Can your family afford snacking and random grazing?

[TransAdmiralsAreAdmirals]

DC are grumpy because we don't allow random grazing and ask that they let me know when they're planning to prepare food using high-value ingredients or ingredients which may reasonably form a central component of a family meal.

I buy enough packed lunch items to last them both for the week, and much prefer it if I don't have to buy replacements if someone eats extra bags of crisps or snacks on extra packets of raisins or grain bars or similar.

Ditto preparing snacks between mealtimes: making toast, or bowls of pasta or cereal, or making fruit smoothies, or baking cupcakes.
Mine will get bowls of frozen peas or sweetcorn to snack on, so I often open the freezer to find empty bags.

Or unlimited condiments, for that matter -oodles of ketchup, sweet chilli sauce or mayo etc.

Or raiding the fruit bowl; there's enough fruit for everyone to have a couple of pieces per day but not to eat 3 bananas in a day, for instance.

We eat 3 square meals a day; quality home-cooked / prepared food and always have fruit available, so they're not going hungry. DC1 in particular insists that all their friends have free reins in the kitchen and that their cupboards are stuffed to the gunnels with snacky foods to which they help themselves with gay abandon, citing fridge raids of quantities of items I could never sustain in our home on our budget: I literally couldn't afford to stock lots of grazing foods in case someone feels a bit bored or peckish.

Can you, and do you, keep plentiful reserves of snacks which your DC are allowed to help themselves to?

Definitely overly restricting food leads to disordered eating but the food doesn’t have to be junk food.

I do think if you’re not allowed junk food then that can lead to disordered eating too.

I think having 3 healthy meals and free access to healthy snacks and then some access to some junk food is the best way to avoid eating disorders.

Yep. Of course. Bullying children over wanting a snack leads to eating disorders.

Mine would never stop eating. I could afford it if I wanted but for health reasons Ive never given free rein.
We live in a very obese area of the country and there are lots of fat children/teens they are friends with (as are lots of my friends). And their friends eat a lot of shit.

I try not to make it a weight thing, but a health thing, and a teeth thing.

I do buy them.snack but have always gone for healthier snacks (fruit, humus, peppers, carrots, porridge, toast, boring biscuits etc) . They are old enough to buy their own stuff and do bak and obviously buy rubbish but also tend to choose healthier things as a choice.

I agree, I’m a grazer from a family of grazers. All a healthy weight. So not sure the only 3 meals a day has to be the rule. We do all have a tendency to the savoury, is that because there’s no restriction? Not sure

We have snacks in the house. I couldn’t complain about them having some toast or a sandwich, or fruit and yogurt. We also keep crisps and biscuits but mine are more likely to go for noodles or toast. I don’t want them to think they can’t have something if they fancy it and buy enough in my food shop to accommodate some snacking.

Some on this thread with food rules omg i would not last a day.

If you can’t afford it you can’t afford it but I think the DC’s ages need taking into account. Teens doing a lot of growing and play sport will need a bit more fruit or pasta or whatever. I remember my older cousin going through tuna and apples like a bulldozer as a teen.

Only the parent knows if they are feeding their children adequately but if in doubt I’d be doing whatever I could, food banks, Olio etc to feed them enough as it helps them on every level.

I’ve always had snack items in the house for my 3 growing up, even now as adults and not living at home they’re more than welcome to help themselves to anything in my kitchen, even my 6 grandchildren can come and help themselves to anything, I’d never restrict anyone, even when friends come with them they are always welcome to whatever they want

I recall we would have breakfast, lunch and tea/dinner and only very rarely did we eat between meals. I never remember being hungry, if Mum had been baking we may have a a small scone or something but nothing like the constant 'snacking' that today's children seem to need. I've seen mothers collecting their children from school and giving them 'snacks' before setting of home. When did children start constabt snacking, I don't recall it when our two were children, 80s.

I keep individually packaged items for when we're out of the house, so for packed lunches and days out.

Snacks at home will be pretty simple, like toast with peanut butter, fruit, oatcakes with cheese, or a hot drink. Dc ask beforehand and I'll say no if it's too close to a meal.

In the colder months, I'll make soup more often and they'll sometimes have that after school. That feels like a very healthy snack, and is low cost.

