AIBU to hide food....literally!

[lowestpriority]

I have got to the stage where I cannot wait to see my DCs go back to school tomorrow.
In the last week and a half they have eaten me out of house and home.
As soon as I walk back through the door from the supermarket laden with bags, they are round me like vultures, picking over a carcass.
They seem to think that just because I bought the food that say, it has to be eat that day.
I have decided to actually hide food to make it last longer than one day instead of putting it in the cupboards, fruit bowl etc
AIBU

I buy once a week, and all the nice stuff is gone in two days, usually. Sometimes ds2 will hide food in his room to stop ds1 eating it .

I put yellow post-it notes on food for meals - ever since the day ds and his friend ate four t-bone steaks for breakfast one day .

My teenagers are always hungry, eat like horses and aren't overweight, so I suppose the need a heck of a lot of calories.

What ive always known (as a dc myself and from families around me) is you give three meals a day and your dc ask if they can have a yogurt / bag of crisps/ snack. you then either say yes / no youll be having your tea in half an hour / no I need them for your packed lunches.

My Dc are 12yrs down to 8 mo and all [except baby] have a snap lock lunch box and their snacks for the day go into it 2/3 pieces of fruit, cracker/cheese, yogurt, 2 biscuits/mini sweet pack/bag of crisps. They know once their box is empty no more except meals, it did not take hem long to learn this, Would something like this help you?

Hmm. Lock it away lonely. Try it for a few weeks to 'train' them into asking. If they have to ask every time they might think a bit more carefully about whether they are actually hungry. You can also choose what they get given thus avoiding the packed lunch theft issues!

It'll drive you mad though . . .get some earplugs? Seriously, good luck.

I would be very interested and grateful to know what other folk do regarding this.

Have strict rules about not helping yourself. From an early age. So I fear you are going to have your work cut out to get this into place now..

Do you not allow any snacking between meals at all or do you only allow certain foods

There really is no need for continual snacking in between meals, it sounds more like boredom than actual hunger. And there is a fair amount of sugar in too much fruit and yoghurts and ribena.

Chop up raw carrot and celery and tell them if they have to eat, they can eat that. And if they are thirsty then there is no limit on the amount of water they can have.

The thing is, if you give in once to the mithering, they will know that they can wear you down for the future, so you have to be firm and keep saying NO.

Put treats and snacks in a high cupboard out of their reach, or better still, dont buy any at all.

It does sound like boredom eating. Also I would give them something that fills them up especially in the afternoon for a snack - crackers and cheese, breadsticks and cream cheese etc... Are they thin? If so does it matter?

My DD (4 and a half) keeps moaning that she is hungry every 30 minutes - she's not, because when I tell her she can have fruit she either doesn't bother or barely eats any.

I've come to the conclusion she is thirsty rather than hungry.

Young children (and a lot of adults) find it difficult to distinguish between hunger and thirst, and many kids don't drink enough anyway. I''ve now started to make her have a (non-sugary) drink - either water, fizzy water or weak squash, and if she is still hungry 15 mins later she can have something to eat.

I also agree that it is sometimes boredom.

Constant snacking is a really bad habit to get into though... you might be stick thin as a kid because you are constantly on the go, but as you slow down a bit the weight can easily build up.

If you want to really make a stand & get them to appreciate the consequences of their constant eating I have a rather harsh suggestion.

Buy your weekly shopping, put notes on the fridge/cupboard doors stating what meals are to be had each day with which foods are to be used, what food is availble as snacks (e.g 3 pieces of fruit pp, 1 yoghurt etc.) & when you will next go shopping (1 week later).

Then (this is the really harsh bit) if they eat the food planned for a meal - they don't get that meal because they've already had it. As I say, its a very harsh way of dealing with it but I reckon 1-2 days of half meals or no meals & they will learn not to eat everything in sight. You should also lay it on thick that they have also eaten your & DH's food so you are also having to go without (whilst having a secret supply of dry food hidden in your bedroom )

I totally agree with Squeaky here

But then we're both old gimmers who have been brung up right

Seriously OP, your kids are walking all over you.

If they're not allowed to take food without asking, make sure they know that and face consequences.

If anything, it's polite to ask.

I used to moan and whinge to my mum that there was never anything nice to eat... and would get told when I was in charge of the money and bought the food, I could fill the fridge to my hearts content...

She got round the problem of cakes getting scoffed quickly though, she baked her own, and they were bloody terrible...

canyou I like the idea of a box each and when it's gone it's gone, but how do you stop them from pinching each other's food?

