sugar addiction at age 3...

[mummyonvalium]

Looking for someone on the internet who might know about this. DH thinks I am putting too much on to DS too young however, I have browsed the internet and I feel more convinced that DS has a sugar addiction.

Symptoms he gets are as follows: completely euphoric - it is impossible to talk / reason with him at all followed by a really bad temper and then exhausted (not entirely established as I am yet to keep a food diary for him).

Secondly, his behaviour around sweets is disturbing. He never accepts that he is not allowed them. At home, we can just about control the situation but if we are at a party / playdate or anything he goes wild. He will do anything to get to that plate of biscuits including lying, climbing on to things which aren't stable and lastly when no-one is watching shovelling food into his mouth.

The past two weeks he has started a new behaviour as well - he says he is hungry all the time yet the minute we offer him anything healthy he pushes it away and says no I want a biscuit (which at home he never gets).

Short of becoming a hermit how do I deal with this situation. I am not sure whether the hunger thing is genuine - I am actually starting to worry as addiction problems run strongly down my side of the family.

I don't have any solutions, but have exactly the same issues with my almost 3yo DD, so hoping someone will have some answers.

It really hit home in the last week or so (have newborn DS) when I noticed she was continually saying she was hungry but refusing offers of fruit, crackers etc, wanting 'something nice'. She's been asking 'What can I eat now?' or 'What can I put in my mouth?' all the time. We've had grandparents staying and visitors bearing cake etc, so I haven't had as much influence as usual.

Anyway, started to be much firmer this morning, telling her how long to wait till snack/ meal time, finding something else to do with her when she pleaded hunger. Only sweet thing was a piece of flapjack after lunch. Still plenty of tantrums etc, but ate more fruit and more of her meals and I felt better!

Interested in any ideas from others. DD was very slow to gain weight as a baby and young toddler so I think I had anxieties around that, which can't have helped. She is now around 60th centile for weight and 20th for height.

He sounds like a normal 3 year old who isn't allowed sweet things. I used to be very strict with my DDs and didn't let them have sweet stuff. Then I realised that when we were at other people's houses they often tried to stuff themselves with biscuits and would grab things at parties. I became less strict and because they knew they could have sweets and biscuits sometimes they stopped trying to grab sweet things.

I have never banned sweet things though. DH and I believe in moderation breeding a healthy attitude towards food. Nothing is banned we just believe in moderation. Usually when it is just us he has something sweet as a desert and maybe a pudding.

Belinda - your case is so similar to mine (however DS never gained the weight and just burns it off).

Sounds normal to me too. DD, 3, often claims to be hungry when really she justs wants a biscuit etc and declines offer of fruit/yoghurt etc. I just tell her that if she was really hungry she would want the apple on offer.

Everything in moderation. And at parties etc, I let her have what she wants and encourage her to have a sandwich first as in reality she would rather play with other children than sit and eat biscuits. Hth.

Mine would much rather eat the biscuits than play with the other children.

We don't 'ban' foods either, neither of us diet, nor do we overindulge. We try not to present food as 'treats' (although this happens with grandparents, but not often enough for it to be a problem).

I'm going to keep being firm about the snacks offered. Sadly, she loves baking more than anything! I'll have to get her baking savoury or fruity snacks.

this sounds familiar - parts of it at least. We aren't very restrictive about sugary things - e.g. DD is allowed a biscuit from time to time. Like others she will claim she is hungry in order to get something tasty, but is told firmly that she can have fruit, oatcake, cheese etc. If she is hungry she will go for these. It is difficult - there are so many occasions on which this stuff is on offer (e.g. man in launderette always gives her a chocolate biscuit)

The mood swing stuff probably means he is particularly susceptible to the effects of sugar - DD's cousin will kick off with bad behavior within about 15 minutes of eating sweet stuff - and she is generally a very well behaved child.

oh - maybe try him on sweet things that aren't processed - dd will happily eat dried fruit etc - terrible for her teeth, but at least has some nutritional value

Agree rhetorician - I think it is a good point. I would not mind if some of what people offered him had nutritional value but a lot of the time it is crap of the highest order.

The other week we had a party and I actually fed him before we went (I know it is a bit naughty). Because he had already had something healthy I assumed he would eat less cake and biscuit however, made very little difference. He still scoffed what he could get his hands on and then when we got home started his "i'm hungry" and all he wanted was biscuits.

If we are just over at someone's house do you think it would be unreasonable to tell them not to offer too many biscuits?

I think it really depends on how well you know them; dd's grandma is a shocker for this - every single time there is a great big pile of cake, biscuits etc, so much so that I know that dd only wants to go there to get her sticky paws on nana's stash. But said cousin has very little sugar in her diet, so we respect that when she visits (so maybe one biscuit) and when we visit (e.g. we take fruit or something savoury) - and when we visit elsewhere she is told in no uncertain terms that if she has more than x we will go straight home, ditto for whinging about it. It's hard on them to say, here's a sweetshop full of delicious stuff, but they do have to learn self-restraint eventually. To be fair to dd she would rarely eat that much - it's more the attitudes around it that bother me.

I keep thinking of Dylan's line to Dougal in the Magic Roundabout Movie, where Dougal is fretting about losing his sugar lumps and Dylan says 'you start off with a lump or town, and before you know where you are you're on 2 bags a day'...

the behavioral response does seem quite extreme - all kids act up when they have too much sugar, of course, followed by the slump, so you might want to try and steer him towards things that have slow-release stuff in them. Flapjacks, e.g....

