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.

LoverOfCake it obviously looks like I was picking on you. I'm sorry if it came across that way. It's just that you hit a raw nerve. I've heard "everyone" so often, I've had to drill into DS1 since he was 5 that "everyone" doesn't mean him. His school introduced colour coded trays at lunch time. The red tray was the "healthy" tray. Practically no fat. I told him "any tray except the red tray" every morning.

Why do you need treats? Are you a family of dogs? Seriously, no-one needs treats. They just make you fat and unhealthy. Why don't you have some bowls of fruit around the house for the kids to help themselves to? Much healthier.

And... here we go again. Some people need a ready supply of chocolate and crisps. We don't call them treats. We call them DS1's snacks. If he didn't have them he'd starve to death. He'll never be fat, and he was born unhealthy.

Will people stop with the "no-one"? You mean healthy people don't.

We don’t buy ‘treats’ to have in the house. (But we do eat a lot so certainly not saints in terms of what we feed our kids!) And we also don’t call it treats. We talk about food as energy a lot and how some food gives you better energy than others. My DH has always really struggled with his weight and is really keen to avoid the kids having an overly emotional relationship with food. So hard though, isn’t it?!

EvilDoctorBallerinaRoastDuck, whatever is wrong with your DS, it sounds like it is extremely rare. I have never heard of anyone NEEDING chocolate and crisps before.

My kids don’t have health issues but as a general principle I totally see where you’re coming from Evildoctor what’s a healthy for one person is unhealthy for another and vice verse - another reason the “treat” attitude can be unhelpful

leil

I read it as her son has a medical condition which means he struggles to maintain weight/restricted diet by which it is a case of any calories are better than no calories.

My son has a very restricted diet and weight issues (underweight and losing weight) so if he would eat crisps and chocolate then for him it would be in his best interest to do so!

It's not that rare now, and is getting more common with every generation. It's cystic fibrosis. He can't digest fat. Even with artificial enzymes, he only digests about 75% of the fat he eats. Therefore everything he eats has to be high fat. This is compounded by the fact that his stomach is full of mucus (sorry), so he very rarely feels hungry. He has a snack cupboard full of Mars bars and crisps, even when he was 5, his 4yo sister knew she wasn't allowed in there. My post above yours explains why the sweeping generalisation "no-one" upsets me, and him.

Thanks Sirzy, but the majority of calories have to come from fat. I'm glad that DS1 is an adult now, I'd probably have had to provide packed lunches for him, seeing what my younger 2 get at school now.

So sorry to hear that EvilDoctor. Your poor DS. Of course, he is an exception. But then I guess you don't call them 'treats'?

Sirzy I suppose you've tried all the usual things? Putting loads of butter in mash, etc?

No Leilanii, they're DS1's snacks. 😊

Yes as much as we can, he is autistic and has a lot of food aversions to do with that so butter is a no no and he can smell it a mile off.

Oh, blimey! I wish you all the luck in the world Sirzy. 🍀🍀🍀🍀🍀🍀🍀🍀🍀