7yo helping themselves to excessive amounts of treat food

[TheHighPriestessOfTinsel]

Not sure what to do on this one. 7yo DC2 has been helping herself to the treat cupboard. I've asked her not to do this, and to check with me first, so I can have a think about how much treat food she's had, proximity to meal times etc. She's ignoring me, and is not quite canny enough to cover her tracks, so I'm finding wrappers everywhere.

For context, we are not especially puritan/clean eating types. We very often have a proper pudding, and especially at the weekend there are crisps and sweets, but in moderation. Also, DC2 is what's euphemistically known as A Good Eater, and at times gets a bit chubby. Anyone else dealt with this (particularly with a child who doesn't give a monkey's about adult approval)? TBH it's as much about the continued not giving a stuff about what I've told her as the constant sweet eating.

Marking place. I also have one of these!

Omg the sugar police are out in force! I agree most people don't follow 7 year olds to the kitchen every time they want a drink . As it doesn't promote the independence she needs at that age.

My Dss 10 can be sneaky with food but is old enough now to cover his tracks, my Dh wishes he had clamped down when he was younger. We were advised to ask him to eat his snacks in the living room with us and not in his room. In the hope it would make him not want to look greedy by eating everyone's share.

Nothing wrong with policing your children's sugar intake intact I'm proud to

In fact

I don't even follow my 2 year old into the kitchen, let alone my older DD!

OP you don't have to never buy treats just because she's being a bit sneaky, you've got some good suggestions here including mine ignore the sugar police. There's nothing wrong with a few treats in the cupboard, the issue here is finding a strategy that works.

I am not the sugar police, one look at the amount of candy we have left over from Halloween would confirm this. I do think that the simplest solution is to explain to all the DC that if sweets disappear without you being asked then the sweets/crisps will not be bought for the house and then follow through if needed. For some DC like mine it appears flooding the house with sweets has the same effect, I find myself pushing on them like a demented drug dealer and they really can't face eating any more. But if your DC has an issue with over eating I doubt this will help her. I do know that if I want a diet to work I don't stock the house with tempting, unhealthy food and if I want to drink less I don't stock the fridge with wine.

Look at the advice you've had:

Rationing
Lists
Encouraging siblings to snitch on each other
Hide them
Hide them better
Hide them higher
Buy a lockable box
Punish
Etc

Much easier to not have them in the house. Buy a packet of crisps on the way home and eat it, enjoy a chocolate bar while out for a walk. But there is no need to keep these foods in the house - your body doesn't need them. However they are too nice to say no to, and yes sugar is addictive . So if they are in the house, I want them, and so does your DC. They will either displace other food with nutrients that you actually need, or your body will store the excess calories as fat. Do your children a favour and ditch the treat cupboard.

Much easier to not have them in the house. Buy a packet of crisps on the way home and eat it, enjoy a chocolate bar while out for a walk

Totally this. This is what we do. I have a Nutella crunch thing for dd to have in a minute after footie, she'll eat it in the car on the way home. No need to have bags of shite in the house

The box idea is great - that way she gets her “allocation/allowance” for the week and has control over consumption ... and when it’s gone it’s gone ... good lesson to learn with money and budgeting too - I think if she’s being sneaky about it you need to remove the availability of additional sugar type food over her weekly boxed allowance until she relearned healthy habits and behaviors - ideally you want to get her where she self regulates

In my house I have learnt to cut up fruit and veg and have them in easily accessible bowls / tubs in fridge so kids can grab and consume easily so they don’t gravitate towards foods of lower nutritional value

We also have bottles of water with names to encourage drinking water first to make sure your really hungry and not just thirsty

I proactively provide cut up fruit and veg and cheese or hummus etc etc after school to refuel and avoid the afternoon slump and resultant sugar seeking Behavior - prevention being better than cure

And I have also found for kids talking about food in terms of green (fruit and veg etc) / yellow (bread, nuts etc) / red (chips, biscuits etc) is helpful too to illustrate that balanced eating is lots of green, some yellow and a little bit of red each day

DD's BFF helped herself to my chocolate stash in our fridge, then DD copied for a few days. I gave her a stern talking to, and she hasn't done it since.

