How to Stop Your Kids from Eating Junk Food and Candy

Feeding Approaches to Stop Your Kids from Eating Sweets and Junk Food

Even if we do everything to keep away our children from candy and junk food, they’ll still have a taste of those at some point. Maybe their grandparents slipped a lollipop into their pocket while you weren’t looking. Or a kid from their daycare shared some of their potato chips. In any case, bad food cannot be 100% inaccessible for your child.

Sure, you can always brush their teeth, make them drink plenty of water, and take them to a skilled dentist for children. But once your kid develops an addiction for sweets and junk food, no amount of basic oral care may be enough to maintain their healthy pearls.

Therefore, limit their intake while they’re still young. Below are some effective approaches to do so:

1.Change Their Meal Plan

If you habitually accompany their breakfast with something sweet, they’ll naturally develop an increased liking for it. Children are biologically programmed to prefer sweeter food and drink, so when they’re regularly fed with added sugars, they’ll always crave for it, heightening their risks for a number of diseases.

Hence, instead of feeding them cereals, packed fruit juice, chocolate milk, and other sugary breakfast meals, switch to real food such as eggs, peanut butter, and oats. They aren’t sweet, but flavorful enough to please a child’s taste buds.

2.Avoid Controlling Portion Sizes

A lot of parents think that controlling portion sizes work in taming a child’s sweet tooth. But in reality, it will only leave them craving for more. Thus, either stop serving sweets altogether, or let them have a cheat day every now and then.

For example, if they haven’t had any sweets for breakfast and lunch, let them snack on a few cookies and milk under your watch. Letting them have their fill instead of depriving them will help in decreasing their desire for sweets in time.

3.Don’t Make Bargains

Another technique many parents use is bargaining. For example, they’ll say,”If you take three bites of these carrots, you can have a chocolate.” While it may persuade kids to finally eat their veggies, this approach will prove ineffective in the long run.

That’s because your child may start asserting power during meal times. So instead of encouraging this behavior, don’t fall into the trap of bargaining. Continually serve healthy food without allowances for negotiation. It’s normal for them to reject an unfamiliar taste at first, but they’ll gradually grow a liking for it. It’s important to have meals as a family, where they can see you and their siblings eating healthy. Think of it as a positive peer pressure.

4.Assess Your Pantry

If kids always see sweets and junk food available at home, it will be impossible to stop their cravings. That’s like serving a very delicious food, only to forbid your kids from eating it.

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So swap out sugary desserts for fruits, and sugared beverages for water and plain milk. If fruit juices are just part of their morning rituals, serve 100% fruit juice, 6 ounces at most for kids 1 to 6 years old, and 12 ounces at most for 12-year-olds and up.

5.Watch out for Stress

Stress can be the reason kids often crave bad food. If you notice frequent mood swings on your child, combat it by ensuring that their meals are balanced, sleep is adequate, and physical activity is sufficient. Limit their gadget use, because more screen time over actual play also causes stress.

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Decreasing your child’s liking for bad food will be a process, so don’t expect a change overnight. Gradually lessen their intake, until they get used to their new and healthier meals. And avoid giving bad food as a reward. From an early age, they should already know what bad food does to their bodies.