5 Steps to Stop Controlling Your Child's Sugar Intake

Warning: You may need a lollipop as you read this.

Number 1:

Kids like to learn the hard way (and so do you).

Yes, deep down even the least rebellious of us are still rebels. Remember a time when your parents told you specifically NOT to do something and it actually made you more curious to do it? Remember the thousandth time? Millionth? Yea, learning the hard way is the human way. So telling them every time they eat sweets that they can only have “one” or “dessert comes after the dinner” makes them suuuper curious what the big deal is about sugar.

Number 2:

Kids don’t feel sick from sugar like we say they do.

Let’s be real, the quantity of high flavor sugar and candy kids can eat is higher than most adults. Adults don’t want to eat 50 sour patch kids. But kids do. And then after eating them, they rarely feel sick. So let’s stop with our constant warnings, “your belly might hurt from eating that.” Unless they have an medical allergy, they probably will stop before they feel sick. Do you ever say to your child as they are eating their 5th piece of broccoli, "your belly might hurt from that?" But in fact many people do get gas from broccoli! Our kids stop taking us seriously when they do eat sugar and all the bad warnings we gave them don't actually happen. (keep reading if your kid does often get truly sick from sugar)

Number 3:

If they are sick from eating sugar often, it is not about the sugar.

The worst mistake you can make after your kid eats too much sugar and feels truly sick from eating it is to talk to them about how they need to eat less sugar. Most kids do not eat until they get sick. If they are eating until they get sick, again and again, that tells you something else is going on that actually does need your attention. This could be a sensory seeking behavior, inability to express emotions, struggling with how to deal with boredom, anxiety, or any number of issues that you do truly need to help them sort through with the help of a professional. But don’t make sugar the villain. It’s not.

Number 4:

Kids like sugar.

They like bright colors, shiny packages, fun drawings. They like them in general AND they like them on food. This is why Lucky Charms will never not be the best cereal. The number of colors on those marshmallows are simply genius. Kids like Warheads, gummy worms covered in Oreos, and other “unappealing to adults” food. They like cookies, popsicles, and birthday cakes! They love icing and often eat that and leave the rest. Sugar is the coolest toy in their food room. So, you can try to avoid it at all costs but if you live in the world, it will be a constant fight. You will make them think sugar is even cooler than they already think it is. And I promise you, one day they are going to have to overcompensate for not being able to have sugar when they wanted it. You are doing nothing wrong if your kid loves sugar.

Number 5:

BTW, you can have boundaries.

You can have boundaries with sugar. They are the same boundaries that you can have with ALL foods. You get to decide when your children are offered food, where they eat the food ( off the couch friends!), and what food they are offered. But these boundaries must be flexible. Kids need structure… without too much structure. You know this in so many other areas, but diet culture convinces you that if they eat Cheetos every day for a week you have failed as a parent (you haven’t). You are their tour guide in the world of food, and it is an honor to be the one to open the doors of this world for your kids- have fun and hold your boundaries.

Here are our current boundaries at home:

For now and later in your child's life, it is better if you are a facilitator of sugar and not a dictator against it. Have fun and eat sugar with them. Let them see it is not the crown jewel of life, but one of many fun parts of living in the world.