Can your kids help themselves to food?

[Littlechocolatepumkins]

DC can already help themselves to fruit.

I was thinking of snacks somewhere accessible so after school for example I can say go help yourself to something. Or if they're hungry after dinner/ before bedtime. Breadsticks, popcorn, raisins etc or plain biscuits. Nothing too tempting!

I feel like i'm allowing DC too many sweets/treats and I need to reduce their intake. Oddly i feel like maybe giving them some control might be a good idea? Or is that stupid?

DD is 5, she usually asks, but can reach the fruit bowl and a shelf low in the fridge door where there is yoghurt, cheese and bread sticks (for accessibility). She’s good at regulating her intake and doesn’t stuff herself before meals
We have biscuits and chocolate where she could reach them, but she’s not particularly sweet toothed (unlike her mother!)

Mine can help themselves and my oldest has always been very good always asked especially if it was something sweet bit my youngest has recently started sneaking things out the sweetie cupboard when he knows I'm not watching, thinking of putting a lock on the cupboard door!

Mine have access but check with me in case I’ve earmarked those things for something else.

DD is a demon for sweets and cakes though and would merrily trough herself into serious health issues.

I’ve kept the same regime but stopped buying so many crisps/muffins/cereal bars.

Mine (7&5) can help themselves to some things, but we don't tend to keep stocks of cake/ biscuits/ chocolate/ sweets in the house; they are bought sporadically as needed. It tends to be things like cereals and breadsticks that they go for. They mastered moving the furniture and climbing the worktops at quite a young age (I remember DS1 doing it at 2.5... he then asked me to go for a walk, then told me to sit and produced a box of rasins for each of us 😂) . They have hearty appetites and very lean builds so I have no concerns about their health. Mess on the other hand...

DS helps himself to the fruit bowl, cupboard snacks (rice cakes, baby crisps, fruit pouches, baby fruit 'sweets' etc), and also cheese/meat/yoghurt etc from the fridge. All things are in reach from him to grab. I do make sure he doesn't have snacks right before he eats his main meals. Never had a problem with him not finishing tea and then demanding snacks but he has always had a good appetite.

I can understand not letting kids have snacks if they are overweight or if they refuse to eat proper meals, but I think it's controlling and mean to stop them eating snacks for no reason other than 'they run out within 2 days'. Kids eat a lot, and it's our job to feed them. I can't understand how kids snacking on healthy things between meals is a bad thing.

I want my house to feel homely and my family, my kids (and their friends) to feel welcomed instead of feeling like I'm policing their food intake. It's obsessive and promotes bad habits around food.

DD isn't any less in our home either. But at 6 she is still too young to fully comprehend balance.
Does that mean you let her stay up as late as they want too? Decide when to take a shower? Brush their teeth? All things adults have complete control over

Completely agree Pissedoff

I don’t think it’s weird or controlling or will lead to food issues not to allow children free access to food. It’s just one of the many things we regulate for children while they gradually learn what’s sensible and what’s not.

Amazed how many seem to think breadsticks are a healthy snack.

In theory DSD (6) does have access to food herself though the only time she's ever done it is for breakfast first thing in the morning (she'll make herself cereal before getting us up). Oh and once she ate her entire advent calendar then shoved it down the side of the settee but tbf she hadn't eaten it over Advent and somewhere between the beginning of Jan and the end of Jan she ate it (found it at the end of Jan).

Rice cakes, crisps, fruit sweets, raisins - not really healthy snacks are they?

DS(12) has access to fruit, cereal, breakfast items (toast, crumpets, potato cakes etc).

He’s very active, he trains four days a week, plays a match at weekend, and runs five days a week.

He does like biscuits and sweet things but we save all that type of thing for Fat Fridays.

I've never contemplated hiding food from the children, that just seems odd unless they have ASD for example and require help. Surly it's there home and if they are hungry they are hungry?? Mine have what they want but never pig out or get stupid, they know roughly what time dinner will be etc. In my opinion restricting food must make it more desirable?

I don’t hide food. It’s there and they can reach it but they know they need to ask. Same as the TV for example.

DD1 has no off switch with food (like me) - and I did find it was becoming a bit of a battle until I relaxed it a bit like I said. Giving that little bit of gently ringfenced control over to her has helped a lot. The only thing I do "ration" in the box of stuff they can help themselves to are babybels and other cheese related things as otherwise they'll eat a full bag of them in a morning and they cost a fucking bomb (I only buy 'em when they're on special anyway). Cucumbers, peppers, tomatoes etc - go nuts and scoff 'em (the Lidl snack size ones are fab)!