Yes, You Can Trust your Kids With Halloween Candy

You may have heard the advice to let your kids eat as much candy as they want on Halloween. For some parents that might not seem like a big deal but for others, Halloween can bring up a lot of strong feelings.

“I am dreading dealing with all the candy!”

The advice to be relaxed about Halloween candy is based on the habituation effect. If foods are forbidden or overly restricted, the theory says, children are more likely to engage in compulsive eating behaviors. Think sneaking pints of ice cream or bags of candy when parents aren’t looking. When children are given regular, sometimes unlimited access to these foods they no longer hold the same allure, and children are better able to self-regulate. You might practice this by occasionally serving a plate of cookies as a snack and not intervening if your child wants to eat the whole thing. Or, serving dessert alongside dinner, to be eaten at any time during the meal. No more “you have to eat your vegetables before you can have dessert!” The result, experts say, is a child that will grow to listen to their body’s hunger and fullness cues, enjoy a variety of nutritious foods, and treat things like candy and chips as just another food.

We get it. Parents want their kids to eat less sugar (more on that later), so they create rules about how much their kids can have. On Halloween they might only allow a certain number of pieces of candy, and then hide the rest away. The problem is that sometimes this can backfire and children end up begging for it relentlessly or sneaking it and hiding the evidence. This can cause stress for parents and shame for kids and it can damage the feeding relationship between parent and child. In order to take the advice to loosen the reins, it might be helpful to explore some of the reasons it’s hard for parents to let go.

What are you worried about?

Weight

If my child eats too much sugar they will gain too much weight

Health

Eating too much sugar can cause diabetes or other health problems

Behavior

Eating too much sugar can cause hyperactivity or emotional outbursts

Judgment

If I let my child eat too much candy, I’ll look like a bad parent

Personal reasons

If I leave this candy in the house I’m going to eat too much of it

What would it be like to set those worries aside for a moment and focus instead on your feeding relationship with your child and on their relationship with food? Studies have shown that how we approach feeding our kids is just as important as what we feed them. By being less restrictive you are giving your child the best chance at learning how to self-regulate with the very foods you are trying to control. Remember, just because you are practicing a less restrictive approach doesn’t mean you are throwing nutrition and health out the window. Responsive feeding also means including a wide variety of foods in meals and snacks. The best way to encourage your children to eat and enjoy a variety of foods is to have them around and eat them yourself. Pairing sugary foods with protein and fiber can give your child more sustained energy and helps to regulate their blood sugar. After all, your child’s “sugar high” might actually be a result of overstimulation, hunger, and excitement about getting access to something that is usually restricted.

So what does this actually look like?

The goal is to give your child an opportunity to have fun and enjoy the holiday so they can move on without being so consumed by having candy in the house.

Some helpful tips:

– Try to give them something to eat before trick or treating. Pizza, hot dogs, and chicken nuggets will all give them some protein and prevent sugar highs and lows.

– When they get home, let your kids enjoy their candy. Some kids like to dump it out and dive in. Others will be more strategic, sorting their candy or saving their favorites for later. Get down on the floor and join them – if they’ll let you!

– Once they’ve had their fill, collect the remaining candy and pick a place to keep it with your child.

– In the days after Halloween there might still be a lot of excitement about the candy, but you can start treating it just like any other food in the house. Include some candy with a snack or pop some into your child’s lunch box. Bring the candy bowl out for dessert. The more you present the candy as just one component of a snack or meal the less exciting it will be and the more they will learn about balance and listening to their bodies.

– Some families get to a point where they can even have a candy bowl or jar that they keep out at all times and the kids forget it’s there.

Hopefully, once you’re able to drop some of the worry about candy, you can shift your focus to all the spooky fun that Halloween has to offer.

References:

Shapiro A. Why you should let your kids eat all the halloween candy they want. Bon Appetit Magazine. October 26, 2017. Accessed October 21, 2024. https://www.bonappetit.com/entertaining-style/holidays/article/halloween-candy-ration-rules

Jansen E, Mulkens S, Jansen A. Do not eat the red food!: prohibition of snacks leads to their relatively higher consumption in children. Appetite. 2007;49(3):572-577.

Prates CB, Passos MAS, Masquio DCL. Parental feeding practices and ultra-processed food consumption in preschool children. Rev Nutr. 2022;35:e210269.

Savard C, Bégin S, Gingras V. Factors associated with eating in the absence of hunger among children and adolescents: a systematic review. Nutrients. 2022;14(22):4715.

Birch LL, Fisher JO, Davison KK. Learning to overeat: maternal use of restrictive feeding practices promotes girls’ eating in the absence of hunger. Am J Clin Nutr. 2003;78(2):215-220.

Shloim N, Edelson LR, Martin N, Hetherington MM. Parenting styles, feeding styles, feeding practices, and weight status in 4-12 year-old children: a systematic review of the literature. Front Psychol. 2015;6:1849.