Candy crazy!

Sometimes I get teased by friends or family because I don’t want my kids eating junk food or sweets, especially too close to mealtime or bed time! I think we have become so indulgent in our culture that we have a “dessert first” mentality. “Let kids be kids” they say when I don’t allow a cupcake half an hour before dinner or, “It’s only a couple of M&Ms, that won’t spoil her appetite.” Well, it does! When you give a child candy soon before meal time they don’t want to eat their meal because they have had a taste of sweets and they want more.

A prime example is the other night somebody gave my daughter half of a peppermint right before supper. I put her in her chair and gave her a plate and she pointed to the counter where the other half of the peppermint was and kept asking for that instead of her supper. She kept saying “I don’t like this. I want peppermint,” while one of her favorite meals sat in front of her untouched. She eventually got down and waited an hour or so before eating.

I have noticed that the days where my daughter snacks more, she hardly touches her supper and I think it’s partly because she isn’t as hungry and partly because she has been “spoiled” all day with snacks.

I try really hard to serve balanced meals and some days are a lot harder than others. There will be days when they don’t want what you serve for dinner. On those days I offer yogurt and either a graham cracker or a piece of fruit before bed so she won’t wake up in the middle of the night starving (she is only 2 after all).

We have candy and junk in our house and my kids won’t be sheltered from the good things in life, like chocolate! I just want them to have a healthy relationship with food.