Let Them Eat Cake?: Study Reveals Grandparents Spoil Grandchildren with Sugar-Loaded Foods and Drinks

According to new research published in the February issue of The Journal of the American Dental Association (JADA), more than two thirds (72%) of mothers indicated that grandparents give their young children sugary foods and beverages. Mothers typically described that grandparents fed large amounts of cariogenic, or cavity-causing, foods and beverages (for example, candy, baked goods, juice, and soda) or did not limit their grandchildren’s consumption of cariogenic foods and beverages.

Unhealthy habits can start young: infants, toddlers and added sugars

A new study in the Journal of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics, published by Elsevier, found that nearly two-thirds of infants (61 percent) and almost all toddlers (98 percent) consumed added sugars in their average daily diets, primarily in the form of flavored yogurts (infants) and fruit drinks (toddlers).