Thursday, November 3, 2011

What To Do With All That Halloween Candy?

By Julia Moravcsik, PhD, author of Teach Your Child to Love Healthy Food

Halloween is over and your child probably has a huge bag of candy that he's slogging through.  My son Sean got 68 pieces of candy from his trick-or-treating (yes, he counted them!).

At 2 pieces a day, that would mean candy for over two months!  That's a lot of "lessons" in learning to like the taste of candy.

Get Your Child to Happily Give Up His Candy

If you can find a way to get your child to happily give up his candy, you are training him to think that candy isn't that important.  Psychologically, the candy will seem to have less value because it's being traded for something else.

Plus, he won't be getting daily taste lessons in liking the taste of candy.  If a child is exposed to tastes when he is young, he will be more likely to like those tastes later on.

Buy Your Child's Candy

Some kids are very motivated by money.  My son Sean is one of these kids.

On Halloween night, I told Sean that I would buy his small candies for 15 cents each and his big candy bars for 25 cents each.  He got over $10, which was very exciting for him.

Trade It For Toys

Some kids don't value money, but they do value toys.  Buy a bunch of small toys and offer to trade the toys for the candy. 

Give It Away to a Hungry Child

Some kids are motivated by helping other people.  Food banks will take extra Halloween candy.  If your child has a big heart, tell him about the poor hungry children who would love his candy.

Don't Make It Sound Like Candy is Bad

If your child sees candy as a forbidden delicacy, he will only want it more.  Be casual about your motives for buying or giving away the candy.  My son assumed that I was buying the candy for myself and my office.  I didn't confirm or deny it!

Would you like a simple, easy-to-follow program that will teach your child to love healthy food? See my new book Teach Your Child to Love Healthy Food on amazon.com.

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1 comment:

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