Halloween Candy policy

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We put it in a bowl on the counter and the kids had a free for all the first night. They'd have some more the second day and then it tapered off. I never had to make a strict policy. We taught our kids to self-regulate food in general pretty well.

How did you do that? I think people say this but they don’t really know what it is like to have a sugar addiction/food addiction.

It was just our lifestyle and modeled behaviors as they were growing up, I guess. Teaching moderation from an early age. Involving them from a young age in meal planning and cooking. I don't know what the magic answer is really. We've always had healthier diets, but we also aren't strict. It's true though, none of us has ever struggled with weight, but we aren't naturally skinny either. And we do love food and eating too. Most people aren't born with a food addiction. While genetics do come into play, it's majorly a learned behavior.

I'm the oldest. I was four or five, and at a party playing around while all the other kids were lined up for ice cream. A parent asked my mom why I wasn't joining them - she said I'd never had it, and had no idea what it was. But there was no stopping me after I caught my dad putting sugar on the cheerios -- I didn't know this was even possible! I grew up to be a terrible sugar fiend.

With my middle sibling, the cat was already out of the bag. He grew up with sweets as an option. And really, he could take it or (mostly) leave it. "Aha!" Mom thought, "It's the lure of the forbidden that drives the desire."

Or at least that's what she thought until the youngest was born and quickly was revealed to have an even worse sweet tooth than I did.

You pretty much get the child you get.

Agree (I posted the link). My kid doesn’t like cake or sweets. He has to have the frosting removed from birthday cupcakes. I have a horrendous sweet tooth. I eat the treats he disregards!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We put it in a bowl on the counter and the kids had a free for all the first night. They'd have some more the second day and then it tapered off. I never had to make a strict policy. We taught our kids to self-regulate food in general pretty well.

How did you do that? I think people say this but they don’t really know what it is like to have a sugar addiction/food addiction.

It was just our lifestyle and modeled behaviors as they were growing up, I guess. Teaching moderation from an early age. Involving them from a young age in meal planning and cooking. I don't know what the magic answer is really. We've always had healthier diets, but we also aren't strict. It's true though, none of us has ever struggled with weight, but we aren't naturally skinny either. And we do love food and eating too. Most people aren't born with a food addiction. While genetics do come into play, it's majorly a learned behavior.

I feel you ought not be so smug. The latest science discusses how much genetics come into play. You may have kids who are not genetically predisposed to sugar addiction. Other kids might be differently pre-disposed. Good article below.

https://www.google.com/amp/s/amp.usatoday.com/amp/110965186

I wasn't being smug. I stated what we did and that I don't have a magic answer. Obesity and food addiction have skyrocketed as prepackaged foods, sugar, eating out, snack culture, ridiculous portion sizes etc have become normalized. People were not this overweight decades ago. It is not all genetics. Genetics play a small part and is what most people use to remove their own accountability. believe it or not, but medical reasons for weight gain make up a small percent of overweight people.

[Anonymous]

Stop giving you children so much unhealthy food & sugar from an early age. Also, don't ban it either. Moderation and a variety of foods are key. And stop blaming genetics for everything. Genetics have not changed so drastically over the past 50 years. The way we consume food has. But yes, blame it all on that sugar addiction your child was born with. lol

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Stop giving you children so much unhealthy food & sugar from an early age. Also, don't ban it either. Moderation and a variety of foods are key. And stop blaming genetics for everything. Genetics have not changed so drastically over the past 50 years. The way we consume food has. But yes, blame it all on that sugar addiction your child was born with. lol

In fact I said the opposite- he doesn’t like sweets at all. We were both raised on the same diet (think healthy Asian diet) yet I have a extremely hard time resisting sweets. Kid doesn’t. Plus science clearly states genetics are in play. So it is super annoying when people smugly announce their kids don’t have issues bc of how they were raised. They just got lucky their kid didn’t pull that gene card. Over the past few weeks I’ve read several DCUM posts from parents struggling with a child’s sweet tooth. The parents don’t seem to be feeding the kids particularly poorly. The kids are just predisposed to love sweets.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Stop giving you children so much unhealthy food & sugar from an early age. Also, don't ban it either. Moderation and a variety of foods are key. And stop blaming genetics for everything. Genetics have not changed so drastically over the past 50 years. The way we consume food has. But yes, blame it all on that sugar addiction your child was born with. lol

In fact I said the opposite- he doesn’t like sweets at all. We were both raised on the same diet (think healthy Asian diet) yet I have a extremely hard time resisting sweets. Kid doesn’t. Plus science clearly states genetics are in play. So it is super annoying when people smugly announce their kids don’t have issues bc of how they were raised. They just got lucky their kid didn’t pull that gene card. Over the past few weeks I’ve read several DCUM posts from parents struggling with a child’s sweet tooth. The parents don’t seem to be feeding the kids particularly poorly. The kids are just predisposed to love sweets.

Also you are right that we have changed in 50 years as far as food we consume. Those with the addiction issue have a much harder time nowadays bc sweets are everywhere and sugar is in everything.

