To find the obsession with snacks weird

I don't think this is a new thing either. The types of snacks have probably changed (more processed stuff in packets now) but we had snacks as kids.

'Elevenses' has been around for decades, if not longer! We also usually had a snack after school, then dinner and sometimes 'supper' too (usually cheese and biscuits in my house). No one in my family was or is overweight. All very active though, maybe that makes a difference.

Not sure this is a new thing; I remember most people having a packet of crisps at playtime in my early 1970s primary school. I can also remember being absolutely ravenous on the way home, so we usually had some bread and jam or something between lunch and dinner. As a parent I often kept my toddlers entertained with boxes of raisins or breadsticks, and that was more than 20 years ago.

YNBU.

Obviously there are times when a snack makes sense, but it's the ubiquitousness, and this idea that even school age kids need them all the time. Fed on demand. I am sure part of that is because of what breastfeeding mums are taught, which is great for infants, but even older babies don't typically need to be fed on demand when they are breastfeeding.

It drives me crazy that so many kids activities involve snacks between meals.

I don't think snacks every hour or two are healthy, outside of certain medical conditions, and they also set up bad habits. They come out of that period where the advice for being healthy and staying slim was, eat small snacks and meals constantly.

I don’t really see too many snacks, but the ones I do have children on the slimmer side of normal. They probably need more calories.

Snacks were definitely a big thing when I was growing up, sadly not for me, apart from some fruit after school. I still don’t eat snacks, and I am definitely not on the slimmer side of normal! Maybe I should try having more snacks and then smaller portions of lunch and dinner.

Depends doesn’t it, on the child, routine and what’s happening after school.

Mine are still quite young have a 30-45 minute trip home, they leave the house at 7am and when we pick them up at 4.15pm they haven’t eaten since 12ish. So yes, they get a (healthy) snack for the way home.

Some days they are off to activities, and don’t get home until 6.30pm (6 and 8yr old) or 8.30pm in the case of my 11yr old. I think giving her a snack between school and this physical sports activity is a good thing.

Other times, yes of course, some kids sometimes have too many snacks.

It’s ok to be hungry, as I tell my kids sometimes when they’re begging but it’s 45 mins until the next meal.

I suspect very few 4 year olds are eating dinner at 7.30pm.

If you've just swapped dinner and supper around, that's a different situation to parents who constantly carry and offer snacks on demand.

I agree that we are snacking too much but I did hand over food the minute they walked out of school in reception to prevent tantrums about walking home as but half three they were starving and grumpy as school lunch was served at 11.15 in EYFS. Even though they were the year group that got free fruit it was served in the morning!

By the time they were older lunch got later as they were fed in age order slots at school and they were able to wait and much less likely to cry even if they were hungry and tired.

Why though?

'Depressing as fuck' because you don't eat between meals and again after dinner in the evening?

Bit OTT.

The logic behind it is if you have 3 meals and a couple of snacks you're not getting to the point of hunger and you are less likely to over eat/eat fast. It should also replace dessert/pudding

But it's only beneficial if the snacks are nutritious

This baffles me too.

I remember at my NCT class when we'd meet up with our babies/toddlers all of the mothers used to be constantly shoveling snacks in the direction of their DC - generally while complaining that their babies were terrible eaters at mealtimes and barely picked at their food (presumably because they were already full). I never saw the need to give mine snacks as it just didn't make sense to me to have my DC constantly eating.

80’s baby and same for me too

My two are neurodiverse and by the time they had kept their shit together in school were on the verge of meltdown leaving school. Their paediatrician suggested having a crunchy snack available on leaving school - apparently the sensory input can be very grounding for hyperarousal. So yes, they get handed a snack at the school gates - and we have a much calmer, safer journey home.

It’s very odd.

It was the same 20 years ago when mine were young. Snacks all the time. I don’t get it.

primary school dinners are much smaller than they used to be. My youngest is a teenager now but I will always remember her being given one fishfinger and three chips for lunch in reception. We had a 20 minute uphill walk home from school so i always took a snack.

I don't think school lunches are too small considering they'll get a dessert too, and then be expected to go outside and play/exercise.

I think what's happened is other meals have become much bigger, and that's what makes them look small.

When I worked in a primary school, some of the packed lunches the kids took were like banquets and more than many adults could eat in the middle of the day.

Surely whether it’s ‘needed’ depends on what time you have your meals? Dinner at 7.30 after lunch at 12 is a long time for kids to go without food, they only have small stomachs. We can’t physically manage dinner earlier because of work/after school activities etc, so they have a snack (cheese and crackers or something) at 4.

A life without snacks sounds depressing af. I'm so glad I wasn't brought up by the food police.

People seem to forget that snacks can be healthy too. It's like the people who think iPads for children = games with paedos, when they could just as easily read or listen to a book on them.

The food industry has done a brilliant job at 'selling' snacks as essentials.

For the vast majority of people including children they just aren't needed with the exception of medical conditions etc obviously

YANBU. That's why people are so overweight - continually stuffing their faces.

I think it might be because school dinners are so small. My GC always come out of school starving. I always take snacks when I pick them up it makes our lives easier! I never did with my own children when snacks weren't a thing. But they did always have something to eat as soon as they got home
They are very healthy and active children and not overweight so I don't see the issue.

another 70s baby, admittedly a skinny precious only one, I had a substantial after school snack, things like a home made banana milkshake and a sandwich, then dinner, e.g. chicken, rice and vegetables, then pre bed snack of cocoa and two jacobs cream crackers with marmite. It sounds a lot but the portions were small and I was hungry, and it was rarely much sugar. Always been skinny and still am and have always snacked. however don't eat much unhealthy stuff. I think snacks for kids are great but they should be healthy ones, like fruit, a small sandwich, milk etc. I gave my kids a lot of oatcakes, fruit etc and seemed to be OK. Of course now they're teens they eat a lot of junk but the healthy stuff as well. I've given up nagging tho.

YANBU, it's ridiculous.

Lots of kids are being brought up to believe they can't do a 20 minute or half an hour journey home from school without a snack 🙄

But then again, when someone starts a thread asking how to keep their child quiet during a wedding or an appointment, or journey for example, they'll often be advised to 'take plenty of snacks to occupy them'.

So they learn to connect snacking with everything from boredom to mild hunger.

Hunger is a natural feeling, not the enemy.

When they get home though, not actually on the walk home.

Mine have a snack after school because they have lunch at 12 and dinner isn’t until 7.30 when they’ve finished their after school activities. Also the school dinner portions (primary) are tiny.