Livsmedelsverket (the Swedish Food Agency) recommends that added sugar provides at most ten percent of energy for children from the age of two, and as little as possible under two. Most of the sugar comes not from sweets but from everyday food: fruit yoghurt, cereal, juice, squash and ketchup. Swap what is eaten every day and let Saturday be, and you will land in the right place without counting grams.
Seven o'clock on a Sunday morning, a four-year-old in Vasastan is standing at the fridge pouring vanilla yoghurt into a bowl of chocolate cereal. With a glass of apple juice on the side. Before eight o'clock she has had more added sugar than a whole bag of Saturday sweets, and nobody in the family thinks of it as sweets. This, not the sweets, is the issue in most homes.
How much is reasonable?
Livsmedelsverket's guideline is ten percent of energy as an upper limit, and most children are above it. For a three-year-old that is roughly 25 grams of added sugar a day, for a seven-year-old around 35. A bit of arithmetic for perspective: a 200 ml fruit yoghurt often contains around 20 grams of added sugar. A glass of juice has about the same, though it does not count as added. A cinnamon bun is 10 to 15 grams. A small 100-gram bag of lördagsgodis (Saturday sweets, the Swedish tradition of sweets once a week) contains around 60 grams. The weekdays are the problem, not Saturday.
| Common everyday item | Approximate sugar | Swap for |
|---|---|---|
| Fruit yoghurt, 200 ml | 15 to 20 g added | Natural yoghurt with berries or banana |
| Sweet breakfast cereal, 1 portion | 10 to 15 g | Porridge oats, coarse muesli without sugar |
| Juice or squash, 200 ml | 20 g | Water, milk, or fruit to eat |
| Flavoured fil (Swedish soured milk) or drinking yoghurt | 15 g | Natural fil, sliced fruit |
| Ketchup, 2 tbsp | 8 g | A smaller amount, or chopped tomatoes |
| Fruit purée in a pouch | 10 to 15 g | Whole fruit, one piece at a time |
Where the sugar hides
Most parents know that squash and sweets are sugar. Fewer think about the fruit pouches, with a picture of a fruit on the front and a place on the baby food shelf, which are in practice jam in soft form. Fruit purée squeezed from a pouch gives the same sugar hit as juice, and the child chews nothing. Children's yoghurt in small pots often has more sugar per 100 ml than flavoured adult yoghurt. And crispbread with honey, välling (the Swedish milk-and-cereal drink), porridge with jam, bread with a layer of jam: small amounts on their own, a great deal together.
Saturday sweets work, if it really is only Saturday
The idea of sweets one day a week comes from Swedish dentistry in the 1950s and still holds up. The point is not the amount on that day, but that the other six days are free of nagging. The child knows when the sweets are coming and does not need to negotiate on Tuesday. What breaks the system is small treats on weekdays: a biscuit after preschool, a lollipop at the bank, ice cream because it is warm. Then Saturday is just one of seven sugar days, and the negotiation never stops.
- Sweets once a week, on a set day. The child chooses from the bag, you decide the size.
- No sweets as a reward or comfort. A child who gets sweets after hurting themselves learns that sugar fixes feelings.
- Parties, grandma and end-of-term celebrations do not count. They are outside your system and should be.
- Fika (the Swedish coffee-and-cake break) at home at the weekend is fika, not Saturday sweets. A bun with the coffee does not need to become a matter of principle.
- The drink with meals is water or milk, always. That is the one rule our nannies never bend.
Under two: as little as possible
Livsmedelsverket advises that children under two should have no added sugar at all, and no honey under one. It is not just about teeth but about taste: a child who gets used to sweet things in the first years wants sweet things later. Välling and porridge come unsweetened. Yoghurt comes natural. Fruit purée you can make yourselves in ten minutes, and the child gets something to chew instead of suck.
The teeth
It is not the amount of sugar that harms the teeth but how often. Every time the child gets sugar in their mouth, the pH drops for half an hour. A whole bag in one go is one attack; a lollipop every hour is five. So: sweet things with meals, not between them. A bottle of squash or juice at night is the most effective way to give a two-year-old cavities in the front teeth, according to Folktandvården (the public dental service). Water in the bottle if the child must have one.
Cutting down without turning into the police
- Swap what is eaten every day. The yoghurt, the cereal, the drink. The child protests for a week, then the new thing is normal.
- Mix first. Half natural, half flavoured yoghurt for two weeks, then more natural.
- Take the juice off the breakfast table. It is the single biggest win in most families.
- Keep fruit out and sweets put away. What the child sees is what the child asks for.
- Do not talk about healthy and unhealthy. Children who are told sweets are forbidden want them more. Say that sweets are Saturday food, full stop.
- Change your own breakfast. The child does what you do, not what you say.
The school-age child with their own money
Around seven to eight, children start buying things themselves: a bun on the way home, a fizzy drink at fritids (after-school care) if it is allowed, sweets with their pocket money. Bans do not work here, but boundaries do. The pocket money is the child's, but you can decide that it is not spent on sweets on weekdays. School-age children also need to know why, in brief: frequent sugar causes cavities, sugar instead of food makes you tired in the afternoon. Not as a lecture, but as an answer when they ask. A nine-year-old who understands why water is better than fizzy drinks with lunch usually picks the right bottle themselves when you are not looking.
How we do it with our families
Nike picks up a three-year-old from förskola (municipal preschool, from age one) in Bromma at four and always has a snack in her bag: a peeled clementine, crispbread with cheese, water. On the way home they pass a kiosk, and for the first few weeks there was nagging about ice cream every day. She said the same thing every time, ice cream is weekend food, and after ten days the question stopped coming. The parents did the same at home. It is not the method that is hard, it is keeping it up for three weeks.
Would you like a nanny who comes on the same days every week and whom the children know? Book a free first meeting with the nanny at your home, and we will work out a quote for your hours.
Read more: Snacks for children · Breakfast for kids · Brushing children's teeth · Prices
Frequently asked questions
How much sugar can children have per day?
Livsmedelsverket recommends that added sugar provides at most ten percent of energy, and preferably less. For a preschool child that is roughly 25 to 30 grams a day, about one small fizzy drink or a bun plus a yoghurt. It is an upper limit, not a ration to be used up.
Is fruit as bad as sweets?
No. The sugar in whole fruit comes with fibre and water, fills you up and enters the blood slowly. Juice is something else: the sugar from five oranges without the fibre. Give fruit freely, juice rarely and in a glass, not in a bottle. Dried fruit sits in between: whole fruit, but concentrated and sticky, so it belongs with a meal.
Are honey and agave syrup better than white sugar?
To the body it is the same thing. Honey, moreover, should never be given to children under one because of the risk of infant botulism. Sweeteners such as sucralose and stevia are not recommended for small children, according to Livsmedelsverket. If you want to sweeten porridge, mashed banana or grated apple is the easiest, and the child gets the fibre as a bonus.
What about parties and grandma?
Let it go. It is everyday life at home that decides, not Saturday at grandma's. Children who get sweets one day a week and nothing in between take in less sugar than children who get a little every day. The weekdays are yours, the parties are theirs.