Three Game Plan For Serving Sweets To Your Children And Stop The Fighting
Do you use sweets as a reward for your kids to eat more vegetables, finish their chores, etc.?
We all have done this, and unfortunately, it is not a good strategy.
By doing this, we embed to their heads that sweets are exceptional food and better than others. Since unique things are given as awards, right?
We’re teaching them that all the other non-sweet foods are not as good as sweets since we use sweets as rewards.
If kids behave, they get sweets or desserts, and you misbehaved, no desserts. We are tying in food to their behavior.
We need to start presenting sweets in a much better way.
We should give them sweets to bring enjoyment and satisfaction while teaching them to regulate how much treats to have, not as a reward.
Sweets should be approached like any other healthy food. Healthy food brings our body nutrients and helps us stay healthy.
Sweets then should be seen as part of a healthy diet, just like non-sweet foods that make our body healthy, sweets fuels us emotionally, creates togetherness and enjoyment.
Sweets don’t have to be an all or nothing approach. We need to teach our kids that just like regular meals, it can be structured and consistent. This way, it will help them regulate how much to eat.
1. Serve sweets/desserts regularly and offer to everyone.
- serving sweets at home commonly will help children become familiar with this type of food, so when they are in public, they won’t go crazy when they see sweets outside the house.
- serve it to everyone, and not because someone behaved or didn’t deserve it.
- serve it because its part of the meal
2. Serve sweets with a meal but a small amount.
- yes, put it next to your child’s main meal.
By adding it during regular meals, sweets can be deemed as just all the other meals and no longer unique.
- yes, at first, they will eat the sweet first, but eventually, if sweets are served with the meal regularly, kids will start getting used to the idea as part of their meal and finally will be less prone to eating sweets first.
- make sure that kids now that like all the other food, only get one serving of sweets and no seconds. And this way they will learn to make their sweets last longer during mealtime and eat the other food first.
3. Desserts don’t have to be your typical sweets.
- desserts can be anything you make of it. You can serve different type of sweets to your kids during mealtime such as:
- Apple with peanut butter
- avocado drizzles with maple syrup and a hint of Himalayan salt
- yogurt with blueberries
Just remember, however you choose to serve your sweets and when to your family, do as a family decision and make it part of a balanced meal.
Hopefully, this way, battling when to give sweets and how to give sweets will no longer a battle for you and your family.
Leave me a comment on how you approach sweets in your home.