To never buy snacks/squash/sweets etc again

[Fiera]

Every single time there is somthing remotely snackly in the house it just gets taken and eaten. The large double concentrate bottles of squash gone within 24 hours, any kind of sugary cerial gone the same day they come through the door.
I dont like to use the word 'steal' but tonight its the only word i can use because my daughter actually STOLE my can of coke.
We never usually buy coke or Fizzy anything, nut it was my eldest sons birthday and all the children had a can as a very rare treat. My daughter actualli hid my can up her sleeve (after having drank hers earlier in the evening) and went and drank it in her bedroom.
Even my toddler daughters 'treats' like 'GoGo' biscuits and 'Goodies' puffs just disapear before she even knows theyre there.
We have a full fruit bowl, two actually, every day and even they get emptied. They have hot meals every day so theyre not 'hungry' just greedy.
I just dont understand why they do it and im seriously considering just not buying again.
My toddler will happily drink water (theres hardly ever any squash left for her anyway)

I think it’s been a really interesting thread! Thank you for starting it. I think as a nation we really need our eyes opened to the cynicism of the food industry - cheap, not very nutritious and pretty addictive food (salty and sugary) has become normal to fill the cupboard in most households.

The thing that has interested me most here is the squash thing, it got me thinking. DH and I get through a bottle of squash (sugarfree) in about 4 days, I keep it made up in a 5 litre water bottle in the fridge. I don't really drink tea or coffee at home, he'll drink a cup of tea or two in the evenings so will have fewer cold drinks, which means as an adult I probably drink around 750ml to a litre of squash (diluted) a day, and I'm out at work all day, where I mainly drink water and occasionally a fruit tea. Given we're meant to drink at least 2 litres of water a day I'm probably just about hitting that. If you've got four kids and two adults in the house I'd expect to get through a bottle of squash a day easily, if not a little more if there aren't other drink choices (and I'm not saying there should be). As for the snacks it does sound like fomo and competition between kids, maybe the individual snack boxes would work, it SUVs like you have other healthy stuff in the house if they're hungry

My kids used to thrash a bottle of squash in a day. Mostly filling the cup with too much and adding a hint of water! So DH and I bought a keg type 5 litre jug. Each morning I make up the squash in the jug and the kids can dispense their squash as they please. No more bottles gone in a day.

I've also had problems with sweet stuff being taken. So DH and I decided that we would try a different system. The children can have something sweet after dinner, if they have ate it all. If they haven't, that's fine, they can have fruit. It's not to make fruit seem second rate, if they haven't ate a lot of their dinner, there is a good chance the veggies won't have been ate, so having fruit is better than something sweet. It works really well thankfully.

I've noticed my ds who is 9 years old and tall for his age, has a much larger appetite than he used to. He also has a tendency to comfort eat and will try to find something sweet if his mood is low. Whilst it doesn't make it okay that he will help himself, it does diffuse the irritation about it. It's like a compulsion.

All my children are slim as am I and my DH, all the children have great teeth thankfully.

I really don't like referring to a child taking food as stealing. I know technically that's what it is, it just makes me uncomfortable. When they are in their own home, they are being dishonest to take treats without asking, but I dont feel it's stealing. I grew up with 3 brothers and all four of us used to punch biscuits out of the biscuit tin. I remember pinching a chocolate digestive and making it last for ages, just nibbling tiny bits and letting it melt in my mouth. Happy times! I can say that every time I took something, I was actually hungry. I had a very fast metabolism.

Not every child is fine with 3 meals a day. As an adult, I need to eat 6 small meals a day due to Gilbert's syndrome which I was born with so possibly why I couldn't go so long doing three meals a day.

Some children and adults also have hypoglycemia, so not diabetes but are affected by low blood sugar levels. I have this and as a child, any time I did something energetic, let's say swimming, I would end up feeling weak and shaky afterward and had to have something to eat. As I now eat 6 meals a day, I don't get it very often anymore.

I find the squash thing weird. I can go through a litre bottle of squash by myself in two days (i don't need the water lecture, i'm an adult).

Don't people think having a 'treat box' gives certain (unhealthy) foods an importance they shouldn't have? Isn't it just saying that this is what you eat if you want to rewards yourself or make you feel better? I would just never seen food as a reward and have a bit of a mental block about thinking about it that way.

“And people wonder why 2/3 of adults are overweight.”

Yet 2/3 of the adults responding to this thread with extreme views on snacks are likely to be overweight.

You tend to find it’s people who struggle with their weight who have these extreme rules.

But a treat isn't a reward, it's a 'nice to have' every once in a while 'just because'.

