Freaking out about how much chocolate your child is going to eat this Easter?

It is so much fun watching our child/ren run around and look for Easter Eggs on Easter Sunday.  While they search high and low, we take happy snaps, offer little hints about where the good hiding spots are and share the joy as they find the chocolate eggs around the house and/or garden.  As their little Easter baskets fill up, their smiles grow wider and finally all the eggs are found.  What next?!

Do we:

• Give our child 3 eggs and hide the rest of the eggs away, hoping they will forget about them?
• Say to your child that they must eat all of your breakfast first, then you can have a few eggs?
• Replace the chocolate with a toy?
• Let our child eat all of them at once?

These options leave us wondering, what can we teach our children about food during celebrations where sweets are the focus?

Feeding Specialist, Ellyn Satter summarises research, stating “Children who have regular access to sweets and other “forbidden foods” eat them moderately. Children who don’t have regular access load up on them when they aren’t even hungry.” She goes on to suggest, “Make sugary foods a regular part of meals and snacks. Put a serving of dessert at each place at mealtime and let your child eat it before, during, or after the meal. No seconds. Then make up for mealtime sweets scarcity at snack time, by periodically offering unlimited sweets. Put a plate of cookies or snack cakes on the table with milk, and let your children eat as many as they want. At first, they will eat a lot, but the newness will wear off and they will eat a few and lose interest.”

Will you change how you offer chocolate this Easter?  You may like to start a new food journey with your child, one where chocolate isn’t the ‘forbidden bad guy’, rather chocolate becomes just another food to eat and therefore there is no need to load up.

Here is a plan you can follow, using the Division of Responsibility in Feeding:

1)     Easter Sunday and Monday:

• Allow your child to enjoy their Easter eggs. Let your child eat as much as they want throughout the day.
• Avoid interfering. This means no comments such as “I think you’ve had enough”, or “I told you so” when they say they don’t feel great.

2)     The following days:

• Offer the chocolate only at meals (a couple of pieces with lunch/dinner) and snacks (as much as they like).
• Ensure you offer the chocolate with other foods. For example, from a pick plate of chocolate, fruit and crackers. You might be surprised they eat more than just their chocolate… but don’t ask or pressure them to do this! Avoid the temptation to bribe such as “eat your carrot sticks first and then you can have your chocolate.”
• Remember the Division of Responsibility in Feeding: You provide the “what”, “where” and “when” of food, and your child decides “whether” or “how much” to eat.

3)     The rest of the year:

• From a young age, children hear food messages from their parents, friends, and the media. Avoid talking about ‘good food’ and ‘bad food’. Studies point to the forbidden foods becoming more tempting than if they are presented in a neutral way. Model appropriate neutral food choices. For example, if you don’t want any more chocolate, say a simple ‘no thanks’. Avoid saying things like ‘No, I’m being good today’ or ‘Oh no, I shouldn’t’. Our goal is to raise children who listen to their hunger and fullness cues and aren’t fixated on foods or their bodies.

Remember, Easter only happens once a year.  If your child eats a lot of chocolate on this day or the next day and a few other foods, they will be ok.  They have had an opportunity to develop their competence as an eater and learn to listen to their innate feeding cues.

Our own experience:

We have followed the recommendations from the Ellyn Satter Institute each Easter since Mr. W was over 2 years of age. He didn’t know much about chocolate before 2, so we kept it that way. His little brother is much more aware of chocolate at a younger age! In the photos below, Mr. W enjoys Easter as an almost 3-year-old and an almost 5-year-old. He loves chocolate but he usually (not always, as he is still learning) stops eating when he listens to his internal hunger cues. Rather than only having exposure to chocolate at celebrations (e.g. parties, Halloween, and Easter) we try to include it regularly with structure, for example with a fruit snack or a piece with dinner. It has taken a lot of trust but he continues to amaze me with his self-regulation.

Written by Rachel Smith March 30, 2021