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If you do not stock unhealthy foods in your home, no problems can arise. When your child comes into contact with sweets, stabilisers, emulsifiers and other harmful substances – in school, perhaps, or at friends’ houses – she will be less vulnerable to such offerings if you’ve already laid the basis for good nutrition.

Parents have often disputed this with me, saying that their child will in fact go to neighbours’ or friends’ places to lay into the sweets there. First, if your child is still a toddler, she won’t be going to a neighbour’s house on her own, and will never be left alone there. So there is no reason why the adults there can’t monitor what she eats. And if, when she’s a bit older, she does eat sweets at her friends’ homes, don’t make a drama out of it. You’ve done your best, and that’s enough – because that’s all you can do. Anyway, if you look at the amount of sweet food your child eats in situations like this, it will almost always be the case that she eats less than her friend does. Children raised to eat healthy food do not, generally, choose to eat a lot of unhealthy food even when it is available.

When your child is in childcare or school, as well as giving her food to take with her, you can talk to the centre’s staff and to other parents and ask for healthy food to be provided there. You may be successful with this. If you cannot get the centre or school to agree, at least you’ve shown your daughter how important healthy nutrition is to you. That helps her. And remember how important it is that your child knows your opinion, and sees that you know how to lead a happy life while following your own convictions.

How much food is enough?

Don’t be too worried about whether your child eats too little or too much. A healthy child eats exactly as much as she needs. But note that this rule applies only if your child is fed an almost sugar-free diet. An excess of sugar leads to a desire for sweet things, and from there it’s a slippery slope to deficient nutrition.