It's fine to say don't buy rubbish but I worry that when they leave home they will develop an unhealthy relationship with junk food as a result and fill their own houses with it.

Better to normalise it and have limited access, rather than restrict it and elevate it??

All these people who say get rid of the treat cupboard have obviously never had a child with cystic fibrosis. DS1 had his own floor level snack cupboard full of crisps and Mars bars, for the fat. We also kept his creon where he could reach it. Luckily, his sister never felt the need to steal his snacks.

All these people who say get rid of the treat cupboard have obviously never had a child with cystic fibrosis

Well, no

It's fine to say don't buy rubbish but I worry that when they leave home they will develop an unhealthy relationship with junk food as a result and fill their own houses with it.

Why would they

I and others have said we still buy chocolate and crisps. We just don't have them in the house.

I do worry that because I restrict crap they will seek it out more when they are older.
On the other hand, habits are hard to break and weight is hard to lose.
It's not like mine never have 'treats'- we love puddings, usually have crisps if we have a picnic or people round, and there are often party bag sweets around. But they know they have to ask and that the answer is often no.

Migraleve to get a drink, to put her rubbish in the bin and her dish in the sink, to get stuff for experiments for science homework, to put together a snack for after school club or a packed supper for play scheme? DD has done all these things since she was about 7.

I do worry that because I restrict crap they will seek it out more when they are older.
Why?????!!!???

What I'm saying Scabbersley, is that, despite DS1 having a snack cupboard full of Mars bars and crisps, without a lock on it and at ground level, from the age of 5, DD1 who's a year younger never felt the need to raid it. She got her sweets and crisps when I gave them to her, and never asked for them at other times. My younger 2 DC, who are 10 and 6, only want sweets and crisps when I give them to them, apart from the few days after DD2's BFF came round for tea.

"what does a 7yo need to be in the kitchen alone for?"

Our kitchen is our main living space! The lack of imagination of some posters about how other people live sometimes really astonishes me.

'she could have a sugar addiction and these are difficult to manage, I had one like this.'

Try her with a regular strong probiotic.

SCabbersley-because that is the perceived wisdom! Because you hear of teenagers spending their lunch money on sweets as soon as they get some independence. I don't know if it's true-i just said it's a worry!

Show her pics of tooth decay and explain diabetes to her? Explain that a little of what you fancy does you good but extremes have consequences etc...

The sugar smart app is good if she has an IPad, plus have they done any learning about sugar choices at school you could follow up on?

My dd aged 8 loves chocolate. One Easter she over indulged... and was sick and had an upset stomach. It actually helped...!

I don't believe that sugar is truly addictive, the claim seems to be based on studies of rats and I think it's quite appealing to those who have sweet tooths and simply find it difficult to say no.

The only person who has helped themselves to other people's treats in our house is dh, and he justifies it on the grounds that he can replace it so other people shouldn't be bothered. I'd go for the box each so it's more obvious to your 7 year old that she is taking from her siblings and so makes her actions less victimless. Plus in my experience siblings make pretty good policemen.

I don't think never giving it is the answer, my DM did this with fast food and I still get a small thrill from it. But there is a compromise between that and a cupboard full of snacks which are too tempting for this child who is already struggling with eating. I think eating it when out might be a good plan as suggested. I found it really hard to normalize sweets as an occasional treat with fruit and veg as go to top ups. Our dentist gave my pair a really stern conversation and set a limit of four things a day with added sugar excluding fruit that helped a lot. Cereal, fruit juice and yogurt tended to make up three leaving one spare. It also taught the dc to look at food labels and understand how much sugar was added to stuff.

To be honest although I knew about sugar in things like bread it also helped to remind me as well