# Food as reward or comfort

**Should we use food as a reward or for comfort?**

Whether food is ever used to reward good behavior, soothe upset or motivate, such as a treat for using the potty.

In short: Parents choose between 3 main approaches: Never; Occasionally (potty-training treats); Routinely. Evidence: evidence leans one way. Research or guidance points in a direction, but it's thin, small or correlational. Best settled: toddler.

- Area: Food and eating
- Evidence: Evidence leans one way
- Best settled: Toddler
- First published: 2026-10-03
- Last updated: 2026-10-05
- Page: https://www.raisingyourchild.com/topics/food-and-eating--food-as-reward-or-comfort

## Food as reward or comfort: what are the options?

1. **Never**: Food is never used to reward or soothe.
2. **Occasionally (potty-training treats)**: A treat is sometimes used, for example during potty training.
3. **Routinely**: Food is often used as a reward or comfort.

## Food as reward or comfort: what does the evidence say?

**Evidence leans one way.** Research or guidance points in a direction, but it's thin, small or correlational. (Leans against)

A meta-analysis of longitudinal studies found that parents using food as a reward predicted more emotional eating in children afterward, but the effect was small (β = 0.09) and the relationship runs both ways, since parents also reach for food when a child already tends to eat when upset. A Norwegian cohort of 797 children found the same direction over two years. Satter-style guidance also advises against rewards and soothing with food, but the strongest evidence is correlational

Sources:

- [Systematic review and meta-analysis, PMC](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9103127/)
- [Frontiers in Public Health](https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/public-health/articles/10.3389/fpubh.2022.871923/xml)

## What else is worth knowing?

Using food to reward or soothe links eating with emotion rather than hunger. Research finds a small association with later emotional eating. It is easy to do without noticing, especially with treats.

## Questions to ask each other

- Did we get food as a reward or comfort growing up, and how did that feel?
- Would we ever promise a treat to get through something hard?
- What else could we use to comfort or reward?

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General information, not medical advice. Two parents can each answer this and compare: https://www.raisingyourchild.com/explore?cat=food-and-eating&topic=food-and-eating--food-as-reward-or-comfort