Junk food

[Anonymous]

How often do you let your children have candy, chocolate, etc.? Up until recently, we have always limited what Seth could have mainly due to his reflux. Now though, he has discovered junk food. He asks for m&ms everyday. I tell him they are a ‘special treat’ and we don’t eat that stuff all the time.. he will still go to the pantry and cry for them.

On the other hand, I find myself giving in or in desperation using treats to make him do something he doesn’t want to do. I know it is sending mixed messages. Does anyone have any suggestions? Do stickers work at this age? I am about at my wit’s end with the tantrums and the struggle to get him to cooperate with anything.

Mom2Seth2007-2-14 11:28:9

[Anonymous]

we try to balance the junk food, our main offenders are donuts, swedish fish, and potato chips. i have found healthier alternatives for the potato chips and swedish fish (no preservatives, organic, etc…some of the fruit juice sweetened gummi bears actually have vitamin c in them…). donuts are reserved for days when she is not feeling well and won’t eat anything else.

i don’t think its necessary to cut these things out, esp when you’ve struggled to feed/ find foods they do like. my way of enticing hannah to eat healthier foods is to give them silly names like “curious george milk,” for banana drinking yogurt, “cheesey trees,” for brocolli with cheese…you get the idea. i could go on, but i don’t want to embarrass myself.

and yes, stickers also work…but you know what? using these to entice is not so bad…my mother is the one who told me that mild bribery is a highly underrated parenting tool…

[Anonymous]

I remember reading somewhere that there wasn’t anything wrong with a little bride. But I think the article said, just limit it. Like two m&m’s for getting in the car with no fuss…and 4 more if he is good the whole car trip. I don’t really know how I plan to handle it with Brianna. So far she is not your average child when it comes to junk. I offered her chocolate chip cookies…hated them. Ice cream…made this terrible face. Right now my bride food is bananas. I hope that continues (but I am not counting on it)

[Anonymous]

I’m probably the worst person to give advice on this because my three are all big sugar fans.

Myles goes to the cupboard and cries, “kee-kee, kee-kee.” It’s so cute until he throws a fit when I say no more. And Liza loves parties because of all the treats.

Personally it aggravates me that everywhere you go people are always pushing sugar on our kids.

Anyway, I have found that the best way to avoid the tantrums and begging for sugar is to just not have it in the house. If it’s not there they get used to it not being there and they stop asking for it. I always have substitutes like flavored rice cakes, Kashi granola bars, etc. My kids think these are cookies, so they don’t feel deprived when the get that instead of real junk food. But as soon as dh (or sometimes I) bring junk food into the house they will refuse the healthy alternatives and plead for sugar again.

I’ve told my girls that sugar is only for special ocassions like birthdays and holidays and they accept that, as long as there is no junk in the house. Of course, they’d like it to be a holiday everyday. Today’s a great day for them; it’s Valentine’s Day so they will get a treat.

[Anonymous]

I really like the bribery idea! Sad thing is, I pretty much do it all day long while teaching…although with older kids I call it “compromise”. The only thing that frustrates me is when my students EXPECT a reward for things they SHOULD be doing anyway. “What will you give me if I do my homework”…”Um, how about a GRADE”. Or “What will we get if we walk down the hall quietly”…”Um, how about I WON’T give you a detention?” Soooooooooooooo, while I can TOTALLY see myself using M&Ms for bribery with Sarah…at what point do they turn into the kinds of students I have? Is it all moderation? Being around hormone-riddled crazy adolescents all day long makes me really wonder “where did their parents go wrong and how can I avoid their mistakes!?!”

Sorry I’m not really answering the original post…Sarah’s just not old enough yet, but I like the ideas I’ve heard so far!

[Anonymous]

We kept sweets away from Claire until halloween when she was 2. She called candy “trick or treat” for the longest time after. Unfortunately, now she is a candy fiend. We used M&M’s for potty training too, and it worked so well. She still gets a bit of chocolate when she goes poo since she has constipation issues.

[Anonymous]

Thanks everyone. I guess moderation is the key. We had a terrible night (reflux wise) probably due to all of the treats he had at school for Valentine’s Day…..

[Anonymous]

I definitely think moderation is the key. As much as we tried to keep it away from Sarah, once she discovered it at school she was hooked. She’s now become what we refer to at home as a “junk food junkie”. Anything sweet or with sugar in it makes her very happy. I think she went bezerk yesterday with all the chocolate and candy she got. We do try to limit things with her, so we don’t keep “pure” junk food in the house for her- like chocolate bars, lollipops etc. But we do buy junk food that’s disguised not to be junkfood and use that for bribery when we have to- like granola bars with chocolate chips, whipped cream to put on strawberries etc. As for the stickers, they’ve always worked REALLY well to encourage good behaviour in Sarah from the time she turned two.

[Anonymous]

We use a whole lot of 100% fruit juice fruit snacks. We also use yogurt covered raisins which I tell her is white chocolate and thank goodness she has not discovered the difference. Ice cream is the same, frozen yogurt most of the time. She gets chocolate here and there but thank goodness she is not a big fan, she really likes the gummy stuff so fruit snacks work out very well!

[Anonymous]

Actually the biggest treat around here is what I call “yogurt freezies”. We freeze the yoplait yogurt tubes, and she gets one a day as a snack. She LOVES them, and thinks they’re a treat. They’ve worked so well for us, that most of the moms in her class have started with them too.

[Anonymous]

I love the yogurt freezies idea. I’ll have to try that.

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