A few weeks ago, I posted an article about the possible pros and cons of providing unlimited sweets for your children at home, and got an overwhelming response from my readers. Almost every parent felt torn about this decision - as do I! And everyone (including me) seemed to carry over their own childhood experiences in providing guidance to their families today. But as I promised in my post, I will do the experiment at home, and I'll be starting it this week. And I plan to provide a detailed log of my experiment, with all of my positive and negative observations in our home.

Just so you understand how our family worked before the experiment, here is a little background information. My daughter, Jo, is now two and a half years old, and she has always been a very healthy weight for her age. She drinks about 24 ounces of rice milk per day, consistently eats two good meals daily and grazes throughout the day. She loves any fruit, likes a few veggies, thoroughly enjoys breads and pasta, and she really loves chocolate and jelly beans. When dessert time arrives at our house, we have always been fairly lenient. We don't make a big deal out of desserts, and we usually let her decide when she is full, even if that means an extra scoop of ice cream. If she asks for dessert before finishing a meal, we encourage her to try some of the healthier foods first, but I don't force-feed her. In summary, mealtimes are typically very pleasant in our house.

So I have been thinking hard about how to set up this experiment at home. I know that I am going to use a large bottom drawer in our kitchen that is easily accessible for Jo. And I know that I wanted to include toddler-friendly packaging. It doesn’t do any good to put in giant bags of chocolate if she can't open them with her little fingers, right?

But here are some of the issues that I have been contemplating, and how I've resolved them for my own experiment.

Do I include sweets with food coloring and trans fats? Do I include the very worst desserts like Twinkies?
I have decided to only include sweets that I would normally choose for her, which generally do not contain food coloring or trans fats. As my sister (and mother of 3) reminded me - I am not trying to encourage my daughter to avoid all sweets forever. I am simply trying to give her a different perspective on desserts and the concept of eating in moderation. And my sister reminds me it is also important for us to outright teach our kids about why foods with dyes and trans fats are just not healthy choices. And then we can hope that our children will avoid these types of sweets in the future because of their potential health consequences, even if they do taste good.

How much do I put in this drawer? Do I fill it up or put in small portion sizes?
This was a hard decision, but I finally decided to put in large amounts of each item. If I put in small amounts, I didn't want to be running back to the grocery store every few days if she devoured one type. And I really didn't want a meltdown over the last jelly bean, because that would defeat the purpose of the drawer. So I went to Whole Foods and bought a large amount of jelly beans, chocolate peanut butter maltballs, Sun Drops chocolate candies (the Whole Foods version of M&M's), plain chocolate chips, lollipops and gum drops. She is only two years old and hasn't experienced all desserts, but in her little world, these sweets are the favorite ones.

Also, I am starting the experiment this week for a few reasons. For one, we will not be traveling and we won't have any overnight visitors at our house. And I also chose this week because my husband will be back at work full-time. (Truth be told, I wanted total control over this experiment for the first few days!)

What are my rules for the drawer?
I really couldn't come up with any rules for the drawer. For two weeks (and maybe longer if the efforts seem promising), Jo will be have free access to the drawer all day long. If she wants to access the drawer during a meal, I will simply encourage her to eat a few bites on her plate first.

To be perfectly honest, I am really nervous to do this experiment and I am hoping that it doesn't backfire on our family! But wish me luck, and I promise to keep you posted on our success/failure!