To think your child doesn't need a snack in a 30-minute toddler class?

[Mummyreindeerlegz]

Sorry for the long title.

Why is it some parents give their one year old snacks during really short classes (or at all during classes!)? A one year old wandering around with a soggy rice cake, dropping bits is grim. Wait half an hour or give them a snack before you come.

Please tell me why people think this is ok? Fully prepared to be told I am being unreasonable.

But they also can't properly understand what hunger is so if they are told "here is food" at every time of asking it's easy to see how that becomes the norm pretty quickly. And then at what point do you stop saying yes every time?

But we all start out comfort eating, don't we? That's why babies fall asleep feeding, and want to suck when they feel pain. Isn't it just as odd to say that no child could still have that need at 1, as it is to say they need to have learned to crawl by x months? We're all different aren't we?

Frizzy, if my dc didn't get hungry outside of three meal times then I wouldn't give them snacks either, but they do so rather than leaving them hungry I give them a small snack.

Quite unreasonable if I am honest 😊 You have obviously been lucky to find a class that fits perfectly within your toddlers routine. Sometimes that is not always possible and other children may need a snack at that particular time.

I must say that watching a toddler eating has never offended me 😂

Nurseries, along with childminders do not feed on demand past baby stage. Even 18 month olds get mid-morning snacks sitting down and then lunch. Unless toddlers brought up by a dedicated primary carer are somehow very different, they, too could last without leaving a thin film of rice cakes over communal toys. They will really not expire in those 30 minutes.

Yanbu. Wherever there's a gathering of toddlers there's a trail of bloody Quaver crumbs, or worse, the orange menace Wotsits.
Our (not mine, but the country's) children are fat and they're being admitted to hospital for rotten teeth. Getting used to 'snacking' every 20 mins from the age of 1 isnt helping.
Disclaimer about special needs etc etc before someone mentions it-I've got one.

I'm guessing the parent had a strict Gina Ford-esque (have I got away with that?!) schedule. 10am equals snack time, and in the mother's daft mind you don't veer off this by 5 mins, never mind half an hour. I can say this because I was once that mother.

YABU although I can understand the bit about your child seeing other kids eat 'treats' /eating bits off the floor which they do in a millisecond even though you're watching like a hawk.

Uptil about 4 my DD had food refusal syndrome or something. Even if we woke early she wouldn't eat her breakfast but got hungry an hour later in middle of 1hr play & stay group. If I didn't feed her then, then she would be hungry. So yeah I would fed whenever she asked because it wasn't often.

No you can't feed kids in the car seat- what if they choke?

I'm a childminder, and have been in childcare for almost 30 years. Snacks are a 'new trend', I've never given them as a daily routine once morning and afternoon milk feeds have been dropped, never been nagged to either.
I used to attend a toddler class a few years back, the constant wandering round eating drove me mad!

NotDoris, so all of the children you minded only ate 3 times a day? Even at 1?

No wonder dentists despair at kids' teeth - the teeth don't get the chance to recover from the acid attack from constant snacking.

I don't think anyone is defending constant snacking Curly, more saying that some dc really need snacks occasionally (as in once a day).

What gets me is not the snacking, but the wandering around while eating.

So, Nicky, why not wait till the end of the clAss or give the snack while waiting for it to start?

Well tbh I would never let my dc wander about eating food, definitely not whilst leaving a mess all over the place. It's rude. If my youngest was hungry whilst my eldest (3)was enjoying the activity then I'd take them to one side and let them have a snack.

Nicky, they have lunch at 12ish, then dinner at 5. Babies have milk whenever suits them, toddlers have milk mid morning and mid afternoon if they want it. They don't whine, moan, nag etc. I used to offer a biscuit/fruit after school, but found that it stopped them eating dinner properly, so I stopped.

