In article . com,
wrote:

OK.. I'm excited to see your responses. I only have 2 kids and the
oldest, almost 3 now, has started this thing of eating nothing but
chocolate/candy if she has her way. We went through this about a year
ago and DH insisted we let her have her fill on the candy so as not to
make it a "treat". Well at the time it seemed to work and within a
couple of days she went back to eating real food and didn't seem to
care too much about the sweets. Now.. here we go again. Now this may
only be happening because there's chocolate in the house from the
holidays and when it's all gone the argument may be moot but here's the
question. I think the child should be encouraged to eat real food (ie a
bowl of cottage cheese or some meat) PRIOR to her having the box of
chocolate put in front of her. Daddy thinks she should not be coerced
into eating anything prior to filling up on candy and believes that in
doing so I will cause irreversible food association(guilt, pleasure,
rewards, etc) that he believes should in no way be associated with food
and may lead to weight control issues in the futere. In your experience
which method seemed to work better?

I basically agree with your DH - don't make candy some special treat
that is very limited in nature. I think this can lead to bingeing and
other food related health issues in later life. We keep a jar of candy
on top of the fridge for the kids (DH & I don't eat it). They ask for
some ( a very small handful in a bowl) maybe once or twice a week. I
let them have it if there is more than an hour to go before a scheduled
meal. They are more likely to ask for fruit than candy, but that's
their preference, as I buy cheap generic chocolate candy but keep a lot
of very nice fruit in the house.

It does seem, however, that *you* and *DH* have a problem with having
candy in the house and it would seem to be just easier to throw it in
the trash can than to keep fighting over it. It's not like candy is a
vital food group. If the kids really want some, they'll ask for it at
the checkout or wherever and get their fix that way.

eggs.