4 Yr Old Eating Candy & Junk in the Morning...

Hi H., I know this is a bit post-dated, but wanted to let you know about this possibility as well - I didnt see where anyone else had posted it. Another reason for sweet cravings could be the possibilty of a systemic yeast infection. I had a horrible sweet tooth as a kid and this was probly the main reason. The website www.yeastinfectionadvisor.com has some great tips for spotting the signs and what to do about it if its suspected. Its been a life saver for me and one of my girls - I've finally broken the chain. :}

I see you have already gotten a lot of GREAT advice on this but I'm dealing with this exact situation so I wanted to share what is working for me. My 3-year-old son used to wake up way early and start with eating breakfast bars, then apples, then bananas, then start on the sweets. Now, I leave him a cup of water on the dining room table along with a breakfast bar or banana or apple and tell him he may have it in the morning and then when mommy and daddy get up he may have something else healthy to eat. I also had to start putting a lock on the refigerator and pantry but ONLY AT NIGHT until he gets out of the habit of grazing when we are in bed. I don't have to worry about this when we are awake; he always asks for permission first so I think it is just a bordom issue in the morning.
Good Luck!

I think it has more to do with rules and following them than what's in the house. I have kids that same age and they would never help themselves to anything. They know that I get the food for them and they aren't allowed to just help themselves. We have candy in the house and I could leave a whole bucket of it on the dining room table and they wouldn't touch it without asking first.
I really think it will lead to a bigger problem as he gets older if he thinks he can just get into whatever he wants when nobody is looking. And you should not have to remove things from the house to get him to listen.
I'm not being critical of you at all so please don't read it that way. I just know how kids are and they like to see what they can get away with.
Hope this helps,
J.
Mom to 4, soon 5 through another adoption and hopefully more :o)

To be honest I think the fact that your son is downstairs in the kitchen eating by himself in the morning is of greater concern than WHAT he is eating. What if he chokes or plays with the stove or something? Not to scare you, but my priority would be to stop him from going downstairs. We have a gate at the top of our stairs with an alarm on it that goes off if someone opens it without deactivating it first. We got it at Target. I would make it clear to him that he has to wake you or your husband up before he goes downstairs. My kids wake up very early (between 5-6 am) and they both know to wake us up before doing anything.

We use to have the same problem with our son. There are three choices...1) keep it out of the house 2) lock it up (your bedroom, liquor cabinet, etc) or 3) get up with your child in the morning so he isn't by himself with the opportunity to get into stuff.

My now-9 year old grandson - had a special drawer in the kitchen that was his '''help yourself' drawer - as his parents were ( when he was 5) dealing with a newborn whose clock said ''night is up and day is sleep''' - so Brian could get up at 7 or so - go in and take out a box of individual cereal - and a packet of cheese and crackers - you know - the kind of thing- and just help himself until one of his parents staggered out - rubbing their weary eyes- he LOVEd it and it helped them- becasue you are so right that food is good and we need to model that - ( but the frosting - ummmm=- no - not a 'help yourself' - food - what a cutie he must be!

Blessings,
Grandma-
aka - J.

I feel for ya :) My 2 yr old daughter and 3 yr old son are masters of destruction in the mornings. My son thinks it's a great idea to be up every morning between 5 and 7am. I am NOT a morning person. Mostly because when my hubby works 12 hour shifts I have to stay up after midnight to get his laundry done some days. Yesterday they were up bright and early and got a brand new pack of balogne out and ate/mangled the whole pack! Grrrrrrr! So much for lunch!
Good luck with it!

Hi,
What is missing from this thread is that sugar is a drug. Certain people react to sugar like an alcoholic reacts to alcohol.
This is well documented but rarely talked about because other than sugar being regarded as not so great for our health, weight and teeth, it is widely accepted as a good fun thing. In truth most of us can manage it, but others have a much more difficult time.

The book Potatoes not Prosac explains how some people react physiologically to sugar.

I taught Sugar Workshops for years, am the daughter of an alcoholic and found my own daughter plowing her way through a box of chocolate at two years old. I have heard of toddlers climbing out of their cribs to get to the sugar bowl.

While it is very important for parents to set a good example and putting the safety of their child first, making food bad or prohibiting sugar doesn't work. The people I have worked with who have the most difficulty often come from families where there was a lot of control issues around food.

Educating your children about nutrition and staying clear of situations where they have sweets on an empty stomach goes a long way. Also asking the question, "Are you hungry?" And teaching that hunger will never be truly satisfied with sugar.

White sugar has been raped of all the nutrition it had,so if you are going to bake, try to use whole sugar:brown sugar is not whole sugar. Sometimes you will see the trace minerals listed. It is a real eye opener.

