Fundamentals: Helping Kids Build a Good Relationship with Sugar - Part 2

If you’re just joining us, catch up on Part 1 of this series here. But, as a refresher, we covered:

• What it means to have a positive relationship with sugar and how this wasn’t modelled to millennial and gen X parents, which is why it can feel SO HARD to support our kids
• Why we are so strung out as a society about sugar and how the messages we receive from public health nutrition feed into this fear
• Why restricting sugar can cause kids to disconnect with their internal cues and lead them to be more preoccupied with sweet foods
• And how to best support our kids to have a positive relationship with sweet foods, we need to unpack some of our own stuff

OK, back to the kids:

Habituation

One of the biggest fears I hear from parents is that if they loosen up with sugar, and stop micromanaging their kids' access to it, that’s all their kids will eat. And yeah, that probably will happen for a bit, especially if those foods have been scarce.

But over time, when kids are allowed regular access to sweets, it loses its status of being such a BFD and becomes just a regular part and parcel of our food lives. A good one, an enjoyable one. Just like people, inexplicably to me, enjoy a Sunday roast. Or look forward to pizza night (that one I get).

This phenomenon is known as habituation. A helpful example is when you go to a new city, you’re hyper aware of the sounds and noises that are unfamiliar; the people talking on the street, the ambulances and planes flying overhead. But after you’ve been there for a while it all blends together into background noise.

When we restrict sweets, they always seem novel. It’s like slapping a massive neon sign and flashing lights on it saying ‘LOOK AT ME, I’M SO GREAT’. This adds to the excitement and appeal that sweets naturally hold for kids.

But giving sweets more frequently makes them a bit less shiny. Kids are always going to be interested in sweets. Habituation doesn’t mean that they will never want sweets, and if that’s the goal of this work, then we need to talk.

Habituation just means that sweets keep their place as one part of our food life. If we offer sweets infrequently, we limit kids' choice as to whether they take it or leave it. They will only ever take it because it’s never available. When we offer sweets often, it opens up a bit more space for kids to tune into whether they actually want it, or if they are only taking it because it's there.

How can I tell if my child is feeling restricted and deprived?

Something that can be really tricky to navigate when supporting a kid to have a positive relationship with sugar, is the line between regular kid excitement for sweets and a deeper food preoccupation. Excitement, curiosity, and a preference for sweet foods will exist, even when kids have frequent access to these foods and parents are pretty laid back about them.

So how can we tell the difference between regular, garden-variety interest in sweets, and something more concerning?