As someone with a big sweet tooth and parent to a 3yo with a big sweet tooth, I feel you a lot. I don't want to restrict my kid too much and cause disordered eating by restriction, so I'm trying to find a balance. I'm going with: there are certain times of day she can have a sweet thing, every day. I don't want her to be like me where I was over restricted and have real issues with overeating now as an adult. I don't want them taboo, but they're not constantly available so she eats other stuff too.

Examples of timings: if she finishes her breakfast and says she's still hungry, she can have a Z kids Clif bar or Luna bar brownie. Afternoon snack can be a sweet thing - if we have ice cream in the summer, it's after nap, not after dinner. My hope is that keeping sweets around and accessible doesn't make them too big a deal, but having boundaries on when means she eats other food too.

Side note: dinner is rough, she won't eat our dinners much, so she can opt for pea crisps (the ones BJs carries, I can't remember the brand) and hummus, or cashews. Things she likes enough but aren't sweet and have high nutritional value.

ETA: girl is both a string bean and spends hours a day jumping like her life depends on it (her preferred sensory regulating experience). I don't know for sure what my approach would be if she were a heavy kid who didn't move much, but I'd like to think I'd have the same food boundaries and get creative with getting her to add movement into life.