When I was growing up we rarely had sweets around. It wasn't that we ate healthy, there just wasn't enough money for treats. Normal diet was mac and cheese, potatoes and other poor man starches. When a sweet was brought into the house, you ate it fast and had big portion sizes or you didn't get any.

My 4 year old has been getting alot of treats lately because of the holiday season. It seems school is constantly sending home things for him, or my SO's boss. I've been letting him have them in moderation. It's neat though because he will take a few bites, just enough to satisfy his taste for it, then announce he's done and throw the rest away. Most preschoolers would scarf it down. Occasionaly he'll want it back later in the day, but I just remind him it's in trash and he can always get another one tomarrow or later. He accepts that and doesn't ask for it again.

He does ask for treats, and tries to convince me he needs a cookie instead of veggies at times, but that's normal kid behavior. The fact he can pass up on sweets in favor of more filling foods and when he does get sweets he doesn't gorge makes me confident he'll have good eating habits when he's older

Now if veggies weren't such a fight :P

The lure of forbidden fruit does make sweets more tempting to those who are trying to avoid them When my now teenager was a preschooler, I let her have icecream for breakfast when she asked for it one day. She was shocked that I said ok and never asked again. Maybe if we brought them up saying,"I will let you have some broccoli and carrots ONLY if you eat all of your icecream," they would pass on the icecream and beg for the veggies. Or maybe not.