You are probably worrying unnecessarily, but you are trying to be responsible, so no harm in that!

Kids do not act up when they have too much sugar, its a myth. Children act up because they are over excited and because of parental expectation.

is that true bruffin? I guess I (and I assume the OP) was thinking of the perception that sugar creates highs and lows and cravings and slumps in adults, therefore presumably it does the same in children? or are you being tongue in cheek

I don't imagine anyone has done any actual research on it, have they? I'm curious - it's true that for most children sugar is something they have at social events etc so it's hard to disentangle cause and effect. Sorry, waffling now

Yes there had been research, Google sugar rush myth, also sugar hyperactivity in Google scholar.
They have done experiments Whete parents have taken children to a party, parents shown healthy food but children actually fed high sugar foods in a calm environment. Parents commented on how calm children were
Then another party parents shown high sugar food, but children fed low sugar but in an excitable environment, patents assumed children were having a sugar rush afterwards.

thanks - that's very interesting! I can't honestly say that I feel that sugar has much impact on dd, although exciting, over-stimulating social environments definitely do.

It is very worrying when you witness the response your kids have to sugar. I think he may be reacting to a substance called high fructose corn syrup, HFCS. This is a product that is 30% sweeter than sugar and 40% cheaper, so you dont need to do the maths to see why its used. HFCS is highly addictive, Scientists at Harvard have discovered that it affects the brain in exactly the same way as drugs like cocaine and heroin do. It suppresses the hormone leptin which controlls hunger, so when consume hfcs you never feel satisfied and want more and more. It is also very difficult to break down in the body, and turns to liquid fat. If you check out the food ingredients list you will see that HFCS is in almost every single sweet, once your child or you have one, you will be on a downward spiral for the rest of the day, constantly craving more of the same and never feeling full. You may also want to look into the dangers of aspartame, another man made sweetener, this can cause a myriad of health and emotional problems. My family does not consume any artificial sweeteners at all, and have succesfully eliminated all of these problems. It is time that people were educated about these dangers.

super - really interested in the HFCS - I had no idea.

Other than sweets have you found other foods that you'd now keep away from your family ? - one of my boys is definately highly charged around sweet things and i'd love to sort him out before obesity sets in.

yeah, i went though all my cupboards and chucked out everything with artificial sweeteners in, especially any derivitave of corn syrup. do an experiment for yourself and feel the effect when you have an item with this in it. Popular culprits are anything low fat, you take out the fat and it tastes like cardboard, so they put hfcs in. yogurts, most sweets list corn syrup as their first ingredient. blue dragon chilli dipping sauce, (my nemesis), colemans mint sauce, all the dips you get from places like dominoes etc. cheap ketchups, not heinz, but the stuff you find in burger bars ect. buscuits, cakes etc.

If you go and have a look in your cupboards now, and post your results, i will give you alternatives, yes there are. You dont have to deprive yourself, you just have to know the rules and eat the hfcs freee stuff x

Parties are difficult but with playdates I would just ask other parent if it can be healthy snacks only. Tbh I tend to only offer healthy snacks because I am unsure what other parents will permit and it is kind of 'playing safe' (plus I am pretty strict with food at home)

some children can respond differently when they have sugary things, and some children can have problems with normalising blood sugar. I was hypoglycemic for years as a child and teenager and too much or not enough sugar had a massive impact on my behaviour and mood. As a teenager, many people told me that sometimes I looked and talked as if I was drunk, when I was lacking sugar. And I fainted occasionally. I was very moody, even aggressive. I had to eat little, often, and no refined sugar but I was allowed maple syrup (I am not sure why, but maple syrup is not processed the same way by the body and you don't get that 'low' afterwards). Also I am from Canada and we always had maple sugar/syrup in the fridge.

I wouldn't dismiss having a chat with GP.

I don't really agree with banning sweets altogether unless there are serious health reasons. It will only make cravings and obsessions worse. My DD likes sweets but DS wasn't bothered. So we always had them occasionally when they were small. Now they are older DS doesn't even eat sweets or chocolate even if they're offered. (He does like other junk foods though.

Why not restrict sweets to say weekends and in moderation. I think children usually accept rules rather than never ever will you eat sweets or cakes. And the detist said to me better sweets immediately after meals rather than spaced out through the day.

This sounds like nothing to do with sugar addiction and everything to do with being a small boy who wants a biscuit and has no impulse control.

Have a look at the Radiant Recovery website. There is a book and e-group for parents of children with sugar issues.

The premise is that some people respond biologically to sugar (and white carbs) differently from others - the effect on the biochemical balance of the brain is similar to other sorts of addiction. It is supposed to have a strong familial link.

There is an eating plan to deal with it (basically lots of protein, wholegrain carbs and veg) which has made a HUGE difference to my well-being (sugar definitely has a bad effect on me).

And as an immediate suggestion, eating sugary stuff at times when you're also eating protein (eg at meals) minimises the effect on the blood sugar, which will help.

If there are physiological addiction-type issues going on, cold turkey is about the worst thing you can do as it just sets up more cravings. (The RR plan has seven steps to it - and reducing/eliminating sugar doesn't come till step 6.)