A Surrey mother of two young sons aged 10 and 7 is worried about the number of ice-creams her children eat each week. She tries to limit them to one, but relatives destroy her good intentions. What should she do?

I was impressed when my grandchildren came to stay because, as far as double cream, sweets and biscuits were concerned, they were admirably disciplined: far better than their grandparents. However, they ate ice-cream with relish and no evidence of bad conscience. As with all foods that contain fat and sugar, mass-produced ice-creams provide calories but not as many as other snack foods.

Research has shown that most mothers give their children a variety of snacks without a second thought, believing that the fat and calorie content must be lower than that found in ice-creams. However, the skimmed milk and fruit juices in factory ice-cream provide some nutritional content. Children should be encouraged to eat a varied diet containing the correct ratios of fat, carbohydrate and with the necessary fibre, vitamins and essential minerals. It is important to have a blend of tastes and textures.

Most of the calories in cream are derived from fat, which forms a large proportion of its solid matter. Modern ice-cream, as opposed to the homemade types that I like, has surprisingly little fat.

Recent research showed that mothers believed that standard vanilla ice-cream contained one third fat, when in fact it is under ten per cent. It contains only a fraction of the calories provided by most other convenience foods. The chocolate in ice-creams is now available as dark as 62 per cent. These take a bit of finding but are worthwhile.

Ask Dr Stuttaford: Send your questions to drstuttaford@thetimes.co.uk or to times2, The Times, 1 Pennington Street, London E98 1TT