[Quiet Man Cometh]

Confirm with the parents that you can give the kid candy as well, or what they would accept as a substitute if not that.

My dad would keep a sucker in his pocket for when he visited his friend who had a toddler. Fishing it out of his pocket became her thing.

My niece is all about getting things, but she also has learned that certain things she only gets with certain people. She always wants stuff out of the coin machines in malls, but we call that a "grandpa" thing, and she's accepted that. She stops pestering us for stuff, and she doesn't get things every time she asks. Of course, now my dad is stuck with her pestering him for coins.