Grans shun sneaky sweets

IT’S no longer a case of “What happens at Grandma’s, stays at Grandma’s”.

Grandparents use treats to indulge their grandkids and show love, but don’t shower them with lollies and junk food, a new study has found.

Flinders University researchers found that grandparents who look after their young grandchildren for more than 10 hours a week are more lenient than parents, but they are still health-conscious.

“Unlike what you might expect, we found food treats are used judiciously by grandparents — even though we might expect them to be more indulgent than parents,” lead author Morgan Pankhurst said. She said many grandparents enjoyed indulging their grandchildren but avoided spoiling them.

“Most grandparents believed that it was important for children to be exposed to discretionary foods so that they could learn to balance and moderate their intake and apply self-control,” she said.

Most were aware of the need to accommodate the wishes of the parents.

Some grandparents “feared that grandchildren were ‘missing out’ on a variety of childhood experiences due to parents’ lack of time and money,” Ms Pankhurst said.

As such, some sought to compensate and provide grandchildren with treats such as avocadoes and blueberries that were often quite expensive.

A few grandparents felt the parents’ rules were overly strict and sought to counterbalance with a softer, more lenient approach.

As one 72-year-old grandmother said: “What happens at Grandma’s stays at Grandma’s”.

But this was less common than the healthy approach.

The findings, reported in Public Health Nutrition, come at a time when a quarter of children aged under five in Australia are regularly cared for by their grandparents.

Templestowe grandmother Rhonda Sabri has been helping to care for her granddaughters Zara, 12, and Scarlett, 10, since they were a few months old.

“They always ate well — they weren’t given treats all the time. They had lots of fruit and vegetables and good food when I picked them up from school,” she said.

UNLIKE WHAT YOU MIGHT EXPECT, WE FOUND FOOD TREATS ARE USED JUDICIOUSLY BY GRANDPARENTS — EVEN THOUGH WE MIGHT EXPECT THEM TO BE MORE INDULGENT THAN PARENTS.

LEAD AUTHOR MORGAN PANKHURST