One reader mentioned splenda. Some people are highly allergic to Splenda. If you don't thing Partially Hydrogenated Oil is a good idea, you might want to do some research about Spenda. It often goes by the name sucralose.

Thank you for all the good parenting you do. I am continually amazed by the quality of care that is being given to our children.

www.LisaCrunick.com

Why don't you just stock your home with healthy snacks that you son should be eating & get rid of all the candy. Of course if the candy is in the house, he's going to want to eat it. Those kinds of junk foods are for occasional consumption & should not be part of a healthy diet for kids or adults (I'm sure you know this...) so why have them in the house at all? Then when Halloween comes around, for example, or Easter, the candy is a nice treat. Your child is not going to develop an unhealthy desire for something that he doesn't know exists. Why not instead introduce him to healthy snacks like whole grain crackers, organic string cheese and cut up fresh fruit? My 3 year old eats 3 containers of strawberries a week all by himself because that's what we keep in the house for him to snack on. Or a banana or rasberries... Forget about candy in the house. None of us needs to eat candy : )

Hi. I just wanted to mention that sometimes, when a body is craving lots of sweets, it is sometimes due to a protein deficiency. Then again, sometimes it is just the taste for sweets, period :) If you think this might be the case, you can try adding more beans and grains to your little one's diet. It might be another avenue to check out.

The eating junk food thing will work out! The reson I'm writing is because of the "My husband & I have been in love..."!
THAT'S THE BEST!

H., I was about to leave a note but I noticed that Norma K. has already said pretty much what I would have told you.

You really do need to talk to your son's doctor regarding these eating habits. There may well be something more serious at play here than a craving for sweets and there are more possiblities than diabetes that could be at the root of his problem. And they could be setting him up for some very serious problems in the future if he is not reigned in. For instance, if he is overweight right now and he doesn't learn good eating habits, diabetes could be one outcome. Heart disease is another. None of the options look good at this point. Hopefully, it is just his discovery of his sweet tooth and he is merely trying to satisfy it and, by clearing the house of the sweets, you will help him to establish more healthful eating habits. When he is older, he will be able to understand the connection between eating habits and diseases like his father's diabetes and the horrible consequences if not controlled.

Good luck.

My almost-four-year-old does the SAME thing! And he has a wacky sleep schedule where he gets up anywhere from 2-5am (even without naps) and sings in his bed...he rarely roams at night, but about 5am on, he considers the day to have begun adn he will get up and eat whatever he can find that is sweet if I oversleep. We don't normally buy candy, but it does creep in sometimes from Easter, Halloween, etc. I have also found him eating ANYTHING sweet he can find, i.e. cookie decorations (sprinkles) - kinda like your icing. We just try to keep the candy out of the house...if it comes home from a party with big brother, I give him a day to have a few pieces, then to the trash it goes. As for the cookie decor, I now have a storage spot for all party supplies in my garage.

There's sugar in everything nowadays, and I am having a hard time keeping it away from the kids. I mean, it's in cereal that's supposedly unsweetened! SO...I will have to be on this child all the time, to watch him.

FYI, his older brother and his step-siblings have never done this much. They always ask permission. I don't know if it's his birth order (later born, a lot of kids - so no one would notice if he did this?), his personality (he is a little go-getter, much more brave and outgoing than the others, great self-esteem!), or his body needs more fuel. We have worked on mealtime, but he doesn't want to eat more - and I'm not going to force him and make it a fight and an eating disorder (I want him to know when he's full, and to respect his hunger signals). I know he gets up in the mornings "starved" so we do work on eating breakfast immediately when he arises.

Best of luck to you!
~ K.

Just a little tidbit (in case you have time to read it! LOL) I recently heard that if you eat something 'protein' first thing in the morning (instead of a starch -- bread, cereal, sweets), it curbs the desire for sweets. Maybe have a protein bar that he could eat or a little condiment cup of peanut butter or some beef sticks or jerky, etc.

Happy childrearing!

I remember when my daughter did this... she painted our entire kitchen door with the contents of a huge peanut butter jar! and ate it as well... stuck her chubby little hand in the jar and gobbled it up.

i dont think he needs to have it explained to him - he needs to be punished. he is not following the rules, plain and simple. you are essentially asking him not to do it anymore - you need to tell him.

And, I think locking things up wouldn't hurt. if you have a bi-fold pantry door, get a child safety lock for it (slides side to side on top of the door itself). Find a way to enforce your 'no' to him.

