How to reduce your child’s sugar intake with these two simple parenting hacks

This is a sponsored post. If you look at the amount of sugar our kids eat; it is truly shocking as a parent. It is all too easy to ignore it as it happens over a long period of time.

If you are anything like us, you probably don’t really notice the odd biscuit here, and there, or the sugar content in the morning breakfast cereals. However – take a look at this:

THIS is the amount of sugar the average child eats over the recommended amount every year according to Change4Life and Soreen.

This table includes:

• 210 cake bars,
• 180 chocolate bars,
• 50 cereal bars,
• 310 biscuits,
• 5 packets of biscuits, and
• 100 sweets.

When you see 2,800 cubes of sugar like this – it is a bit more of a shock don’t you agree?

Change4Life recommends that each child has the following daily intake of sugar:

Children under five need sugar and fats to help them grow, and develop.

For older children, the 2,800 more sugar cubes they are eating in a year equates to 54 extra cubes in a week! That is over an additional week’s sugar, every week – so two year’s allocation in a full year!

The reality is that it is easier to reduce sugar intake in our kids by helping to guide them into the right choices. There are a couple of simple parenting hacks that could change things a lot for your kids.

Two things that you can do TODAY to help is:

1. Swap out sugary drinks for healthier alternatives, and
2. Replace snacks and cakes in lunch boxes with lower sugar bars, and nibbles.

For example, swap your fizzy drinks, for a low sugar milk, or better still, water. Soreen recommend swapping a cake bar for one of their lunchbox loaves, which can reduce the calorie intake for your kids by 57%*.

Remember:

When we talk about reducing sugar we mean….

ADDED SUGAR

not the naturally occurring sugars in fruit. Added sugars are those that have been put in to products within the manufacturing process.

Sugar in fruit, for example, isn’t as worrying. THIS is natural sugar and is an important part of our kids diet. A little natural sugar from fruit and natural yoghurt helps to give kids the fibre they need. However, too much refined sugar, from cakes, sweets, and biscuits, gives them extra calories, without the additional nutritional value.

It’s a tough job as a parent – so these two simple hacks can help to make your life so much easier. Why not give them . go now?

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While you are here, why don’t you check out some of the other posts we have on the site including:

• Five a day charts, so you can keep track of the fruit your kids are eating – you can even photo personalise these,
• Five amazing mum hacks you need to use now to help save you time, and
• Our MOST popular printable ever, the printable worry tree for the kids, to help them ease their anxiety.

Thanks as always for stopping by, and we hope to see you on our site again soon. We love having people come say hello.

Helen

*Children can potentially save 547 sugar cubes in a year by switching from cake bars or chocolate to Soreen Lunchbox Loaves. This is assuming that a child consumes one cake bar/chocolate bar every day in a year.

Helen

Helen is a mum to two, social media consultant, and website editor; and this site is (we think) the only Social Enterprise parenting magazine!Since giving up being a business analyst when juggling travel, work and kids proved too complicated, she founded KiddyCharts so she could be with her kids, and use those grey cells at the same time.KiddyCharts has reach of over 1.1million across social and the site. The blog works with big family brands (including travel) to help promote their services, as well as offering free resources to parents of kids under 10.It gives 51%+ profits to Reverence for Life, who fund a number of important initiatives in Africa, including bringing running water and basic equipment to a school in Tanzania.Helen has worked as a digital marketing consultant (IDM qualified) with various organisations, including Channel Mum, Truprint, Talk to Mums, and Micro Scooters. She loves to be creative in the brand campaigns she works on.Get in touch TODAY!

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