To find the obsession with snacks weird

Street food "snacks" have a history going back thousands of years anyway.
If you're a 3 meals a day person then good for you. I know someone who is very rigid about this though and will rather starve and be all cranky rather than grabbing something when out and about as they wait until they get home.
I feel ill if I get too hungry.
I don't really eat an evening meal though. Breakfast, a hearty lunch and a variety of snacks suits me perfectly.

This I remember queuing for the drinking fountain and only being allowed a quick sip because of the queue. Happened often. I also remember being starving hungry coming out of primary school. In the end my mum started to bring fruit. But I was famished, and then it was a mile or so walk home. Snacks are a big part of weaning nowadays, so NHS advised! I don't think snacking itself is a problem, more the what and when.

OP, you'd hate me, DD5 has an apple and a cheese roll and a biscuit immediately after school and then goes on to eat her dinner at 5:30.

My daughter was like an antichrist when she came out of school - mainly because she'd usually been too busy talking to eat her lunch. Snacks were the only way to survive the 30 minute car journey home.

TBF I blame school for this.

My DS's school has a toast and milk break at around 10am, fruit snack around 11ish lunch at 12.30, fruit snack again around 1.30ish then home time at 3.15. If you go to ASC, you're expected to send snacks there too, so DS also needs a snack around 4pm (as he would at after school club) before tea at 5.30.

At weekends we don't do that many snacks breaks!

Snacking isn't a new invention...

Afternoon tea...elevenses... All snacks that have been around for 100s of years

Exactly! I don't deny my pets access to fresh drinking water at all times so why would I for my children?! I prefer mine to drink little and often throughout the day too rather than gulp a big load down in one go or even worse leave it til bedtime and keep pestering for more and water at bedtime!

As for the snacks, I'm a grazer and my DC are. Fruit and veg, babybel, breadsticks. Shock horror a packet of crisps or some biscuits. Id rather some random judge me than be dealing with a hangry toddler!
Mine don't have a pick of fat on them and seeing us out and about you're just getting a snapshot of the day- you don't know how long it's going to be until we're home, or how healthy they've eaten across the rest of the day.

At my son's nursery it is morning snack 10am, lunch 12pm, afternoon snack 2pm and light tea/dinner at 4pm. Breakfast is 7-8am depending on when they are dropped off.

morning snacks are usually fruit with breadsticks/rice cakes, afternoon snacks are usually various veggies with cream cheese/hummus etc, lunch is usually the 'big' meal of the day so the usual curry with rice, dahl with naan etc followed by fruit or natural yogurt with fruit and dinner is usually something light such as beans on toast, various wraps with salad etc followed by fruit.

Mine will then eat dinner at 5 and a light supper with a cup of milk before bed at 7.

a ham and cheese toastie is a meal! not a snack! Loads of calories

For adults and to be fair one ham and cheese toast is on its own never killed anyone! The kids play chasing and football daily, they burn through them (my kids are slim btw).

It's new since I was a kid, but not that recent. I used to take my kids to soft play about 20 years ago and other parents would often be giving their kids sticky juice or crumbly snacks in the play area, like they couldn't go for an hour without something to eat and drink .

I don't understand the problem here. Breakfast in the UK is a little bowl of cereal, no wonder they need a snack after.

I have two boys who are tall and energetic. Why is everyone so angry that they got a bagel at nursery?

My school had similar rules and we were all terrified of the headmistress so we complied (she also banned patent shoes because they reflected your knickers!).
I think that the French have it right. Food is eaten at a table at meal times plus an afternoon snack (le goute) keeps children going between lunch and dinner. Walking down the street shoving a Greggs sausage roll in your mouth would definitely be frowned on; DD1 spent a year in France as part of her degree and she and I had to educate DH that when we bought a take away wrap for lunch, we needed to find somewhere to sit to eat it.

Actually I do. I have lean pcos. My nutritionalist informed me that healthy snacks like nuts or cheese & crackers help me balance my blood sugar and avoid huge meals that cause bloating. Not only did she improve my condition but caused my periods to be regular and I got pregnant after years of trying.

I don't think the problem is with 'snacks' but junk food.

School lunches are quite small. My child is tall and runs around a lot and sometimes goes straight to sports. I have nothing against giving him some crackers, cheese and a banana. He still eats his meals.

@stayathomer

a ham and cheese toastie is a meal! not a snack! Loads of calories

I always brought fruit and some biscuits to my kids after school. Kids do need a snack and mine have never been overweight. Adults don't though unless athletes/ underweight.

Very true.

I feel like the only people obsessed with snacks are the ones who can't wait to brag? that their child as well as themselves happily go 6 hours without food.

Good for them. I'll feed my hungry 2 year old when he's hungry. It's that simple to me.

Some of the ‘snacks’ you hear toddlers being given at nursery is crazy! Like they’ll have a breakfast and then at 11am toast or a bagel or something then 45 mins later lunch! A bagel is a meal in itself it’s not a snack!

I've just read the full thread and I agree, I can't see how the constant access to water can be argued as a bad thing! My toddler always has a water bottle at hand as do I. Most people don't drink anywhere near the amount of water they should and there's so many proven benefits to drinking water such as hydration, improved concentration etc. I think this is the one thing that's really changed for the better at schools since I was little!

This is MN, where someone on 600 calories a day complains night nurse has too many calories, where half a tin of soup is too large a portion, and where any form of carb is evil and eating them is pure greed. Where eating normal foods is gobbling, shovelling and wolfing. Any mention of a normal diet is scoffed at by the very vocal posters with disordered eating and eating disorders.

Yes it’s a pain, I don’t give my kids snacks because the middle one won’t eat his dinner if he has them (he eats like a bird)

My lovely friends kids who play in the same sports team always have snacks which they share with my Son.

He then doesn’t eat his dinner and I always look bad as my kids have eaten her kids snacks (she doesn’t mind) but now I’ve started buying snacks when they are there so I can repay they favour, dinners never eaten and I’ve spent a fortune on snacks I don’t want to buy

God I hate the word “snack”

But …

Giving kids something to put them on straight after school is fine,

Dragging kids away from soft play / gymnastics / football practice to shovel food down them is ridiculous.

Unless there’s a medical need, hunger isn’t going to kill them.

We always a take a snack to pick up, our daughters lunch is at 11:45 and pick up is 4pm, its a long time for her to not have anything to eat, and she’s often hungry and needs something to tide her over until 5:30pm when we have dinner.

Snacking isn’t a new thing, bit odd to pretend it is.

I'm in a Facebook group related to Disneyland Paris and snacks are regularly suggested as ways of keeping children occupied in queues.

School as well. My DD gets a fruit snack provided in the morning and afternoon, just during the regular school day (not breakfast club/after school club). There can only be about 2.5 hours between the end of lunch and the end of the school day.