That being said, I think if you don't allow him to have some sweets, they do develop an obsession. tell him, mommy decides when you've earned it and then you can have it. Heck, for a while, this was the only thing I could take away from my kids to punish them - I would say 'well, I'm sorry you did that, because I was going to give you a cookie after dinner...but now you lost it'

i decided punishment was the best way to go when my 2 yr old daughter decided at 5 am to open all my nail polish and dump them out on the carpet to get those cool metal balls in the bottom of the bottle, her early waking and getting into things needed to stop because she was on the edge of danger.

I know that this one is all done but I wanted to add..
I know of a little boy that would get up in the middle of the night and just sit in the pantry and just EAT, just to eat and no other reason, the mom ended up having to lock the pantry. She only had to keep it locked at night, and it only lasted a month, and then he was so used to it being locked, he never searched anymore. so it could be a temporary lock, and it should work.

another idea. something that we do in our family is that we have ONE day a week that my kids are allowed to eat "junk food" They are allowed to eat buttery/sugary popcorn, 2 -3 "bite size" pieces of candy, ice cream.. and it is the only day of the week that they are allowed to have soda. We have "fun Friday" for this sugared up day. We might have doughnuts for breakfast, Mac'n'cheese (homemade with real cheese not american cheese) for lunch, and I will generally let them snack all day long. Their fav snack is actually stuff like honey nut cheerios, fruit loops and Cocoa Puffs. but since I usually only buy un-sugary cerial, they rarely have those.
When my oldest was 2 1/2 he got into EVERYTHING. This was during the time that DH and I were working night shift and were not getting off work until about 1ish, and my mom was taking care of my son during that time and she was putting him to bed at night at 6, so he was getting up about 4 hours after we got to bed!(he would wake up about 6ish) I remember one morning he decided that he wanted oatmeal. He poured outmeal out (all of it) into a small bowl, it ended up all over the coffee table that he was using, and all over the carpet. then he poured bubble soup all over it.. and I dont remember what else but, did you know that bubbles + Oatmeal = glue? It took SO many washings to get the oatmeal out of the carpet! and it took alot to get the oatmeal off of the coffie table too. at that point I started making sure that I had left out some cerial where he could get to it, and some milk in a little cup. But I think it was more about being bored because this was also the time that he decided to
Turn on the TV,
Get out a dvd
Start the dvd in the player.
Turn on mommies computer
get out dvd
start dvd on computer
turn on daddys laptop
open cd slot
get out dvd
put in dvd
we caught him at this point, with two movies playing (including the sterio turned on with the sound and everything, and just so you know, we had a lock on the sterio so that he wasnt supposed to be able to do this on his own, but he did it with the REMOTE!) he was just getting a third movie going when we walked in and gasped... Oh my goodness!

Now he is 8 and he gets up, fixes his own breakfast unless he wants eggs or something, then he quietly walks into my room and whispers.. Mommy.. mommy, can we have eggs for breakfast? and half the time he ends up in bed with me until I am ready to get up. It is the only cuddle time that I get with my big kid!

Hello H.,

I have read all of the responses to your dilemma, however I believe that we should take a step back and look at the bigger picture. I am inclined to believe that his cravings are a product of something larger than just a like for sweets. His desire to eat food high in sugar is a sign. Since his dad is a diabetic I would look into this realm of possibilities. I would visit a specialist and him tested just to rule out conditions that may contribute to these cravings. I know I may sound opinionated, but I rarely respond to questions posted on mamasource, but I felt I needed to say something or I wouldn't be able to sleep tonight...good luck!

Don't punish him, just make sure all the house is de-junked. He is only doing what is developmentally appropriate - eating what he loves. When my little one was younger I would eat sweets when she was asleep, now I have had to dejunk the house and you know it is very good for mamma to stop eating stuff that she shouldn't be eating and eat healthier instead. For dessert, we generally have fruit.

Dearest H.,
I agree with Cortney G. You should be more worried about what can happen with him having free run of the house with out you. Everyone who has posted has given very good advice. Teaching him that he needs to play in his room until you get up is best. Gillian is 19 months and when she wakes, she play's in her room until i come and get her. If you can work on something like that then the rest of the problem will go away.
Ofcorse not having any sweets in the house isnt bad either. I know it has helped my waistline, heheh.
Sherry

I don't know if anybody gave you this suggestion, but you might want to make some baggies of healthy snacks he can eat, such as cereal, dehydrated fruit, etc., and let him know he can choose one snack and have a small cup of milk or juice in the fridge he can have. Next, no offense here, but with a 4 year old in the house, you need to set your alarm and get up in the morning, or teach him to wake you up. IMO, it's not safe to have them wandering the house by themselves, or even eating snacks---what if he chokes on his food while you're sleeping??!!