So you wouldn't necessarily have a slice of cake, a pudding, lots of crisps, glass of juice or a takeaway every day because if you eat lots of things you are unlikely to have a healthy diet and are at risk of becoming overweight unless you are very active. You have them on special occasions, or at the weekend, not every day.

It becomes a problem when people consume these sorts of things every day, or most days, and they become a major part of their diet.

ParisUSM

But it is a treat, isn’t it? In the way that anything not strictly necessary is a bit of a treat - sugary, creamy, alcoholic whatever. If it’s not meeting your nutritional needs then it’s a treat? I agree that it shouldn’t be a big deal but I think we should be teaching our kids that our bodies don’t need these things but we can enjoy them occasionally. For me that makes them a treat.

They’re a ‘treat’ because unlike other food you can’t eat as much as you want.

Is squash a British thing? I live abroad and have never seen it here. I wonder about other countries. I've only seen it in the UK that I can think of.

Since we left the UK over 10 years ago we haven't drunk any squash because you can't get it here, and we haven't missed it at all tbh.

I don't think it's unusual for teenagers to seem like they're hollow. I couldn't fill mine up, they have grown out of it though.

I just don't think of a bar of chocolate as a treat. It's something I might have a notion to eat now and again, I'm not treating myself if I eat it though. Think I might be over thinking this whole thing to be honest. If a treat is something that isn't strictly necessary, then it's probably a high proportion of most people's diets.

My parents used to go shopping monthly. Me and my sister would snaffle all the ‘treats’ within the first few days and that was it. Once it was gone, it was gone.

Surely you are your child's first role model. They will take their attitude towards food from you. Why even have things like squash and fizzy drinks in the house? We just don't drink stuff like that.

Don't buy more then or don't buy at all. They sound super greedy. I would either not buy it at all and they would get used to it not being there. They don't really need that many snacks.

Or don't replace it once it's gone. If they know you are going to replace it then of course they will just eat it. If it's not instantly replaced they will learn to ration it more.

If you started only giving your child an apple as a 'treat' they would probably view it as high value. Obviously a bar of chocolate & an apple are nutritionally different, but if you stop putting such emphasis on chocolate being something special, the viewpoint would change. You could 't survive on just one type of food with everything else being 'treat' worthy. To me, making everything a part of a nutritional whole has a much better impact than saying 'no you can only have x on this day'. DD gets chocolate, or a bag of crisps or a sweet every day; she is a tall, lanky little sod with ridiculous energy levels. When we go to kids' parties you can instantly see the kids who don't get sweets/cakes/squash/crisps etc regularly because they descend on the junk like gannets. That is far more unhealthy than little & often because it breeds the idea that if you are offered x, you must gorge before it is gone

Any child that falls for the “Apple as a treat” line beyond the age of 4 would cause me concern tbh. You’d have to be a bit dim to fall for that (or encourage it tbh)

Not if it was ingrained into them from day 1 sparkles - we get our eating habits from those around us don't forget

(Although totally agree this limiting of foods is somewhat foolish and misplaced)

In the 80s everyone’s lunch box consisted of a sandwich, a chocolate bar (54321 or a penguin) and a pack of crisps. You weren’t allowed to take in drinks. That was extremely common. Crisps aren’t treats

You’d have to keep them away from anyone else though mad, which would be a bit abusive

If they are eating a pack of biscuits every day minimum then that means you are buying at least 7 full size packs of biscuits each week. Why?!

Sadly not Sprinkles, i do know kids my own DDs age who are baffled by her having open access to fruit - one 5 year old told me he can only have grapes on a friday (after being offered some here for after dinner). His mum smugly told me fruit is rationed at home as a treat.

I hate food being used as a reward, it has such a negative connotation. I can clearly remember my lunch box being a sandwich, a yoghurt, a bag of crisps & a bit of chocolate (funsize mars bar etc). I used to bug my mum for more sandwiches & no chocolate 🙈 DD's school are now trying to remove crisps & chocolate from their lunchboxes because they are 'unhealthy' - whatever happened to 'everything in moderation'????

FUNSIZE MARS BARS OMG. Can you still get them? They were amazing

Haha i don't know actually! I remember my folks buying the funsize multipacks with mars bars, milky ways...can't think what else. Snickers maybe? Every day was whatever one came to hand first, a little surprise in your lunch box 😂😂

I buy my ds 4 "salt your own" crisps from aldi and take the sachet of salt out,once they're gone though that's it I won't buy more until the next big shop,
.I'll let him have treat foods but I won't buy all in one go as they would all get eaten within a day or so