Ask the dentist
In her series on getting children to eat more healthily, dentist Lucy Stock of Gentle Dental Care in Belfast says authoritative parenting works best
IT'S often said that parents want the best for their children and giving your child good teeth can benefit them for a lifetime.
With so many hidden sugars in today's foods and the relentless requests for sweets from children, it's difficult for parents to keep their children's teeth decay free.
We are going to look at how your parenting style affects when your child eats sweet things and how you can have a positive impact on keeping their teeth strong and healthy.
Thomas Power, chairman of the Department of Human Development at Washington State University, said parents directly influence their child's eating habits.
Parents, he stressed, especially impact the development of a child's preference for healthy foods as well as their ability to regulate howmuch they eat.
There are three main types of parenting. The authoritarian parent will demonstrate high control and expect their kids to "do as they say". This type of parenting is described as rigid. The second style is the permissive parent who shows low control and fails to set boundaries so children can do what they want.
The third parenting style is authoritative, where parents are assertive and have clear standards of behaviour for their children. This type of parenting is consistent with a warm and responsive style which sets down boundaries, rules and consequences.
Studies show that an indulgent or permissive feeding style common with permissive parenting, is associated with excess eating. This is letting children eat what they want when they want and that includes plenty of sugar-loaded foods. Additionally, when authoritarian parents use heavy restrictions to encourage healthy eating, such as never giving sweets and fizzy drinks etc, children may want to eat or drink more of them simply because they know they can't have it.
The answer to the sweet dilemma lies somewhere in the middle of being too controlling or too permissive when feeding our children.
It's about finding a way to give your child sweet foods occasionally and not just giving in every day because we as parents simply don't have the energy to resist the pleas.
The authoritative parent is most likely to demonstrate the balance required to promote good eating habits and set up and keep to rules such as allowing sweets only at weekends.