When my daughter was 3, i woke up to a giant mess in the kitchen. there was an entire bag of flour all over the floor and poured into the dog bowl- along with eggs, milk, a stick of butter, hot sauce, and various other items. She said she was making the dog pancakes for breakfast! Needless to say, I explained that she could not do this and about a month later she did it again- same scenario, just a little less messy. So, se put a padlock on the fridge. My concern was her safety (and the dog's), getting hot sauce in the eyes, broken egg shells, etc. Because kids can be very sneaky, it can be difficult to be up with them in the morning if they wake up before you and are quiet and sneak around. Although my daughter was punished, I wanted to make sure she was safe too. The fridge was old, so the padlock, although inconvenient and an eysore, did the trick. She is 6 now, and I keep a snack drawer in the bottom of the fridge (new) that she knows is just for her. I keep it stocked with healthy snacks she can help herself to- cheese sticks, gogurt, juice boxes, fruit, etc.) She's older and more responsible now to handle this on her own. Maybe setting up something like this for your son, a "special" drawer/cabinet that belongs just to him that he can have full-access to- and stock it with acceptable items. That way he can feel the independence of getting his own snack, but within your guidelines.

You've gotten plenty of feedback and I didn't read it all so maybe I'm repeating...but I wouldn't want my 4-5 yr old up and about unsupervised in the house and climbing on stuff. (he could fall and get hurt for one thing) I always got up when my kids did-I'm not a morning person either but...would you let a babysitter sleep while your kid's running around the house? Just my two cents...

I just had to laugh because it is 8:30 am here, DH is out of town, and I am relaxing with a cup of coffee...all because I gave my kids their Halloween buckets and they are in heaven. Oh well.

Also, mine get in the fridge too. I found out that there is Breyers yogurt with the "Cars" characters on it, and now they reach right for that (unless of course I am bribing them with candy)

out of sight out of mind. don't buy the stuff and keep it in the house, those things are horrible for the whole family anyway....we don't keep candy or pop in our house for this exact reason, if they see it around they are gonna want it. we buy it for them on special occasions and let them have small amounts here and there. but for the most part we don't let them have it, and they never want for it because it's never around. we do have small jars at the bottom of the pantry with peanuts, dried fruit and cereal....and in the fridge in the bottom drawer we keep cut up apples bananas or whatever fruit is to their liking. good luck

Hi, just wanted to add one more note to all the advice you have gotten. I had the same problem when my kids were younger, and I too was NOT a morning person. The solution we found was to first make sure nothing tempting was left out on the counters, then put cereal and bowls out for them. Also, whenever they woke up they were to come tell us good morning than choose a quiet activity to do in the living room until everyone was awake (books, coloring, cartoons, electronic game without sound on). Then, my husband or I would wake enough to move to the couch so we were still in the same room as them, and could doze still. With twin boys who wake with the sun no matter how late they stay up, and a sister just two years older....this was our only sanity saving device. We needed the sleep! Plus, you don't sleep as deeply when you hear their little noises around you. Blessings !

Hi H.,

I feel for you! I have a 6 year old and a 1 year old. Your son's health depends on you guiding him to make healthy food choices. It all starts with you.

I am sure your four and a 1/2 year old is not the one doing the grocery shopping!

My husband and I both have battled our weight FOREVER. We do not want our kids to have a weight problem now or later in life so we have worked diligently in talking to our older son on healthy eating habits etc.

You can do this. Get the "garbage" out of your house! You don't need it and you said your husband is diabetic so he doesn't need it either. Plus you two should be eating healthy as a good example for your child.

My son loves bananas, fruit cups (with no sugar), sugar free jello cups. He will even eat Skinny Cow mini ice cream bars. He likes low fat cheese sticks too. He doesn't know the difference!

We talk to our son about how much fat is in food, how much sugar etc. Beleive it or not, he understands. He is even starting to look at food labels. He is starting to read so he will spell words out to us and tell us the numbers.

We have explained to our son that we want him to be healthy and not have a problem with his weight or have a "big tummy".
My husband and I know what it's like to be over weight- so anything we can do to keep his weight in check we are doing.

Does your son exercise? That's another good thing to talk to him about and do with him.

I know I am rambling here...sorry! Back to the original problem of him going down by himself- I agree with the one post about him tell you and your husband that he is up and going downstairs. I also agree about putting a lock on the pantry. Another idea would be to show him the foods he is allowed to eat in the morning. Maybe put a small container in the pantry with his snacks or in the fridge.

