How To Limit Your Child’s Sugar Intake
Sugar is hiding in almost every food packet. Here is a step by step guide to reducing your child’s sugar intake, no matter what age.
Sugar lurks everywhere these days.
Many parents are unaware of how much sugar their children are actually consuming each day.
But what if we as parents become more proactive with the foods we allow our children to eat?
Not in a controlling, coercive way, but in an educational, exciting way (yes, teaching your children about the effect of food on their bodies can be exciting!).
When I became a Holistic Nutrition Consultant, I slowly looked at the snacks I was allowing my children to eat and began to implement changes to their diet.
I am all about having a balanced approach. I don’t believe that sugar is inherently bad and I allow my children to have some sugar. But what is more important to me is incorporating a variation of good nutrients into their bodies and teaching them the value of eating healthy.
I think if we limit too much without educating them about the importance of health, it will backfire on them later in life when they have full autonomy about what they choose to eat.
I will share my perspective as a Holistic Nutrition Consultant about how you can realistically limit your child’s sugar intake, no matter what age.
What I Will Cover In This Post
- What types of sugar to reduce/avoid
- How to educate your child about sugar
- How to nourish your child without restricting your child
What Types of Sugar to Reduce/Avoid
You want to be reducing your child’s consumption of refined sugar. This looks like white sugar, icing sugar, brown sugar, raw sugar, sugar found in store-bought muffins, biscuits, sauces, some breads, spreads etc. and refined syrups like golden syrup, corn syrup and high fructose corn syrup.
I would highly recommend baking your own goods and opting for an unrefined sugar like coconut sugar or natural sweetener like honey. Even then, if you use white sugar in your baked goods, you are still most likely using less sugar than in a store-bought muffin.
So, whenever you can, bake your goods for less sugar content. Here are some of my favourite natural sweetener options:
- Maple syrup
- Dates
- Honey
- Coconut sugar
- Agave syrup
- Applesauce
- Ripe bananas
How To Educate Your Child About Sugar
I believe that you can set your child up for a win by having a balanced approach toward sugar.
What do I mean by ‘balanced’ approach?
A balanced approach is having a neutral view toward sugar, by teaching your child that sugar is not inherently a bad food, but it is important to consider how much of it you eat and when you eat it.
For example, in our house, we don’t have much sugar in the morning. I allow my children one sweet food in the afternoon between lunch and dinner.
We don’t avoid sugar, but we also don’t allow too much.
You might be stricter than I am and that’s okay. The point is that if we teach our children that sugar is bad and avoid it at all costs, then we are not giving them the full picture and we are instilling an unnecessary fear inside of them about sugar.
However, if we teach our children that they can eat as much sugar as they want, then we are setting them up for lots of adverse health outcomes, like obesity, diabetes, irregular blood sugar and hormone imbalances, while also not teaching them about the importance of being being health conscious.
If we have age appropriate conversations about the impacts of sugar on the body, then we are bringing awareness to our children, and awareness is the start to conscious decision making.
If you have toddlers, you can talk about how we eat food that is good for our bodies (like meat, fruit, vegetables, nuts, seed, wholegrain bread and certain dairy products) to give us strength and health. And we eat ‘sometimes’ foods that is not very good for our bodies, but it is okay to enjoy them every now and then as a treat.
If you have older children (age 6 and above), you can start having more nuanced conversations about foods and their impact on the body. For example, sugar can cause our blood sugar levels to spike, which can leave us feeling all happy and jittery one moment and then tired and cranky the next. This is why it is important to eat good foods that help keep our blood sugar stable and protect our bodies from sickness.
How To Nourish Your Child Without Restricting Your Child
As I mentioned, you can have a balanced approach to sugar without it feeling like you are being restrictive, but also, by being protective of your child’s health.
I must admit, sometimes, I allow my children to have more sugar than I feel comfortable with. And it always backfires somehow.
It might be that my toddler has a blood sugar crash and has tantrum after tantrum over the smallest things.
It might be that my children refuse to finish their dinner because they ate a sugary treat half an hour before dinner and now they are not hungry.
Even though these kind of moments are okay from time to time, it is always a good reminder to me of why I limit my children’s sugar intake.
I have shifted the focus over the years when it comes to my children’s diet.
I used to focus on limiting the foods they should not be eating.
Now my focus is on what foods are nourishing their bodies.
How can I make their breakfast more nutrient-dense?
What other vegetables can I add to our stew tonight?
Which fruits are in season that I can buy and offer the kids this week?
When we focus on nourishing our child’s body, then it is easy to implement good foods and not worry so much about their sugar intake.
However, when are so focused on reducing or avoiding our child’s sugar intake, we become fearful and we are more often than not, passing on that fear to our child.
So, how can we limit our child’s sugar intake and have a balanced approach?
This is what I would do if I were you step-by-step, depending on your child’s age:
- Look at the ingredients lists of all your child’s packaged foods (mainly focusing on the sugar content).
- Start swapping the sugary foods for food that does not have sugar content or alternatively contains natural sweeteners.
- Have conversations with your children about limiting their sugar treats to one a day or whichever you decide. Make sure they know why (if they are old enough to understand).
- Slowly implement an easy rule for your children to follow when it comes to sugar consumption.
- Know early on, your negotiations and compromises you are willing to make and be clear on what your expectations are.
- Reward your children for their good attitude or obedience. For some children, eating less sugar than they are used to can be quite challenging.
- Assess how this adjusted way of eating less sugar is going and make adjustments where necessary.
Remember, that the goal is to cultivate a healthy relationship with food for your child. Not restrict your child.
