How to teach your child to eat less sweets: expert advice

Everyone loves sweets, without exception, and especially children. But don't forget that anything with sugar, dyes and flavors is harmful to the body, especially to children. Experts do not recommend giving sweets to children under 3 years of age, but they can be easily replaced with healthy berries, fruits, cookies and pies, but without sugar and honey. However, very often parents do not follow this simple rule, and children have a constant need for sweets.

Nutritionist Sofia Shpak has shared useful tips on how to teach your child to eat less sweets. The tips were published on Yevhen Klopotenko's website.

1. Rewarding sweets for good behavior

By using this manipulation, parents are only making things worse, because the child will perceive sweets as highly desirable food that needs to be earned. And also, for both adults and children, sweets will become a way to imaginatively improve their mood.

2. Don't give children sweets after every meal as a reward

Children often don't want to eat, especially vegetables, and parents resort to various tricks, one of which is a candy at the end as a reward for the food they have eaten. But experts say that this method is completely wrong and further traumatizes the child and can easily cause a tantrum if the parents don't give the child sweets after the meal. As an alternative, offer your child healthy berries or fruits after meals.

3. Do not store sweets at home

If you have a lot of sweets at home, your child will definitely try them and this will lead to a daily need for them. It is better to make homemade cookies from natural and safe ingredients just for children, without sugar, honey. Add berries, nuts, seeds.

4. To be an example

It is very important to carefully examine products, even the most innocuous at first glance, and most importantly, let your child do the same, play the game "Find out how much sugar is in the product". Also, remember that there is always a lot of sugar in such products as juices, muesli, baby food and dairy products!