‘Tis the season for colorful candies, cute cookies, and plates full of carb-heavy deliciousness. While it’s true the holidays are a time for culinary indulgence for the fam, it’s the responsibility of parents to ensure our kids aren’t going too far and help them to make healthy choices as much as possible.

How to Avoid Overindulgence on Sweet Treats

While kids don’t believe there’s such a thing as too many treats, parents know otherwise. As Board-certified pediatrician and mom of three, Joanna Fraser, MD says, “setting boundaries around treats and, most importantly, sticking to these boundaries can help to avoid too much overindulgence or too many tantrums.” Just as you would during other times, it’s important during the holidays to set rules when it comes to sweet treats. “For example, your house rule could be one treat per day, always at a certain time (e.g. after or with dinner).” Knowing that the yummy treat is coming can sometimes help your little one with being patient. You can, of course, make exceptions—like extra treats on Thanksgiving Day or Christmas Eve—that make sense for your kiddo. Just be sure to be clear about the boundaries and the exceptions, as kids look to their parents for guidance and consistency.

How to Minimize Snacking

Time off from school means schedules are in flux and your kiddo may want to fill the time with unnecessary snacking. Here again, Dr. Fraser highlights the importance of boundaries. “Make snacks available only at certain times of the day and give a short list of snack choices. If it’s not on the menu, it’s not available!” If you find your child is screaming that they’re “starving” even though they just ate a meal (we’ve all heard this one), you can offer a healthy snack—it’s the best way to check if they’re truly hungry. Because if they are STARVING, carrot sticks or apple slices should do the trick!

How to Handle Healthy Eating While Traveling

When it comes to traveling, there are lots of unknowns as your routine is shaken up and access to your chosen foods may be limited. Packing healthy snacks for the journey is a great way to infuse some consistency into your little one’s diet. For example, Dr. Fraser suggests our Refrigerated Oat Bars, pouches, and other snacks—whatever your nutritious go-tos at home are! This can help minimize those emergency purchases of unhealthy snacks. “Try to focus on one meal a day which is wholesome and eaten together as a family,” she suggests, “but also try not to stress too much about how there will be more treats and less healthy foods eaten over this period.” Check out our other tips for prioritizing healthy eating while traveling!

How to Balance a Heavy, Unbalanced Meal

It’s the holidays, which means carbs galore. You can try to balance this by offering lots of healthy choices before big meals. “If you know dinner might be carb-heavy,” Dr. Fraser says, “serve a big platter of colorful fruits and veggies and various dips.” Try sliced carrots or peppers with hummus or peanut butter with fresh fruit. “This will serve to ensure they eat some healthy food and also make their tummies fuller before the main meal so they might eat less of the unhealthy options on the table!”

How to Talk with Your Kids About Healthy Eating During the Holidays

When it comes to talking about food with your kids, Dr. Fraser suggests avoiding labeling foods as ‘good’ or ‘bad’. “Instead,” she explains, “talk about how certain foods are better for helping our bodies grow, learn, and have lots of energy.” Other foods taste good and they are fun—and OK—to eat in small amounts, but they don’t help our bodies. On the contrary, they can also make us feel tired and yucky. “Emphasize how much fun we have when our bodies feel good, so we want to make sure we are treating our bodies well so we can feel strong and energetic every day!” Try to avoid stressing them out or creating negative associations with food, but rather focus on the great things the right foods can do for us.

Eating tasty foods during the holidays is a privilege and an experience we want our kids to be a part of. It’s all about finding the right balance and ensuring you and your littles ones are still prioritizing healthy, balanced meals and not overindulging in the treats and snacks, even though they are SO tasty!