[Anonymous]

Have a 3.5 year old as well. We are going to try letting him have unlimited access except for no candy 1 hr before bed, until it's gone or he loses interest. I'm hoping with no restrictions it will lose the novelty and he won't binge too much after the first night since he has control over his candy. Also hoping we don't get that much to begin with due to rain. We'll see.

[Anonymous]

When they were younger, they traded all but 10 pieces in for a toy on Nov 1 (some had been eaten the previous night). As they got older, it was upped to 20 pieces - and they got 1-2 a day until it was gone.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We put it in a bowl on the counter and the kids had a free for all the first night. They'd have some more the second day and then it tapered off. I never had to make a strict policy. We taught our kids to self-regulate food in general pretty well.

How did you do that? I think people say this but they don’t really know what it is like to have a sugar addiction/food addiction.

It was just our lifestyle and modeled behaviors as they were growing up, I guess. Teaching moderation from an early age. Involving them from a young age in meal planning and cooking. I don't know what the magic answer is really. We've always had healthier diets, but we also aren't strict. It's true though, none of us has ever struggled with weight, but we aren't naturally skinny either. And we do love food and eating too. Most people aren't born with a food addiction. While genetics do come into play, it's majorly a learned behavior.

I feel you ought not be so smug. The latest science discusses how much genetics come into play. You may have kids who are not genetically predisposed to sugar addiction. Other kids might be differently pre-disposed. Good article below.

https://www.google.com/amp/s/amp.usatoday.com/amp/110965186

+1 to this. Also, overall, some people are just more prone to getting addicted to things in general (addictive personality).

[Anonymous]

We don't celebrate Halloween, but there are a handful of holidays each year where kids collect a ton of candy in a short period. We let them have a semi-free-for-all the first day. After that, we just use the candy for their desserts until it's used up.

[Anonymous]

We let our kids eat all of the candy they wanted that first night. It amounted to 6-7 pieces (fun size) each. They were two and three, and never asked about it again. That repeated itself probably until 2nd or 3rd grade - the candy was quickly forgotten. Now that they are a bit older, they pinch off a piece or two daily for a week or so, and then move on. Caveat is that we treat treats like a food group - one serving per day, so the candy means nothing after a while.

[Anonymous]

It will be dessert for the next 6 months.

[Anonymous]

The New York Times just wrote a piece on this! In a nutshell, the advice was to let them go nuts on Halloween night (or whenever the big night is), then move to having it as part of dessert or snack (at set times). It recommends against the switch witch, but that's not something we do so I'm not familiar with how that works.

https://parenting.nytimes.com/feeding/halloween-candy-rules?smid=tw-nytimes&smtyp=cur&fbclid=IwAR0sIQF0KKO_mv7tU4zcllwx8_0kTY25kUfVMxk6ddy-xdvQn6fO7uWVN-g

[Anonymous]

1 - I don't let my daughter bring a pillowcase for trick-or-treating. She has a pumpkin or a bag that isn't huge. So that limits the overall haul.

2 - she can have a piece or two while trick-or-treating and a couple of pieces after we're done. After that, she gets a couple pieces for every dessert. I also take the "mom tax" after letting her set aside some stuff I'm not allowed to touch. I love candy.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The New York Times just wrote a piece on this! In a nutshell, the advice was to let them go nuts on Halloween night (or whenever the big night is), then move to having it as part of dessert or snack (at set times). It recommends against the switch witch, but that's not something we do so I'm not familiar with how that works.

https://parenting.nytimes.com/feeding/halloween-candy-rules?smid=tw-nytimes&smtyp=cur&fbclid=IwAR0sIQF0KKO_mv7tU4zcllwx8_0kTY25kUfVMxk6ddy-xdvQn6fO7uWVN-g

This is what we do..and anything left at Thanksgiving goes in a bowl which people snack on over the weekend. Time to move on to the next holiday.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Stop giving you children so much unhealthy food & sugar from an early age. Also, don't ban it either. Moderation and a variety of foods are key. And stop blaming genetics for everything. Genetics have not changed so drastically over the past 50 years. The way we consume food has. But yes, blame it all on that sugar addiction your child was born with. lol

In fact I said the opposite- he doesn’t like sweets at all. We were both raised on the same diet (think healthy Asian diet) yet I have a extremely hard time resisting sweets. Kid doesn’t. Plus science clearly states genetics are in play. So it is super annoying when people smugly announce their kids don’t have issues bc of how they were raised. They just got lucky their kid didn’t pull that gene card. Over the past few weeks I’ve read several DCUM posts from parents struggling with a child’s sweet tooth. The parents don’t seem to be feeding the kids particularly poorly. The kids are just predisposed to love sweets.

Also you are right that we have changed in 50 years as far as food we consume. Those with the addiction issue have a much harder time nowadays bc sweets are everywhere and sugar is in everything.

I know! I walk through the grocery store and the employees throw sugar filled items into my cart until it'f full and then tell me I havre to checkout and go home without stopping in the produce section. I should ask to speak to a manager.