As kids prepare to dress-up as superheroes, princesses and all types of ghouls this Halloween, parents are donning their own persona: the treat police.
The get-up goes on a couple of days after Halloween and sticks around right until the Christmas cookies arrive.
It even comes with a post-Halloween soundtrack on replay: “Only one chocolate a day.” “How much candy did you eat?” “Did you brush your teeth?”
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A New York-based nutritionist says parents should relinquish the role of treat police and instead use Halloween as an opportunity to teach their kids about healthy eating habits.
“Halloween is just the most obvious example of living in this sort of buffet, bingeing world that we have,” Dina Rose said. “So we have to start early to teach our kids how to have the habits that they need to get through the holiday season for their lives.”
Rose advises against creating a kind of power struggle over candy. She says if kids feel that their bag of treats will be confiscated at any moment, they are more likely to gorge, hide their goodies and grow up into adults who can’t control themselves around treats.
“One of the things that really bothers me about trying to get rid of the candy is that it conveys these unintended messages like, ‘You can’t be trusted around the candy,'” Rose said.
“I suggest throwing it into a candy drawer or a candy jar and let kids draw from it with some guidelines… Let kids feel in control of it.”
Rose says if parents trust kids to access candy with guidelines – such as one treat a day – they allow kids to put into practice healthy eating habits:
- Proportion (eat more healthy foods than treats)
- Variety (eat different foods day to day)
- Moderation (eat when you’re hungry, stop when you’re full and don’t eat when you’re sad, lonely or bored)
“If we talk to our children about those three habits, they will learn to implement eating decisions the way we want them to,” Rose said.
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If parents are concerned about candy consumption, she recommends limiting the amount of treats kids pick up in the first place. That means capping the number of houses they visit or the length of time they trick-or-treat.
For more tips from Rose, visit itsnotaboutnutrition.com.