Eating disorder, sugar addiction or typical kid behavior?

[lao]

I have discovered that my 10 year old son is "sneaking" sweets;he leaves some in the container (I suspect he might eat it all if he thought it would go unnoticed). He does eat dessert daily-usually dark chocolate, TJs chocolate chips or homemade raw milk ice cream and also at functions/parties etc.  When I realized what he was doing I put the treats on top of a cabinet and started sending the dessert to school in his lunch (he does feel somewhat deprived as I don't send the brand name junk food the rest of his class is eating though I will send olive chips, olive oil popcorn etc). Then I discovered he was climbing onto the counter tops and standing up to reach them!  When I first discovered it and asked him if he thought he had a problem and if he could stop himself, he denied it being a problem.  Then my husband bought some Newman-Os and then found almost the whole bag eaten (I don't know if all at once or not).   When my husband asked him if he thought he had a problem, he said yes (but he may have said so to avoid getting in trouble from dad).  I also just found out that he was bringing money to school to buy snacks in the cafeteria.

Does anyone have any advice on how I can ascertain whether  this is a budding eating disorder, a sugar addiction or just normal kid behavior for  child rebelling against a healthy diet (truth be told, even with the "bingeing", he probably does not consume more sugar than a child eating the standard american diet) ?

Also, if it is an eating disorder or sugar addiction, where could I seek outside assistance?  I am concerned if I took him to an eating disorder counselor or traditional dietician, they would not understand why I won't buy him nutritionally bankrupt foods with gmos, additives, preservatives, msg, transfats etc.  Would it make sense to bring him to a functional nutritionist instead??

Any advice would be appreciated!

Thanks,

Lisa

[Imakcerka]

I'm going to go with normal behavior.  It's hard for us to not eat sweets and salty snacks and double hard for kids.  We limit all that in our house but if they're at a friends it's exciting to drink juice out of a box or spend 50 cents on a brownie at school. 

[SundayCrepes]

I have a sugar addiction. My mom is obese and we ate 5 to 8 servings of junk a day when I was growing up (and it was truly junk, a lot of hostess products, cheap ice cream, potato chips, and Pepsi.) I still have lots of trouble with controlling sugar intake.

We limit our little kids to one sugary treat a day with the hope that it will teach them good habits. I don't know if that's the best choice or not since I wasn't raised with healthy eating so it's the best I have come up with. I'm just too afraid to let them eat as much as they want since that strategy didn't work for me. Then again, I had a really bad role model with easy access at home. Maybe if I'd seen my mom using self-restraint and it was harder to come by junk I would have done well self-regulating.

Either way there comes a point when you have to let kids make choices for themselves. It sounds pretty stifling at your house. Maybe let him have more freedom to choose. He's getting older and you've chosen to send him to school where he is surrounded by a different culture than what you live in. Of course he's going to pick up that culture to some extent.

Perhaps this article will give you some thoughts. http://www.swissarmywife.net/2011/10/halloween-candy-help/ Like I said, I don't know if I believe this or not, but I think I'd rather have my kid eat lots of sugar than to learn to sneak behind my back. He's going to eat the sugar no matter what you do. I'd rather he learn to be honest with me.

[Elizabeth2008]

It sounds like normal kid behavior.  When i was his age I used to do stuff like that (my mom was a total health nut and we never were allowed treats really).  One time I even crawled on the counter to stick my finger in the sugar bowl!!  It's hard because we want to keep our kids from eating crap, but if we're too controlling they end up having to sneak around behind our backs.

Maybe just ask him to tell you when he's really craving something and then you can figure out if there is a healthy "treat" that he could have instead.  I'm in the same boat with my DS (5 and a half).  His friends have so much sugary treats all the time and sometimes I think he resents me for trying so hard to limit it.  It's really tough..  

[MAMom]

I think it's normal.  I did have to move sweets - including the sugar bowl - to hidden spots for a while, because mine were sneaking from there too.  Mine also were leaving plenty of evidence (wrappers & containers) around, and DS will fully admit that it's hard to control temptations.

I find that more protein earlier in the day can help with cravings (for me & them!).  I try to make things like whole grain, healthy muffins, with reduced amounts of sugar, but still some sweetness so they feel like it is a "treat", or fruit/yogurt smoothies if the are wanting something sweet. We also do "dessert days" where the kids can choose 2 weekdays and one weekend day to have a dessert of their choice (and I do also pack a very small sweet most days with lunch for my 8 y.o. who eats lunch at school).  The dessert days allow them the control of when they want to have desserts, and I think makes it easier for them to make the choice to save their dessert for another day, if they are going to a b-day party or have something else special planned.

I also try to involve them with discussions about nutrition - why different foods are healthier, what are "growing foods" vs. extras, whole grains vs. white, etc.  I always ask my son to read the grams of sugar in cereal or sweetened drinks (when we have them on occasion when we buy lunch out) or other things so he is involved in the process of learning about how much sugar is actually in things. 

That being said, now that he sometimes has access to desserts when we're not around, he tends to overload (but then he tells us about it...lol).  They had a party at school where he indulged in way more sweets than he would ever be allowed to eat.  But I am hopeful that healthy eats habits established early on will stick eventually! 

[lao]

Thanks for all the input!  It's interesting-for dessert today I went out to grab a bag from our garage fridge of a new product from Trader Joe's( peanut butter chocolates) that I had previously bought but not opened yet.  I could not find it and asked my son about it and he said he had found it and eaten it all.  I did not give him dessert then as I told him that he had already eaten the whole bag of what I was planning to serve (he normally always has dessert daily).  I noticed he ate peanuts instead but went back to the jar several different times, which was fine with me but did make me wonder if he is trying to satisfy an urge to just plain eat not related to hunger (I can certainly relate to that urge!)

I also grew up in a house where there was always junk food and dessert on the counter. I was allowed to eat what I wanted and I remember eating homemade cookies by the stackful and store bought cookies by the row in the package.  I gave up sugar several years ago because I can't stop eating it once I start.    I think having easy access and having restrictions both lead to problems in susceptible people.  There must be a happy medium but I am not sure what it is!

Lisa