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Community Corner

Jamaica Plain Moms Give Advice About Candy

How do you help your kids grow up healthy in a world saturated with sugar?

For families who celebrate Easter, baskets of Easter candy aren't too far away. And for all families, getting children to avoid excess sugar is an issue. This week JP moms talk about their approaches.

: We've learned the hard way that Pop-Tarts are not an ideal breakfast food.

As with almost everything else, your children will follow your lead with candy and other sugary foods.  (Would that this were true for vegetables!)  If they see you or other people they know eating sugar, they're going to want to get in on it as well.

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For most children, a little candy and sugar is probably going to be fine.  (If your child is diabetic or hypoglycemic, that's a whole 'nother ball of wax- do whatever your doctor tells you to.)  However, if your kids are like mine, give it to them when you won't mind that they're doing cartwheels, screaming at the top of their lungs or getting really emotional.  We've learned the hard way that Pop-Tarts are not an ideal breakfast food.

If they see you eat sugar as a special treat and not as an every day snack, that's probably how they'll treat it in the long run.  My oldest had a normal appreciation for sugar when she was younger- she was one of those babies that thought ice cream was the best thing ever- but now at the age of eighteen she limits herself to treats appropriate for an adult.

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