Lift the Shame: The Podcast - Mothering Free From Diet Culture, Food Guilt, and Body Shame · Crystal Karges, MS, RDN, IBCLC

You May Be Triggered By Your Child Eating Sweets: Here Are Some Reasons Why

·35 min·2 clips

Crystal asks, “Would you feel differently about how or what your child was eating if they were in a different body size?”

Crystal frames the episode around the days leading up to Halloween and the steady stream of questions she gets about sweets, boundaries, and what comes next. She names the common wish for practical strategies and a clear framework. She also makes room for the fact that many parents are not only managing candy, but also managing their own history with food. The episode takes that seriously. Crystal says the emotional charge around sweets often points to deeper beliefs that deserve attention. She asks listeners to notice what is actually happening inside them when a child eats candy. She names anger as one possible response. She names frustration too. She also names anxiety, and she points to the body’s physical reaction when that anxiety shows up. From there, she widens the lens beyond Halloween and toward the bigger patterns parents may be carrying. She raises the issue of children in larger bodies. She asks whether a parent would react differently if the same food choices came from a different body size. That question is meant to be uncomfortable. It is also meant to be clarifying. Crystal connects that discomfort to the work of examining core beliefs. She suggests that a parent’s reaction may reveal messages inherited from diet culture rather than anything a child has done wrong. She returns again and again to the goal of helping children feel unconditionally loved, accepted, and trusted to eat no matter the size of their body. She warns against passing along shame and guilt as if they were normal parts of special occasions. She treats candy-centered holidays as a place where old narratives can surface loudly. She encourages listeners to stay alert to those reactions before they spill outward onto children. She also keeps the tone compassionate toward parents, even while naming the harm of some common patterns. The episode insists that inner work is part of raising an intuitive eater. It does not shame the listener for struggling. Instead, it asks the listener to look directly at the fear underneath the struggle. That keeps the focus on trust rather than control. It also keeps the episode rooted in family life, where the real work often happens in small moments rather than big declarations. By the end, Crystal is urging parents to align their actions with the kind of childhood they want their children to internalize. The message is steady and practical in its own way: notice your triggers, question the story behind them, and choose a response that protects your child from shame.

As heard by us

A Halloween candy conversation about what parents' reactions teach, not just what children eat.

Halloween candy is the doorway here, but the real focus is what sweets stir up in parents once they enter the house. Crystal asks a sharper question than how much candy children should have: what adults are signaling when their reactions are shaped by diet culture, shame, or…

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Why you'd press play

When candy reactions start feeling bigger than candy, this episode helps you slow down and look closer.

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