With Halloween coming up thoughts of sugar are dancing through my head. I don’t make a habit of feeding my kids a lot of sugar, artificial flavours and colours because I know how it affects their mood and behaviour. But with a holiday coming up centered around sugar, is it okay to let them indulge? I know that it will hurt them and they will pay for it later but at the same time I don’t want them to feel left out, to be the kid who doesn’t get a lot of candy. It’s hard for a kid to be around sugar everywhere and be the one who can’t have it. Part of me wonders why the way we eat isn’t the majority, and the other part understands that sugar has been marketed as something that makes kids happy, and it’s true. It does for a little while, until the crash. So with Halloween coming up, if you feel like me, what can we do to create a balanced lifestyle?
I worry about Halloween being centered around candy like this and how much of it is actually good for kids. Yes, I do believe they should be able to to have some, but it is so easy to give in to that cute little face wanting to eat a pillow case full of sugar.
Please consider that they are smaller and can feel it as much or more than we do. Maybe try this. Let your child pick out a small toy and ask them if they will trade the majority of their candy to you for it. I have done this with success for 7 years now and my girls are happy because they get to experience trick or treating fun with their friends, they get a small amount of candy which they seem to appreciate more, and they make the choice to hand over the majority of their candy themselves. It has really worked in our house to create balance and most of all happy little bellies. If you are worried about the added cost of a small toy, try one of these tips to help save you money this Halloween.
If you do make the choice to load them up on sugar, (I still do sometimes) please don’t get mad at them when they have a tantrum, feel lethargic or act out of character. Think of that as part of the package. Please read more about sugar and how it affects their little bodies and trust yourself enough to decide what is really going to make them happy this Halloween.
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/04/17/magazine/mag-17Sugar-t.html?pagewanted=all
http://www.globalhealingcenter.com/sugar-problem/refined-sugar-the-sweetest-poison-of-all
Let me know if you have tried this, or your thoughts on this post!
Penny
Penny, I always bought my children’s candy (which includes your husband). They always seemed to be excited to have a new toy. I used to think about donating it to other children but thought this would be way too much sugar for anyone. I let them keep the raisins, the nuts and very few candy. I used to dread “candy” holidays which includes almost every celebratory holiday because of the emphasis on junk candy. Our society in general would be so much better by emphasizing love, compassion, understanding and the real holiday rather than supplementing them with candy in large amounts that truly makes everyone miserable.
Thanks for this! My 4 year old is allergic to peanuts so I am not crazy about any candy holidays….Halloween, Valentine’s, Easter, ugh! We are lucky she is still young and that we trick or treat at mostly homes of family members and her candy can disappear for the most part and she doesn’t really notice! This year we will definitely be starting the trade in though.
We’re going to the Great Candy Buyback hosted by the Evan’s Dental Centre in the Market Mall Professional building. We went last year and the girls loved it. They buy back the kids’ candy for a dollar a pound. Then their name is entered to win an iPod. The dentist matches the weight in candy they buy in apple donations to the food bank. We went straight to Chapters to spend the money.
I hope that if enough of us continue to make well educated choices then the way we eat will be normal.