Over 40% of parents in Ireland give their children treat foods, such as crisps and chocolate, at least once a day, new research has found.

According to the findings from Safefood, children under the age of five are given the most treats, with 50% getting a treat food ‘at least once a day or more'.

The research involved a survey of over 830 adults and was carried out to coincide with the third year of Safefood's three-year campaign aimed at tackling everyday habits that can lead to childhood obesity.

"The stand-out disappointing result in this research is that we've seen an increase in the number of parents reporting giving food treats daily to children. Parents are really finding this difficult and these products are simply empty calories.

"Over-consumption of these treats, and there is major over-consumption, is a serious threat to our children's future health. As parents, we need to break the bad habits of giving these every day as it's now become the norm and not really a ‘treat' anymore," commented Dr Cliodhna Foley-Nolan of Safefood.

She noted that parents have admitted that they often use treats to bribe their children, e.g. treats are given to ease difficult situations that might arise and to ensure a little peace and quiet.

However while parents admit to doing this, they also feel uneasy about it.

Meanwhile the survey also noted that many parents do not consider things like crisps and biscuits a treat food, and have been giving these ‘as daily staples, for example, after school or after dinner at home', Dr Foley-Nolan pointed out.

The research suggests that some parents have tried to cut back on treats and the three most popular ways of doing this appear to be:
-Only giving treats at the weekend
-Buying smaller sized treats
-Restricting treats to every other day.

Dr Foley Nolan suggested that another way to tackle this problems is to have healthier snacks around, such as raisins or popcorn, or to provide non-food treats, such as football cards.

"Or course there is also the ‘no buy' solution - if you don't buy them in the first place, your children won't constantly ask you for them," she said.

However, she did acknowledge that it is not easy to cut down on treats when ‘they are everywhere, are so cheap and children are used to overindulging in them'.

Commenting on the findings, John Sharry, who is a senior lecturer at the School of Psychology in University College Dublin and CEO of Parents Plus Charity, emphasised that it takes time and patience to break these habits, but it can be done.

"Learning to say no gently and firmly and focusing on positive healthy alternatives is the key. Make it a family project to become more healthy and happy - sit down with your children and plan out some positive changes you want to make together, such as picking the alternative healthy treats you can have during the week," he suggested.

Safefood provides a number of tools to parents to help break these treats habit. For more information, click here