N E V E R!! Sorry, but I'm a label reader. If I'm not putting it in my mouth, I'm not feeding it to my kids.

Yes, my daughter says kids at her school get them too. She doesn't care - she knows they are junk.

That all being said - my kids get treats - ice cream, brownies, cookies, etc.. but MOST of the time I buy these options as healthy as possible. We are also gluten free so that limits us buying overly processed stuff.

As you probably know, we tame our kids tastes buds starting at an early age. Feed them things like Twinkies and they will love them - even crave them. If they never have one then try it - they may not like it. I still remember the taste from when I was a kid - I won't lie - I liked the twinkie :-) But I'd never even be tempted to buy one now. Like you we shop at Trader Joes, Henry's and also Barons so that temptation isn't an option - but they do have other stuff that are just as bad... I just look away... Ha - easier said than done at times. lol

I let my kids have them, they like Twinkies. Because in my view, anything is bad if you over do it, but anything denied is going to be tempting as well. It will not hurt my children to have Twinkies every so often. As for treats in my kids lunch, I put one in every day, but not cake. Some days it is fruit snacks, or a small amount of candy, or a cereal bar drizzled with chocolate.