The constant feeding / snacking of children

I’ve never seen the harm in supper. My 5 year old eats beautifully at the table, enjoys his food, enjoys snacks too, doesn’t fuss over food and will try new things. If he says he is hungry after his dinner he has Greek yoghurt or even a pudding some nights. I have fond memories of similar growing up, tinned pears in custard and so on. If he says he’s hungry before bed he has a banana and a cup of milk. If I feel like he’s not been his usual self at dinner and not enjoyed it or eaten as much as usual I don’t mind him having a bowl of porridge and banana before bed.

I’ve never thought to say he should have eaten more for his dinner. He’s a very active child but some days are even more active than others so I completely believe him if he says he’s hungry even after having dinner as a family. He eats more than I eat.

I have two active, healthy weight children who are enabled snackers. They definitely do not eat a packet of biscuits or a packet of crisps but will go at the bear yoyo, ritz crackers and frozen fruit in a maddening way. It drives me mad but isn’t something I have the energy to change or get overly upset about.

I needed to carry snacks for one of mine who would get completely hangry without them.

it was for the benefit of the entire planet that I did.

when he was older we realised it was an early manifestation of his AuADHD

I don’t give a fuck what anyone else thinks about that. Snacks worked.

The small children OP describes are probably the ones who won't know how to sit at a table and use a knife and fork when they go to reception. Teaching good eating habits is a fundamentally part of parenting and so many have no clue.

When my DD was small, I kept a packet of rice cakes or oat cakes in my rucksack because they are sugar free, quite cheap and easily portable. When DD was older, she went through a phrase of saying she was hungry about half an hour after we had eaten in the evening. I used to tell her that there had been plenty of food at the table and that she should have eaten there. So no more food other than a biscuits before bed.

We learn from our own parents. My mum used to give us a piece of cheese, a couple of crackers and an apple when we got home from school. All my friends were given cake so I felt quite aggrieved. But she knew what healthy eating meant.

I don't remember being told off about snacks. I do remember finding snack habits strange when I visited friends. I also remember apples, cubed cheese, glasses of milk, fruit, as snacks. Sometimes toast or crackers or a soft boiled egg.

Somehow my parents succeeded in making old-fashioned sit down meals seem normal. I wonder how they did it.

We did have snack foods sometimes as a novelty on a long drive or as party leftovers.

ETA I didn't eat minimally then and don't now.

My DD started puberty aged 10, she was in the 10th centile for weigh so definitely not fat. And she snacks (even eats crisps and ice cream on the regular). You’re seeing a snap shot of a child’s day and have no idea what’s going on behind the food you’re seeing. My two were handed a snack coming out of school daily because lunch at school was early and portion sizes were tiny. By the time they were 9 and 10 it simply wouldn’t hold them over til tea time.

The mumsnet minimal eating, pearl clutching brigade are no better than the Greggs dummy lot.

And now you’re a saint if you think it’s important not to give children processed crap. This is why we have an obesity crisis. Studies have found that diets high in ultra-processed foods are associated with an increased risk of bowel cancer, including early-onset bowel cancer.

Normalising constant snacking in childhood, creates adults who eat out of habit rather than hunger. We’ve all seen them - unable to get round Tesco without eating or shoving food in their small kids’ faces.

Giving children healthy habits is not pious. It’s just good parenting.

I never entertained this. Mine has always had 3 meals a day and occasionally they might want something more but not often.

Yes there is a problem with the worst diets in deprived areas and the reasons are multi faceted and well understood

that isn’t a reason to not attempt to change society to make junk food snacking seen by all as a bad thing

Don't get me on the litter too. I had to meet and photograph a young mum once. Her 3 year old was munching snacks, gave her mum the wrapper and the mum just told her to throw it on the ground. Grr.

But... swimming. Swimming as a kid made me marvin. I was always so hungry after a couple of hours of larking about and would spend a bit of my pocket money on a bag of crisps out the machine.

I live in a very deprived city and I see exactly the same.

Also the same faces queuing up in the chicken shop regularly when I walk past.

Don't get me wrong, I love a chicken burger and chips now and then, but most of the regulars are very overweight as are their children.

I thought one was going to collapse at sports day after running a very short distance.

I used to have chips after swimming.

I used to work in a very deprived part of my city. Each morning mums would go to the shop across the road from us and buy the children sweets and crisps that they would eat at the bus stop before getting on the bus to go 2 stops. The school was a 12 minute walk away. I always wondered why they wasted their money like this.

I thought it was normal to give your children a snack

I did feel when my were young toddler groups and especially sure start did push snacking a bit too much - but life happens and sometimes having a snack means the hangry kids aren't exhausting parents and ruining everyone elses experinces - it's more an issue if it's every day rather than after an activity which often seems to cause hunger like swimming.

My 5 year old will inhale a sandwich, banana, and fistfuls of other fruit/veg after swimming and then eat a full dinner an hour later. Swimming makes you ravenous.

It is indeed a societal problem. We live in an obesogenic society caused by people giving and expecting constant access to snacks and food.

Something really needs to change.

Depends on the child I suppose. My 5 year old eats like a beast after swimming. We can be in for 2-3 hours at a time and when we get out he’ll eat a peanut butter sandwich, banana, strawberries, blueberries, and sometimes a flapjack, then an hour later have a full dinner.

If it’s healthy and a lot of fruit and veg then snacking can be balanced out by a very active child.

At a societal level, snacking is off the scale. But I’m a terrible snacker myself.

They do snack. At 10 am and 3 pm they have fruit. Occasionally something else but I feed them proper meals.

Why are you assuming these kids won't get a proper meal based on a snap shot of their lives?

Maybe they eat very late in evening - some families do - and their snack time might be 4 pm not 3 pm to accomodate.

If it's what they are are eating - well sometimes snacks aren't just fruit - those days for us were often swim days when we also walked the two miles to and from the pool as we didn't drive and had time to do the walk.

So do you never snack yourself OP? All hail you, the perfect mother. Come back in 20 years when your offspring are all a healthy weight please. Fruit isn't that healthy.

I agree. You only need to look in Supermarkets and ‘Baby Aisle’ has loads of snacks aimed at babies and toddlers and don’t get me started on those pouches full of shite.

Disclaimer: I’m 62, the only snack we got as wains was a Cow Biscuit and a cup of milk watching Brian Cant on Playschool each morning.

I’d give my kids a quick snack after a session at the pool especially if straight from school

Why? Havent they had lunch? Is it going to be a particularly late dinner? Human beings dont need to eat constantly, we can easily last four or five hours till the next meal.

If you offered vegetables for the snack they would probably turn it down.

I thought it was normal to give your children a snack
we do fruit/crackers/oatcakes/yogurt/veg sticks and hummus Mid morning, mid afternoon and sometimes before bed.
I also like a snack. We also all eat normal meals.

Totally agreed. That's why they are often so fat and picky with food.

I’d give my kids a quick snack after a session at the pool especially if straight from school. Just like on Fridays I treated my kids to an ice cream from the truck that would park outside the school gates. But I agree people seem to use food to keep their kids quiet and ‘entertained’. Might be essential on an airplane, unnecessary if just on a regular outing.

Snacking has caused tooth decay and overweight children.