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.

I've never really thought about it. I give my toddler snacks at toddler groups if she seems hungry or hasn't had much breakfast. She doesn't eat much and sometimes refuses breakfast altogether. So a fruit bar or rice cake mid-morning seems a sensible option. I don't think toddlers are designed to eat 3 large meals, mine prefers frequent small meals and healthy snacks. I don't agree with restricting healthy snacks or making them eat at set times until they're school age.

I can understand why it's annoying if your child has allergies. Can you not bring your own dairy-free snacks to discourage her eating bits from the floor? Mine is a terror for picking up bits of food if she sees others eating!

I'm not sure why it annoys people so much. Who makes a 1 year old wait for drinks or food? As pp have said, often it is a case of timings gone wrong. 10am is a totally normal time for a snack.

Meant to add, at the groups I go to they provide biscuits and fruit, so most of the toddlers are eating at some point.

Smiling at Giles and remembering the 'Yes, you can have tea now if you want to sit up at the table and eat it' line [in response to whining]. The choice of food at the table OR play was usually sufficient to determine genuine hunger!

Xmas, I would wait to give a 1 year old food and drink if they were not hungry or thirsty. From what I've read of this thread, it seems as if the child in question was simply given a bag of rice cakes on arrival without any request or any indication that they were hungry.

It's important to have some procedures and eating in a quiet environment on a table is very important to me!

If you know you are going to a 30 min thing, give them a snack in the 10 mins before. They aren't going to be so impossibly hungry then that they can't hang on for 30 mins.

I wonder how some children manage when they start school when previously they have been allowed snacks whenever they want or be allowed to choose when they eat with no routine put in place?
It is all very well going for an easy life for you when you have a toddler but it doesn't help them adapt for school or help teachers managing a class of 20 or 30 kids.
Still,..you aren't there at school to see your child be confused and struggle because they can't have what they want.

Xmas, I would wait to give a 1 year old food and drink if they were not hungry or thirsty. From what I've read of this thread, it seems as if the child in question was simply given a bag of rice cakes on arrival without any request or any indication that they were hungry.

Yet you said in another post our DS had to have his snacks and meals at pretty much set times or he was a nightmare. How do we know that wasn't the case for the child in the OP?

Who makes a 1 year old wait for drinks or food? As pp have said, often it is a case of timings gone wrong. 10am is a totally normal time for a snack

Someone who feeds their child proper meals and has a routine? Someone who knows there child is not starving?
There is no 'normal' time for a snack. It depends who you are and your routine.

Also, many children - and adults - eat out of boredom rather than genuine hunger. Coming to an activity should be interesting enough to prevent the type of 'I'm bored so I'll pester mum for a snack' type of "hunger" - if a child is genuinely hungry, then they can sit at the side of the activity, eat the snack and then join the activity, and that's actually a really important life-long lesson about food.

'Their'...sorry

Lol. Clearly you have not met my hollow legged baby. She eats on average every half an hour, eats as much as the children twice her age at the childminders, snacks and eats tons at meals, yet is very small. Spoken to the docs, she is fine, just has a big appetite.
Ask her not to eat in a group, and you are unleashing the forces of hell upon the poor other toddlers. We've had to leave groups because I didn't pack enough food before. The tantrums and screaming then last for the 40 minutes until we get home.

Of course I make her sit down and I clean up after her though.

Formerly, DS suffered from genuine 'falling-over-wobbliness' if he went too long between meals, and so if an activity was at a set snack time (e.g. 11 am), then he would sit to one side and eat his snack before joining in. It's the 'carrying a 'just in case bag of rice cakes' around the activity' that's the issue. If the child is genuinely hungry, fine, sit out until they have eaten. If they are not willing to sit out to eat, then they're not that hungry.

Classes for babies / toddlers are more ridiculous than snacking, imo. Classes. Sure, toddler group or swimming, but the music / dancing ones are a total scam.

Ask her not to eat in a group, and you are unleashing the forces of hell upon the poor other toddlers

Seriously?

If the child is genuinely hungry, fine, sit out until they have eaten. If they are not willing to sit out to eat, then they're not that hungry.

Again is a one year old able to make this decision?

I agree the walking around wasn't perhaps the best decision but people are piling on about the actual snack, not the walking around with the snack.

Nethuns, we still sing the songs DS learned at the music group he went to when he was 2 - he's a hulking great teenager now, and has extracurricular music groups 6 days a week. Equally DD started ballet at not much older, and is still dancing at 14, umpteen exams later. It may seem ridiculous, and tbh some are simply about companionship and getting out of the house, but you'd be surprised what 'sticks'

I have never understood the need for snack time at all, apart from medical issues. DD had real problems with her blood sugars and docs told me to feed her once an hour rather than 3 meals a day, which I did until she was 12 and it seemed to resolve itself. I arranged any social outings around that need as I would any other medical need. The others managed just fine without "snack time"

My baby and I loved our music groups.

Over exactly! One person was judgy enough about it to start the thread and a bunch of others piled in to add their own judgy comments into the mix

But..but...isn't that healthy discussion? People giving their differing opinions? I have my opinion that toddlers don't need and shouldn't be given snacks every half hour, and others differ and they are free to say so. I'm not 'judgey' just because I give an opinion. Aren't people judging me? That I must be a miserable patronising old fogey?

When toddlers come to my house and they need to eat, they sit at the table and eat it until they've had enough. They do not run around the house with food, and nor should they in public places. I don't know what's wrong with that concept. No doubt I will be judged for saying that.

I used to hate that too. I didn't bring any for mine. They wouldn't have needed it but then they'd beg from other people so I ended up having to and they still wanted other people's. Same with 30 min trip to park. I like to drum into mine that you're there to play not eat because they'd be hungry as soon as they got there

Threads like this make me think what a horrible place mumsnet can be, fully of nasty, judgemental nonsense. Posters talking about entitled one-year-olds lacking social graces, and 'poor parenting' because someone gives their kid a sodding rice-cake at a time that you deem inappropriate? What lovely people some of you are

But..but...isn't that healthy discussion? People giving their differing opinions? I have my opinion that toddlers don't need and shouldn't be given snacks every half hour, and others differ and they are free to say so. I'm not 'judgey' just because I give an opinion. Aren't people judging me? That I must be a miserable patronising old fogey? When toddlers come to my house and they need to eat, they sit at the table and eat it until they've had enough. They do not run around the house with food, and nor should they in public places. I don't know what's wrong with that concept. No doubt I will be judged for saying that

Exactly,..
It is only judging if you disagree with someone apparently.
If no one gave an opinion and said nothing then parents would never learn anything different from what they do or think about why they do it.

Obviously not literally, gottagetmoving. But she will throw herself on the floor, scream really loudly, and throw things hard. She will cry until she vomits when not fed, which is more unpleasant imho than food mess. Her tantrums can go on for hours.

Funny, when I made a thread about not giving my daughter a biscuit when demanded (I offered fruit) everyone said 'how awful making her cry, so cruel, just give her a biscuit'.