Does anyone else do snack baskets over half term?

[LauraSaidIShouldBeNicer]

My 2 are 7 and 5 and all I hear is am huuuuuuungry. They always have free reign of the fruit bowl and have a good size breakfast lunch and tea.

In the half term I make them up a basket each filled with snacks for the day they can get themselves and once the basket is empty doesn't get refilled till the next day and anything left stays in for the next day. At first they used to eat everything but now they've got the hang of it.
The baskets are primarily fruit in today's basket we have.
An apple
Small bunch of grapes
2 tangies
Mini roll
Crisps
Belvita biscuits

@ForTheLoveOfSleep

I find mine are only asking for food oitside of mealtimes when they are bored. Maybe try doing more activities than throwing food at them to keep them quiet? 🤷‍♀️

Patronising Parent Klaxon!

Actually as kids we also had the biscuit tin but were also much more active at school and outside it generally.

I kind of agree with you @TopTabby because if you deny kids sugar they'll just eat it elsewhere.

Self regulation is a really good idea but if it were me I'd keep an eye on e.g. the Belvita biscuits and judge on how much they weigh (e.g. a bit overweight etc).

Healthy snacks could also be Dairylea dunkers, or Dairylea spread on a rice cake.

@Theoldcuriosityshop - I agree with you re snacking but did parents work less then? My DM was a teacher, home by 3.30 and on holidays the same time as us so e.g. if we went out on a day trip in holidays then a soft drink and a cake was a treat but we could also have e.g. fruit too. Or ice cream. I recall drinking more water then too which I know staves off hunger. And we were told or encouraged not to snack between meals as it would spoil the appetite but we'd have cake or biscuits once or twice a day as a treat, maybe.

Sounds a good idea but maybe include a bit less food and swap a couple of items for carrot sticks.

I was stricter with snacks and treats when DS was younger but have loosened off a little bit in the past year and a half. I remember going to a party when DS was 3 and being so embarrassed because he would not stop cramming party rings into his mouth ! Honestly like crack to him. Normally I had the child who ran rings around the room and showed no interest in the party tea, so he'd managed to pack away at least five or six before I realised what was going on. Now I try to give him one every now and again as a treat to try to break their lure.

To everyone up in arms about sugar, your dc will probably be the ones cramming biscuits into their mouths at friends houses & will probably undo all your good work once they get any sort of freedom.

Or the eating habit will be firmly formed.

I think there is a huge difference between not allowing a child something containing sugar and actively giving them an extra pile of the stuff every day. Most parents will be somewhere very sensible in between.

ChocolateMassacre my aunt was strict with two of my cousins, they went not allowed any sweets and hardly any snacks. When it was a get together they’d go on a frenzy with the sweet stuff and grab food from other children’s plate. It was really scary and one cousin got in trouble at school for stealing sweets from another pupil.

@CrimbleCrumble1. I was a little shocked, I must admit, because DS has never been a child who is particularly interested in food and he'll often leave chocolate or ice-cream half-finished, if he's had enough. But I think he would have eaten every party ring on the plate if I hadn't herded him away from them!

I guess it depends on your child. A free approach may work for certain children, whereas others have less ability to self-regulate. It also depends on what foods trigger them. Obviously we've learnt no free access to party rings in our house ! If you have a child who would tend to binge on a wider range of food though, I imagine that makes it much trickier to control without setting limits.

Fwiw, I was slightly overweight as a child and I partly blame being told to "clear my plate". I often ate when I wasn't hungry and was praised for it. Those words are banned in our house.

Same here on the "clear your plate" parents - mine were born just after WW2 and when they were kids there was still rationing

We had to clear our plates & any snacks were strictly regulated. Dm was absolutely fanatical about avoiding sweets & sugar but unfortunately we learned to hide them from her. It took me many years to not binge on sweet foods just because they were there. I hadn't learned any self regulation.
@cheekychaplin I completely agree that a sensible middle ground is best.

When my two were youngies, they just had the normal meals every day, There was always fruit available in the fruit bowl, But snacking was never a thing, as in between meals. They always looked forward to the proper meal times then. It can become a bad habit if children eat a lot of junky snacks all the time.

You often see lots of Mothers in supermarkets, who have trollys piled high with sweet or salty packs of junk food, chocs and cakes etc. They sometimes have children with them, who will be chucking all sorts of rubbish stuff in the trolly too. If the kids see this stuff in the cupboards, they will just eat it all the time.

@Comefromaway

Good grief no.

It never occurred to me to have snacks. When they were little I would offer something like a piece of fruit mid morning, a yoghurt after lunch and maybe a biscuit in the afternoon.

So..... Snacks then? That is exactly what a snack is.

@Krustykrabpizza

🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣

One thing a day if that, & eaten as part of a meal usually, not a basket full of 4/5 things every day.

Crikey, DD was lucky to get two cow biscuits and a cup of (weak) tea.

@Comefromaway

Good grief no.

It never occurred to me to have snacks. When they were little I would offer something like a piece of fruit mid morning, a yoghurt after lunch and maybe a biscuit in the afternoon.

That’s exactly the same concept

Oh for goodness sake, it’s half-term, the basket of snacks is perfectly fine, I can’t understand why some PP are banging in about sugar and nutritional value. The weather has been terrible which means outside play is not ideal so give OP a break.

I have two DS’s who used to come out of school starving. In the end I had a picnic basket in the boot of my car with snacks to eat on the way home, and yes sometimes the snacks were of the chocolate and crisps variety. My boys now 15 and 18 and still hungry all the time are healthy, have good eating habits and unlike some of their friends have never had a tooth cavity or needed fillings.

So carry on OP, it’s all about balance and surely giving them treats over half-term is not unusual.

That’s quite a lot of food. I do a regular snack in the morning (usually fruit) and afternoon (usually a biscuit). Any other requests for food I’ll ask DD to wait for the next meal.

Eightiesfan because no-one needs to eat half their daily calorie allowance in snacks which are primarily sugar based. The habits you instill in your kids stay with them which is why overweight kids become overweight adults.

As an adult I couldn't eat three big meals a day and all of those snacks without becoming overweight. I think everything in moderation is fine. To me that is not moderation.

@Hornetfarmer

Kids tend to run around 10Xs more than adults. For every min I walk my boys probs run/cycle/scooter for ten!

@OnceuponaRainbow18 children have a lower BMR than adults though, so their calorie needs are still generally lower than adults’.

@cheekychaplin

No, that's a ridiculous amount of extra food to be giving children.

I thought it wasn’t enough My two are very slim and eat me out of house and home on holiday.

Sounds sweet OP.

But this thread is gold just for the competitive under snacking. for all

I don't put snack out. They help themselves to apples, and are always allowed veg sticks, and fridge bits like boiled eggs, babybels and cold meat. I find myself making toast between meals in the holidays sometimes though.

Mostly if they say they are hungry I try to think of an activity for them to do as really they are bored.

No way. They’re not hungry, they’re bored and I tell them as much. They don’t snack all day at school so it isn’t happening at home either.

I think the snack basket is perfectly fine op and some people on here have lost all sense of proportion.

My dd, who is very thin, likes her food and eats well but cannot eat very much at meal times because she has a small stomach. She literally can't fit a lot in. So she gets hungry in between meals and needs a few snacks. Also dc are growing and young boys in particular going through puberty can go through massive growth spurts. A few snacks are fine imho.