As far as sweets- You need to tell him how it's okay to have sweets on special occassions or two or three times a week. My son has "dessert" most nights- Except dessert can be a sugar free jello or a piece of Easter candy or even a banana. He doesn't have candy every night. There are evn nights when he has no dessert.

Hope this helps you somewhat. I know it's tough- But just remember you are in charge of your son's health. My husband and I said we never had anyone monitoring what we were eating when we were kids- we were in the clean your plate club etc. We said before our kids were born we were going to do everything to keep them healthy and trim!

Good luck!
:)
MV

I see things are getting better for you. My advice just in case others are still reading this with questions in mind, is to have things around they can reach that are not only healthy, but fun/attractive for them to look at. Get items like apples and slice them, then place them in a container with Dora or a Dinosaur on it in the fridge, front and center. Or put the cheese sticks with characters on them front and center. Last, Get Kashi snacks (high fiber and protein and healthy)or Kashi cereals, and put their favorite character's stickers all over the box. They can't resist. It's like getting candy for them. Then the health factor can come back if they start to snoop again.
:)
A.

I see I'm a bit late, but I think this is absolutely hilarious! My 2 yr old sleeps late, thank god, because she can open and CLIMB UP the pantry shelves, no matter how high we put the cheese puffs - talk about heart failure!

I remember a mom that used to put one cup of milk, for easy pouring, in the refrigerator and leave a covered bowl of healthy cereal out on the counter so she could sleep late on Saturdays. I also think the "help yourself" drawer is fabulous, and may start when my climber can comprehend "this is for Claire".

AND..only you know if your child is mature enough to be left unattended for a while...some 4-5 yr olds are pretty bright about safety.
~still giggling...good luck, K.

I have a seven year old daughter that does the same thing, we recently moved and I had purchased a plant stand, she put a bowl in it and thought it would be a great place for the fruit. Wow! Why didn't I think about that, she couldn't easily reach the fruit before, and it was easier to go for the junk. I have not only put fruit in the bowl, but small baggies of almonds and granola type bars that I don't mind she eats.

As for the treats after dinner, he is old enough that you can teach him about good sugars and bad sugars, I allow my daughter sugar free popscicles and while we do have candy in the house from holidays, we don't buy sugar except at holidays to bake with. We use only Splenda.

As for locking things up, I have a teenage daughter also and we have decided that we WANT to put the real treats in a child proof cabinet, so if we really want it we can get the magnetic key, but it stops us all from mindlessly grabbing the junk.

Do you have a Trader Joe's where you live? I only ask because they have a great deal of baked, lower salt and fat snacks also.

By the way, the first morning after the fruit, nuts and bars were placed out, she proudly told me that she had eaten a piece of fruit, the bag of nuts and the bar for breakfast.

Good luck

Ok I know i am coming in late on this and i see there are a lot of kids that have done something similar. I was just wondering if you have taken him to a doctor preferrable an endocrinologist to see if his body is deficient in something. The only reason i say this is because he makes it a point to get up so early and now if he can't find candy he eats icing. I have read several things where if you crave chocolate your body is deficient in Magnesium. This is just a thought because to me it sounds like this is a craving something he can't control since its every morning.

get one of those pantrys at walmart, and screw it to the wall, and lock it, thats what we had to do, and he was allowed in there 1 or 2 times a day to pick anything he wanted, that is if he didnt sneak it first, we told him what he sneaked and ate was gonna be his treat, and told him, hope ya enjoyed it when you snuck it, cause sneaking it counted for the 2 times he got free roam... lol worked after a while... he became a fruit lover, not much candy after that...lol

I agree with every comment this far. I believe the word we all should consider is moderation. There is no need to take candy, sugar, frosting... Out of your house. Unless you have an over abundance. There are many a mom and child that enjoy a goodie in "moderation". In my experience, complete deprivation just makes them work harder for that tummy.
Addressing the safety would be concern 1 if I was that sweet child's mommy. I would love to see a little bit of everything. Have some delicious, healthy items, and then have some junk with you in his presence. If he doesn't have to sneak, maybe the desire will fade. As with most things, these phases come and go. Just be encouraged and aware that our children will face a world of sweet temptation. We should prepare them in the home for those. Using moderation :).
Best of luck to you.

I am the oldest of 4 children, and a mother to 5 ranging in age from 17 to 1.

Would it be possible to get a kids clock in his room and teach him what time he can come out. If he has toys in his room that should keep him busy for a 1/2 hour or more.
You could also set out something small, like a granola bar for him in the morning.
My son has been wanting candy a lot lately too, remnants of parties, holidays, etc. We don't usually allow candy snacks unless it's after lunch or dinner. I too am about ready to pitch 3/4's of it. It adds up.
Good luck.