I've got visions of my 4dc having those automatic cat feeders set to release snacks every 2 hours....

My kids would genuinely eat their way through the Tesco delivery van to save him unpacking if I let them

But they ask for everything in this house except drinks (unless fizzy)

If anything, it means I know who's eaten at what time when I'm thinking about putting the dinner on.

This is definitely more of a discipline issue than a food issue if you ask me. My DDs want to eat constantly too but I have no problem saying NO, and they listen.

I boredom-eat, I comfort-eat, it's lovely, so no wonder our DCs like it too...

I'd go with pinkcupcakefairy's idea. Short sharp fix and stick to the rules thereafter with them.

I've had a mental image of the hungry caterpillar reading this thread. On Monday they ate through a big juicy gherkin etc! That's not helpful, but I can totally sympathise, my 12yo is the worst for stealth snacking, lock the goodies away I say! I have to make 4 packed lunches a day and it drives me crackers to find things missing.

They tend to police it well enough themselves but if they take something from another persons box it is time out and they only get fruit/healthy snack for the next day We fill the box after tea so punishment is carried out on the day of the crime to a degree. Each box is different as well so they cannot get confused, also I find that they tend to put things back when they have had enough so we have a lot of half finished bars and crisp packs in their box

And the winner is.....pink.
Am definitely going with your idea, mainly because they are actually eating into the food that I need to make proper meals, not just snack type stuff, IYSWIM.
Yes it is harsh. But, as you said, it is short sharp shock and will probably have more effect on them when they see how diminshed their dinner plates are.
Great idea, thanks.

Good luck OP! Come back and give us an update and tell us if when it worked!

Best of luck. Keep us updated and we can smuggle you pizza deliveries.

Glad to be of service . Fingers crossed it has the desired effect. Please do come back & let us know.

2/3 pieces of fruit, cracker/cheese, yogurt, 2 biscuits/mini sweet pack/bag of crisps

That is an enormous amount of food to have for snacks!

I am shocked that snacking seems to be the norm tbh. With a good healthy diets NO ONE needs snacks, be it sweets, crisps or a hundreweight of carrots. It just isnt necessary. Even my DCs 2&3 who are hypoglycemic and have to eat regularly throughout the day only get 1 piece of fruit each per morning and afternoon! The others dont have anything!

And dont get me started on "tuck".....

I would introduce another factor too.

Work out how much money you spend on food for meals and how much on snacks (ideal plus replacements).

Then sit down with your dc and talk them through the budgeting of your weekly foodshop - including things like if you have a big expensive roast on Sunday then you stretch it to last for Monday too. And then have a cheaper thing like macaroni and cauliflower cheese the next day to balance things out over the week, you can't have steak every night no matter how much you love it as it's just too expensive. Etc etc etc

Then say you are not going to buy any more snacks for them; they are going to get a budget of 50p/day or whatever you would like them to be spending and let them buy their own.

It will make them appreciate that there is not a bottomless pit of money for snacks, will get them down to the shop or Market to bargain hunt and therefore want less to eat as not at home bored. Might even get some co-operation between dc if they join up to buy a loaf to share. Provide a fridge/non-fridge box each and see what comes out... Be reasonable, especially to start, so say that they can have a week's money in advance. And if they realised say that it was cheaper to make a batch of cookies or bowls of porridge then be prepared to sub them extra initially so they can buy all the ingredients to get going (eg big bag if flour works out cheaper than smallso you could sub them 2 weeks and they would have enough to make cookies for 3 weeks instead of 1 - making sure you didn't pay them again until their subbed money had run out).

Also would help them to learn things like the Market can be great for fruit, especially just before clOsing time if they were not too fussy about whether they have apples, oranges etc but best value on the day.

Or, Consider doing a Baking thing with them - filling simple things like flapjacks or muffins, they get a set of ingredients to make something and it has to last a week. Each child bakes a batch (or pair of children)- again might help reduce the boredom/comfort eating thing.

Finally I would sit down with them all and say you are having this problem, it involves them and you haven't been able to solve it yet so what do they suggest? Might make them think a bit harder about what they are doing!

Good luck!!

The OPS kids are 4,5 and 10, I think that the budgeting idea might be a bit beyond the 4&5 year old.

I am bit that the OP can afford yoghurts etc to be gone through in a day but not a 50p cheapy loaf of toasting bread.

And frankly at aged 4 and 5 there is no way that they should be helping themselves to anything. Food isnt the issue here, but a total lack of discipline.