"I Want Candy!"

[kristentm]

After two years of healthy eating with only occasional sweets, my two year old has become a sugar addict. I only keep minimal sweets at home, usually some mildly sweetened whole grain cookies and home made popsicles of pureed fruit (I do keep a stash of organic lollipops for "emergencies" since they are the Holy Grail to him.) but as we have been traveling a lot recently, he has been exposed to lots of people and places where junk food seems to be ever present and in the foreground. My original "plan" was to not make any food "taboo" and to allow anything in moderation, but he has become obsessed with eating anything in a colorful shiny wrapper and even when I let him have some, he wants more and more. Today he ate half a pack of Mentos that a storekeeper gave him before I noticed and then refused to eat any lunch. We are now having battles over candy & chips and ice cream several times a day. Every time he sees an ice cream freezer he makes a beeline for it and starts to help himself. When I refuse it he screams & cries.

We will be away from home and traveling for another two months at least, so keeping him away from these temptations is not an option. I always keep healthy snacks with us, but he is not interested in eating them. I know he won't starve to death, but I am wondering if anyone has any tips about how to handle this. I try to empathize with him and his desire and then explain that it will give him boo-boos on his teeth and he needs to eat some good food first to make him big & strong, but he doesn't seem very impressed by this. I hate feeling like my resistance is making him want it even more, but I am pretty sure he would eat himself into a sugar coma and not eat another healthy meal if he had his way. Help!

[Abraisme]

It sounds like you've come to the realization that not all parenting ideologies work. Ha ha. I had several friends that said all sorts of things while they're babies were young (like we will not have any food struggles, etc) that simply don't happen.

It seems to me that you're doing a fine job here. Set a rule about treats and stick to it as much as you can. Such as, treats are for AFTER a meal. That has always helped my DS eat the healthy food first. It's okay if your LO throws some fits about that, it's normal.

[rightkindofme]

Candy/sugar in moderation is working well for my kid but it doesn't work for every kid. We spend a lot of time talking about how sugar does not help your body grow as well as more nutritious food and we talk about how sugar makes it much harder to handle your feelings because your body doesn't know how to cope with it. I tell my kid flat out that her ability to have sugar depends on her ability to handle her emotions/behavior on a given day. If she's having a hard time sugar only makes it worse and then she feels physically icki and she's in trouble so I'm not going to do that to her. It works for her. It doesn't sound like such a thing is going to work as well for your kiddo.

Honestly in your situation I would just flat end the sugar indulgences. If your kiddo can't handle sugar and still behave then sugar isn't a good idea. I would phrase it like that to my kid and all tantrums would be met with being removed from the area. But I say that because of the kind of kid I have.