Is It Okay To Give My Child Sweet Foods? Dietitian Answers Common Questions About Sweets For Parents
You’re worried that your child may be eating too many sweets. You want to help your child be as healthy as possible, but you’re not sure if you should limit sweets or how to do so.
With the concerns of childhood obesity and diabetes, artificial dyes and sweeteners, and warnings about sugar from your child’s pediatrician, you want to make sure your child’s health isn’t at risk. You don’t want to overstep and restrict your child’s intake too much, but you also want to make sure you aren’t negatively affecting your child’s well-being by not doing anything.
It’s normal, natural, and expected to be concerned about your child’s food intake. WE know this comes from a loving and caring place.
Many parents fear that too many sweets will be harmful for their children. It’s okay to be concerned about your child’s food intake. We know that you're trying to look out for your child’s health and well-being. As dietitians who specialize in helping teens and adults heal from eating disorders and disordered eating, we also know that misinformation and myths about sugar have caused many parents to become too fearful and restrict their child’s sugar intake too much.
Myths and common misconceptions about sugar can blur the line between restriction and moderation, and cause a lot of confusion for parents and guardians. We’re here to clear up this confusion and give you guidance when it comes to navigating sweets, sugar, and desserts in parenting.
We also want to acknowledge the intensity of the discourse around giving children sweets foods, and how some of the information you are about to read may be new. As dietitians, we do believe that children eating large quantities of sweets on a daily basis is not health promoting. And, restricting their sweet intake is not the antidote to reducing children’s sweet intake or addressing their sweet tooth and/or concerning food behaviors, which we dive into below.
Commonly Questions About Sugar, Sweets, and Children Answered By Seattle-Based Registered Dietitian Nutritionists:
Question #1: Does restricting my child’s sugar intake make them crave it less?
No, restricting your child’s sugar intake will not make them crave it less. In fact, restricting your child's sugar intake will make them crave it more! When you restrict your child from having a certain type of food or specific food item, your child’s brain will interpret this as restriction on a physiological and psychological level.
Depriving your child of sweets or sugar causes your child to think about the sweets more often, and these cravings for sweets become stronger and more intense with time. This often leads to children hiding candy, binging on candy, becoming fixated on candy, lying about how much they’ve had, and showing signs of hyperactivity when eating sweets. The more you restrict your child’s sugar intake, the more likely they are to crave it and become fixated on it.
It’s also likely that your child will seek out sweets and sugar in other places. They might eat more sugar at school, at friend’s houses, extra curricular activities, and sports, and they might begin hiding evidence of eating sugar.
Question #2: Does giving my child sweets make my child binge eat sweet foods?
No, giving your child sweets and candy will not make your child binge eat. In fact, restricting your child’s sugar intake puts your child at a greater risk for binge eating than if you were to allow your child to have consistent access to sweets and sugar. Giving your kids sweets regularly allows them to develop a healthy relationship with sugar and naturally regulate their sugar intake (i.e. you support them in learning how to become an intuitive eater).
If you find that your child is having a lot of sweets or sugar, or you think your child might be binging on sweets, it’s possible that they’re struggling with the restrict-binge-shame cycle. As your child is restricted sugar and dessert, their cravings get stronger and stronger. When they eventually do have a sweet or dessert, their body goes into survival mode. Parts of your child’s brain begins to think that it will never have access to sugary foods again, and this causes them to binge on the sweets and/or beg you for more. The binge, especially when done in secret, leads to feelings of guilt and shame, which causes your child to restrict even more.
Question #3: Will giving my child sugar cause them to gain weight?
No, giving your child sugar will not directly cause weight gain. New (and alarming) childhood obesity guidelines from the AAP, along with weight stigma and outdated BMI body weight standards, and on-going emphasis on weight from pediatricians, have sparked a lot of fear amongst parents and guardians regarding their child’s weight and health.
The truth is that adolescence is a critical time period when it comes to nutrition needs. Your child is growing at a very rapid pace, and growing requires a lot of calories and energy! If you have concerns about your child’s weight, please seek out the care and guidance from a dietitian who specializes in working with teens and can look at growth charts. It’s much better for your child to be fed a variety of foods that meet their nutrition needs.
Additionally, Weight stigma is often the main culprit responsible for fear around weight gain and weight changes for children. Weight stigma refers to the discrimination and oppression of an individual based on body weight or body appearance. Many parents fear that their child will gain too much weight, and this fear is driven out of weight stigma and weight bias. Reflecting on your own weight bias as a parent can be really helpful when trying to help your child develop positive feelings about their own body and to normalize their body size.
Question #4: Can sugar lead to hyperactivity in my child?
No, sugar does not lead to hyperactivity in children. There are a lot of misconceptions and fear that sugar, food dyes, and artificial sweeteners cause increased levels of hyperactivity in children, but there isn’t currently enough research to support these claims that are largely based on misinformation. Things like Red40 and other common components of deserts have not been shown to cause hyperactivity in children. There are many reasons why a child might be hyperactive. If you’re concerned that your child may have ADD or ADHD, please reach out to a qualified provider to do an assessment for your child.
It’s also worth noting that children who are neurodivergent have unique feelings, behaviors, and needs. Blaming hyperactivity on sugar and sweets can be harmful because it invalidates neurodivergent childhood experiences.
Question #5: Do kids whose parents don’t restrict sweets become addicted to sugar?
No. In fact, children whose parents don’t restrict sweets tend to have healthier, positive relationships with sugar and sweets as kids and well into adulthood. Regular exposure and consistent access to sweets, which includes having boundaries around sweets in your home, helps children to naturally moderate their sugar intake. Children who are given consistent access to sugar develop “eating competence”, which is the ability to be positive, flexible, and comfortable with eating while eating personally enjoyable, nourishing food. These children tend to think about sweets less often, experience less distress around sugar, and eat less sugar than those children whose parents restrict their sugar intake.
Bottom-line: Yes, it’s okay (and encouraged) to give your child sweets and sugar! And, you don’t have to learn how to do this alone. We’re here to help you!