'Parents experienced real difficulty in controlling their children's demand for sweets, biscuits and chocolates in an environment where sugary snacks are so readily available,' researchers at the University of Dundee's Dental Health Services and Research Unit said in the study in the Health Education Journal.
Parents from varied social backgrounds with children aged three to 12 whose teeth had to be extracted took part in the study. Many of them confessed to using sweets 'to control their children's tantrums' and made a plea for schools to ban sweets because they were 'everywhere.'
Comments included: 'A lot of parents would be grateful if schools said no sweets' and 'Shopping's not easy if you have children with you because they want everything but the right thing'. Another said, 'It's a nightmare when the ice cream van comes around.'
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