Snacking and grazing are limited in my house on health grounds and organisational grounds. I meal plan and items that are a component of those meals are out of bounds. I buy small amounts of crisps, biscuits etc. and they are limited as they are treat foods, not part of our regular diet. Fruit is unlimited- I buy plenty but it's unlikely Dc will overeat on fruit. Everything else they ask permission to eat before doing so.

When children are eating three balanced meals a day there really isn't any need to be constantly grazing. It's unhealthy. If a snack is required it's generally fruit, yoghurt, nuts, cheese, crackers, peanut butter on toast or leftovers.

I do think if you’re not allowed junk food then that can lead to disordered eating too.

Don't other countries eat much less junk food? Does that happen there? Or just here?

I was SO hungry as a teenager and not overweight at all. Could help myself to anything sensible so toast, cereal, eggs, yoghurt, fruit, bag of crisps etc
not stuff saved for meals or £££ chocolates that were a gift type thing!

I would eat toast and cereal and scrambled eggs for breakfast, school lunch, then something after school before sports, then 2 portions of whatever main meal and then was still in the kitchen at 9pm looking for yoghurt etc
I remember my dad asking if he was meant to worm me or something

I am lucky enough that my DS can just help himself to whatever.

Nope! If there were unlimited snacks to be had, DSD and DP would graze non-stop. They are like hoovers. I came into their lives when this pattern had already been set and despite my best efforts they have no ‘off’ button and it drives me mad. There are multiple breakfast items, tons of fruit, cheese, veggies, popcorn etc available and I pretty much always cook hearty meals from scratch. There are always leftovers so no one is going hungry. I am strict in that I buy items for packed lunches and if they get eaten in a day…tough shit! DSD is old enough to get that WIGIG, which I don’t think is unreasonable. I know she will buy crap when she is out anyway, so not wasting money on her (and DP) doing the same at home.

Lunch bits should not be touched.
Bowls of cereal and toast with beans.
But cooking up meals no.
I have frozen pizzas for the weekend.
Some treats, but not endless grazing, but definitely there is grazing.

Perhaps he was?

Your my type of mum.
Never restrict a child from food.

Teens well you cant fill them just let them lose in the kitchen.
Some comment above one pack a crisp aday any more than one, you get no more for a few days, i mean wtf.

That would be me, my kids would get lunch at school around 12, school dinners so small portions as they moved up the school. By 3.00 they would be starving, and due to their additional needs would get very dysregulated when hungry. A small snack to eat on the way home saved many a meltdown and help with the transition from school to home.

I don't restrict food. I buy enough for snacks. If dc - or another adult in the house - is hungry, they should be able to help themselves be it to fruit, toast, sandwich, crisps etc. I've seen what parents restricting food did to my friend.

I think some people are being a bit silly.

There’s a difference between ‘restricting food’ and not letting your kids eat you out of house and home simply because they are bored.

Not unless the OP's house is Buckingham Palace.

Having constant access to food does not prevent eating disorders.

I have always said no to my DC when I have felt they don't need a snack and just want something because they like the taste and want more but not actually hungry, or when they ask for food half an hour before dinner is ready. It's ok to feel hungry for a short time. Regulating children's eating teaches them to read hunger signs and also helps teach appropriate amounts of food and models healthy eating patterns.

Have you considered making cornbread with the sweetcorn instead; tastes lovely with butter and probably more filling, and requires very little ingredients?

If I were on a budget and needing to feed lots of people I would probably be making my snacks. Growing up my mum always filled the cupboards with snack as my brothers loved to eat, but she always had a tin full of homemade cheese straws, and rock cakes (for which the latter I would make real fresh custard to accompany).

Nowadays, I love making banana bread I don’t add sugar, just chopped up dates, lots of mixed seeds. Interestingly bananas are one of the fruits which have remained cheap in comparison to other fruits.

I don’t understand why people need to snack all the time. If people eat properly at meal times, there is no need for it. Nobody needs cakes, biscuits or crisps between meals. Most people in this country are overweight and this will have an impact on their lives. I bet posters saying that their children prefer to graze hardly ever make their young children sit down at a table and all eat together.