Avoiding the sweets with kids around

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talialeatt123
talialeatt123 Posts: 5 Member
in Goal: Maintaining Weight
Proving difficult to not pick at the sweet things in life with my 3 yr old demanding chocolate!

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  • AllOutof_Bubblegum
    AllOutof_Bubblegum Posts: 3,646 Member
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    It's a struggle. Do you have a question we can help you with?
  • neldabg
    neldabg Posts: 1,452 Member
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    Try fitting the sweets into your day. If that's not an option, set up rules for your child, like only buying one bar a month.
  • canadjineh
    canadjineh Posts: 5,396 Member
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    You might want to slowly move the chocolate toward a high cocoa percentage - dark chocolate has been proven to be good for us in moderation. Obviously a 3 y.o. won't like 85 or 90% right off the bat when they are used to eating a 'junk' bar, lol, but it is possible to cultivate a taste for the better stuff. Just an idea....
  • 30kgin2017
    30kgin2017 Posts: 228 Member
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    I have 3 kids so the junk doesnt hang around for long as there's more kids to eat it.

    Chocolate/icecream etc are all special treats not an everyday occurrence. When I am trying to cut it out of my diet I choose stuff they like and I dont.
  • Barbs2222
    Barbs2222 Posts: 433 Member
    edited January 2017
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    I gained 4 pounds because of Holiday treats, they are gone that goodness. I made these pumpkin bars with cream cheese frosting and just kept slivering away at them. Because you know one little sliver doesn't have any calories :wink: Then two hours later there's the equivalent of three bars gone. Anyway I started telling my kids when they were young we could eat anything we wanted so long as we made it ourselves. I remember buying cocoa butter on amazon and making chocolate. The calories were a lot but at least I spent time doing something other than gaming with my kids. Edited to say they had to help clean up which meant a lot of times they decided we didn't need the chocolate or cookies or whatever.
  • __TMac__
    __TMac__ Posts: 1,665 Member
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    Barbs2222 wrote: »
    Edited to say they had to help clean up which meant a lot of times they decided we didn't need the chocolate or cookies or whatever.

    Genius! :)

  • FlippingFins
    FlippingFins Posts: 20 Member
    edited January 2017
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    Let your child's health motivate yours. :)

    My daughter eats a very healthy and nutritious diet. We don't have junk food in the house. As such, it's never there to tempt either of us. I don't completely ban chocolate, as it's important to me that all foods are enjoyed in moderation. I never want her to feel like chocolate is a 'treat'. It's just part of an ordinary diet.

    So, she doesn't get chocolate every time she asks. I prompt her to make healthy choices. I talk about the nutritional values of food and, age appropriately, about 'healthy' and 'unhealthy', and the importance of primarily eating healthy foods. If she does want unhealthy food when it's, say, in a party bag or we're out for a meal, that's fine as it's a rare occurrence and can be enjoyed within the limits of 'moderation'. If she asks for chocolate 'just because', then we have a talk about making the decision to eat something less healthy, and how we should balance it out by going for a walk or a swim. That way, we can both enjoy the chocolate fully without a negative impact on our bodies. And we both get some - I buy both of us a small amount of chocolate at the same time, it's eaten in one sitting at the time, so it's never sitting around to tempt us at a later date.
  • allie2girlz
    allie2girlz Posts: 42 Member
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    I have been feeding my two teenage girls low carb for four months now, and we make sweet treats with stevia at home. Unfortuneately, they are still addicted to sugar. When sugar is offered to them, they will not turn it down. They attend school and go to friends and grandparents houses and there is sugar at every turn. I just want them to be healthy and not ever have to struggle with weight and have to perpetually diet.
    Thinking back, I did not give them sweets as infants/young toddlers besides fruit. They became addicted by constant sweet offerings everytime they went to grandma's. They would always be cranky when they came home. If I had known then what I know now, I don't know if I could have gotten through to my mother-in-law, she would have probably still gave them sweets.

    My advice--break the addiction early, he or she will not even remember it!
  • chunky_pinup
    chunky_pinup Posts: 758 Member
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    Is your 3-year old buying the sweets? If not, what do they have to do with it? You can adjust your meals to fit in a sweet food if you need it, or work up to avoiding them.
  • cnbbnc
    cnbbnc Posts: 1,267 Member
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    Just don't keep it in the house. Buy a small pack of m&ms from the gas station or whatever and keep that home for treat time. This way if worse comes to worse and you decide to finish it off, the damage is minimal.
  • leanjogreen18
    leanjogreen18 Posts: 2,492 Member
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    cnbbnc wrote: »
    Just don't keep it in the house. Buy a small pack of m&ms from the gas station or whatever and keep that home for treat time. This way if worse comes to worse and you decide to finish it off, the damage is minimal.

    This is what I did with my children when they were small.

    Funny thing is, I finally went back to this to moderate some of my foods I tend to overeat on.
  • Reaverie
    Reaverie Posts: 405 Member
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    When I was a kid, desert after dinner was a given. You ate dinner, you got desert. When I had my kids, I did not follow this tradition. There was no reward for eating what was put before you. They get treats still, but it isnt something they expect. Its just that.. a TREAT. Not a privilege.
  • Sedu1906
    Sedu1906 Posts: 145 Member
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    Sugar is very addictive. I swear I can hear coffee rolls calling my name when I drive past dunkin donuts
  • Alatariel75
    Alatariel75 Posts: 17,959 Member
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    WinoGelato wrote: »
    allie2girlz wrote: »
    I have been feeding my two teenage girls low carb for four months now, and we make sweet treats with stevia at home. Unfortuneately, they are still addicted to sugar. When sugar is offered to them, they will not turn it down. They attend school and go to friends and grandparents houses and there is sugar at every turn. I just want them to be healthy and not ever have to struggle with weight and have to perpetually diet.
    Thinking back, I did not give them sweets as infants/young toddlers besides fruit. They became addicted by constant sweet offerings everytime they went to grandma's. They would always be cranky when they came home. If I had known then what I know now, I don't know if I could have gotten through to my mother-in-law, she would have probably still gave them sweets.

    My advice--break the addiction early, he or she will not even remember it!

    Did you consider that the reason they take sugar every time it is offered to them might be because it is so restricted at home, and that your plans to help them have a healthy life may backfire, because they won't have a positive mental relationship with food?

    Yup, sounds like the solid foundations of an unhealthy relationship with food being laid right there.

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