She ate all the biscuits

She already had some.

Fairly normal? My mum had to share and bag up equal amounts of the sweets from a tin, and hide hers and my dads share because of my big brothers pinching them!
Am sure my mum would've loved chilled children but not all families are the same. I heard next door say to his 4 year old just this weekend 'Ivy, have you eaten my chocolate'?!

People seriously wouldn’t be pissed off if their kid searched for something they hadn’t asked to have and ate THEM ALL? Wow

Does she actively know it’s not allowed? Good boundaries in place? How did DH not notice her rummaging around and eating a whole pack of biscuits - I would have been on that in a “errr what do you think you’re doing, they are for tomorrow” way!

How big was the pack of biscuits? How many had she already had after tea and how many did she eat subsequently after searching for and finding the remaining biscuits? What size were they? She won’t have been starving hungry. I think it’s unusual.

It's not the small child's fault her mother has made biscuits of all things in to something that is restricted to the point the girl is searching everywhere to get to them.

They're biscuits... They're normal items that kids of 7 should be used to knowing that 1 or 2 a few times a week is fine and nothing that needs searching for....

I would be a bit annoyed (that they were all gone) but I wouldn't be cross or angry.

A friend of mine is very strict about sugar and what she considers treat food. She either doesn't buy it at all or rations it. This has resulted in her teenage daughter being quite overweight as a result of eating junk food every time she leaves the house.

Don't make a big deal out of it. Buy plain biscuits that your DD is less likely to scoff. Have them more regularly. Stop hiding them. This will hopefully de-value them in your DD's eyes.

For a 7 year old, yes, it’s a lot to eat most of a packet of biscuits and I’d feel concerned that she doesn’t have an off switch. My teens snack on biscuits etc but I don’t think they’ve eaten a whole packet before.

@Imissmusic I’m wondering two things:

• could you notice times when she stops eating of her own accord and positively reinforce that, eg. “Well done for listening to your body/ recognising you’re feeling full now”. I think there’s still so much focus on “eating what’s on your plate” that our kids aren’t learning to listen in to their bodies
• Be curious (if you see her guzzling down a packet of something) about how it feels; what makes it hard to stop etc, so that you can get a bit more of an understanding of it - and then think of something you can struggle to resist and share how you cope with that. I’d be interested to know how she felt after eating the whole packet - a bit sick? Pleased? Filled up? Guilty? And to see whether she thought it was a good idea/ would she do it again? I wouldn’t tell her off because that will take it underground and feel forbidden (a bit like with cigarettes/ alcohol and teens!)

good luck!

I think so. Mine just wouldn’t because he knows it wouldn’t be allowed, though I know he could in theory, judging from the amount of stuff he packs away at parties and on holiday 🤣

Sorry but I disagree with the majority here. This needs to be punishable behaviour at this point. She has absolutely no self control around food and that is not a good thing.

Treats should be labelled as treats because that's what they are. All this "there's no such thing as good and bad food" is nonsense and you are setting your child up for lifelong food problems if you do not teach her how to control herself.

I do find it quite strange behaviour. My 8 yo is a sugar fiend but wouldn’t eat a whole bunch of cookies without asking. He will say in the evening “I’m hungry” which is code for wanting a sweet treat and we have the chat of what he’s had that day and what we have that is ok to eat. Sometimes a treat if he hasn’t had too much sweet stuff and sometimes a healthy snack if it’s been a sweet filled day.

Ideally you wouldn’t need to ‘hide’ food but the real issue here is why she can’t accept that she can’t have it when it’s in the house? As I’ve just said in my PP my 4yo can accept that. We had a tin of sweets and Christmas and he had a few every day. He didn’t sneak about getting the tin out when my back was turned. I don’t think this sounds like typical behaviour unless she has behavioural issues generally.

No instead ... You buy them rarely and hide remaining ones for some reason, making them more coveted and special to the point that a small child will actively hunt for them if she knows they're around... It doesn't seem quite like right approach...

We have 3 open packs of biscuits at the moment, DD6 occasionally helps herself if she wants one.

Lol, that's true, half in a jar would've been pinched by a sibling..

But, they weren't entirely normal, there'd be a rush to put in a licked finger in the biggest slice of birthday cake for example, so nobody else would want it. Gross now I look back.

I wouldn't be cross. I would probably ask her to let me know if she wants more of anything so we can discuss it, and would probably also reflect on whether it's possible her diet is more restricted than it needs to be when it comes to sweet food.

It is if course totally possible that she just fancied those cookies in the moment, or wanted to test a boundary. But I would consider that in a few years she will be able to buy food independently of you, so trying to build a positive relationship with all food, and not just healthy food, is important. It's not an easy thing to achieve, but the fact she came and told you what she did and didn't hide it feels like a really good sign.

At least you had normal siblings not the weird I will eat half and put half in a jar type!

I would expect a 7yo to understand that some food was specifically being saved for tomorrow. If I say to my 4yo, we’ll have half today and half tomorrow he would accept that and not go rifling through the cupboard to eat tomorrow’s portion. So the disregard for your decision about when the biscuits are to be eaten is not good.

The second thing is whether this is food specific - is she generally good at following rules but is specifically unable to with food?

If there is food in this house it’s purchased for everyone. Specific items for a specific dish can be irritating but if they don’t know then it’s not their fault.

If your child ignored all made “proper” food in lieu of biscuits - yes be cross and the shouldn’t be an alternative. An active, growing child who has had a full
meal but wants a treat after? And let’s face it there are minimal biscuits in a pack - still not a problem.

an overweight, inactive child who is healthily fed but gorges constantly on sweets/crisps/biscuits with no notion of nutrition - there is an argument to not have temptation in the house for any family members

I come from a family of 6, we were the same as your daughter. If you didn't eat your share straight away, someone else would.

She just sounds like she loves treats and she's 7. Pretty normal? Even sneaking around is kinda normal for some cheeky souls, as long as she grows out of them and sneaking and stealing the treats isn't rewarded I can't see the issue? She will learn.

I would have done that. My mum once bought a box of crisps and I ate them all in a few days. I have eaten whole cakes and a row of Easter eggs in a day. I am unattractively greedy and love food in a weird way. I don’t wish to head to an early grave so I generally eat well but this means I just don’t buy the bad stuff. If I think I have matured and buy some choc and crisps I just eat them straight away. I didn’t grow up around any weird food stuff. I have never been very overweight. My siblings are not the same (and as children saved their sweets!) it’s very uncool but I do think some of us are just greedy food lovers with a lack of self restraint. It doesn’t have to be a complicated thing at all! I wouldn’t punish though I mean it’s not something anyone is sympathetic to but it is clearly harder for some of us to say no!