Wow, lots of very passionate feelings on either side of the debate. My own thoughts:

I confess I too am flummoxed by all the baby/toddler snacking I see. When my DC were little I was just too disorganised/lazy to pack snacks when we went out, and in hindsight I rarely regretted it. It was this laziness when DS was 10 months old and we were at a restaurant near Boston (Massachusetts) that forced me to give him some of my lobster pie which he LOVED and made me see that there really wasn't any difference between kids food and adults food. My DC don't need expensive bags and pots and jars of processed crap constantly shoved at them, the proper food my DH and I are eating is just fine.

My DC (now 11 and 9) are allowed a piece of fruit between breakfast and lunch when they are at home, and a single biscuit straight after school (and only if they ask for it, I don't offer it). If they tell me they're hungry and either they have just eaten or will soon eat a meal I offer them "real" food - like cheese and crackers or a ham sandwich or fruit. If they accept it they are really hungry and need to eat, if they don't they are just bored. I don't mind them slightly spoiling a meal if they've eaten "real" food.

All kids in normal development do have growth spurts which are totally unpredictable and often imperceptible, until you realise they are eating you out of house and home. When these were happening were the few times I regretted not having snacks with me or the wherewithal to get any. But those are the times they are likely to ask me for food between meals.

While I totally agree with those who operate on the principle that a normally developing toddler (even one in a growth spurt) should be able to last 30 minutes without having to gum a rice cake, and totally believe that constant snacking certainly contributes to the obesity problems in the First World, I think we need to go back to the first principles of the OP - it sounds like the real problem is not so much the fact of the eating as the mess and risk to her own DC. Had the OP not had to deal with the gummed up rice cake then she would probably have been a lot more tolerant to a food-need issue specific to that toddler. Had the messy eater been confined to a seat and the mess kept out of the reach of her own DC she might not even have noticed it. It is not unreasonable at all to be exasperated at the selfishness of a parent allowing a toddler to spew half eaten food all around a common play area when, had that parent been willing to wait just 30 minutes, the toddler could have safely spewed somewhere away from instruments and other children.

Snacks are a thing now we're mostly too fat, small children have small stomachs, rush around & run out of fuel, needing extra food in the middle of baby gym or whatever

that's fine BUT MAKE THEM SIT DOWN TO EAT

Please.

Far too much emphasis placed on food these days. Is it the right kind, right amount,right method of feeding, right time. For goodness sake if you KNOW a child is going to be hungry by a certain time deal with it before hand not during the planned event. As already stated a child won't starve in half and hour and a rice cake type is not real food anyway, it is usually given as a pacifier, why not just stick a dummy in. Don't tell me sometimes there is a need to stick food in a child's hand because of the pressure of being a parent etc. It's a job millions of folk have done for million of years before us without all the aids and easy living products we have to hand and somehow the population has survived, in fact increased. Get real.

... and that's why when I run my classes I stipulate a specific place for snacks to be eaten, away from the main area.

Yabu. Think what you like, but it's my kid and if it requires feeding I'll feed it.

I'm not judgemental about much, but the toddlers going through life being continually fed in their pushchairs, in other people's houses (without asking), and walking around at classes are grubby faced and sticky fingered for half of their waking life. Their mouths are full of food when they could be talking. Their hands are full when they could be playing. Their toys and sofas are at risk of a sticky film of saliva and carb glue. My dog has to be policed at the first sight of a toddler because he learned instantly that there would be food available from them, even if only from helpfully washing their hands and faces. I no Ionger have a New Year's Eve party because I don't want to exclude the family who let their toddlers do this in my house. I am judgemental about this because it isn't necessary! I have raised a fair few and never let a child get bad tempered through hunger.
When I start new groups now, they are always food free zones- basic health and safety.

It's funny, what winds different people up and is acceptable to others.

What even is a 30min toddler class 😳

Whenever we take my son to somewhere he has to be quiet such as a wedding, we feed him continually because if he has something in his mouth, he can't be shrieking or shouting. His level of disability means he doesn't understand the need to be quiet.
We have had a few funny looks from people who don't know him, perhaps because it keeps him so contained his severe learning difficulties aren't so obvious. They really wouldn't like the alternative.