What do you think to these dietitian-approved tips on managing sugar this spooky season?

Is sugar bad for you?

Despite best intentions for your child’s health, telling them that sweets are bad is too abstract a concept to grasp and can be confusing. Instead, as they get older, it can be more helpful to focus on supporting an understanding of inclusion of all food into a balanced diet overall, rather than restriction or demonisation of certain food or food groups.

Labelling food such as chocolate and sweets with negative connotations or placing food on a hierarchy e.g. to be earnt, can also be unhelpful messages for children to learn around food - remember, food is just food. When chocolate and sweets are treated as just another food, it loses much of its appeal and children are able to eat it more intuitively.

Role modelling yourself is also important. Remember, lots of food behaviour in children is modelled on their family and peers.

Why restricting sweets is wicked

It is important to remember that food is also there for fun and enjoyment, not just nutrition. Eating more of certain food than normal on one day is…well normal! Also, if we restrict sweets too often, it can create a scarcity environment. If a food has become less available, we tend to crave it more! Why not try planning in Halloween chocolate alongside balanced meals and snacks and if your child asks for more than you are happy to give, respond with, ‘You can have more tomorrow’ and they may start to ask for it less if they know there’s an opportunity to eat it again soon.

Managing quantity of sweets

As scary as it sounds, Halloween could be an ideal time to experiment with letting your child have more control around sweets to see if they can naturally decide when they have eaten enough. If your child does overeat, how about saying, “I don’t like it when I eat too much either. You’ll feel better soon. How do you think you want to handle it next time perhaps?’ We want to remove any guilt or shame around eating too much, especially when children are still learning how certain food feels in their body; a skill most definitely needed going into adulthood.

So, this Halloween, why not experiment with enjoying all the treats than fearing them, letting your child stop when they’ve eaten enough and save any food labelling such as ‘devilish’ and ‘wicked’ for the costumes!

This article was also featured in my local magazine October 2024 (below)