Is this too much for a snack?

[SingingOutOfTune]

My 12 years old gets home from school and has 3/4 Krisprolls with lots of honey and peanut butter and 2 small glasses of milk. This is around 4 pm. We have dinner around 8. Is this too much? I know he is growing and his weight is fine but I am a bit concerned. Can mums of teens on Mumsnet give me some perspective? Told him off today for having a second glass of milk and hated myself after. Don't like controlling what he eats but it seems excessive for a snack

My 12yo ds isn’t normally a big eater at all, but I think he’s having a growth spurt at the minute as he’s permanently starving! He’s taken to having a couple of slices of toast with marmite and a glass of milk when he gets home from school at 3pm. We eat tea at 6pm usually, and sometimes he’s hungry again before bed and will have weetabix or more toast.

In countries where they eat late, kids have a very substantial merienda after school, and very low childhood obesity.

Is this making anyone else go to the kitchen and make ALL OF THE SNACKS?

Just me?

My kids (both sexes) when teens would all have inhaled that after school and barely noticed. We were also late eaters as a family.

Nothing wrong with peanut butter. Peanut butter and honey sounds similar to peanut butter and jelly - standard kids' snack in some places. Don't worry about the peanut butter. I wouldn't worry about the honey but you could suggest they try bananas if they like sweet stuff with nut butter).

All mine ate like horses in early teen years, all grew out of it, all are now healthy 20 somethings.

mathanxiety not all 12 year old boys. My second son never went through the constant hunger phase, and nor did he shoot up. He just grew slowly and steadily and is now an average size for an adult.

Krisprolls are wholemeal bread. Toasted so they are like Italian biscotti. But sweet.

A few spoonfuls of unsweetened on are better for you and probably no more calorific.

Glue your mouth shut so you can't whinge about waiting 4 hours for dinner, too :D

I really like krisprolls, I have them with pate and pickles.

Gryff Im not sure if you posted your DCs diet expecting us to say "ooh what a great diet, so much fruit!" But honestly that's an AWFUL amount of sugar and crap. You said in a later post everything's baked by you... Lidl pizza, frubes ?! I'm stunned.

On the whole, teenage boys and those approaching puberty can pack away an astronomical amount of calories, noeffingidea. There will always be exceptions of course.

A 12 year old boy could safely consume about 2300 calories a day, and more - up to 3000 - if very active or if puberty has already started.

www.cwt.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/CHEW-12-18Years-PracticalGuide.pdf

I remember my parents saying they couldn't believe how much my brother had been eating until he left home, age 18.
I bloody knew as I was often blamed for it
Crisps, crisps, biscuits, more crisps, cereal and mars bars.
He'd also take whole blocks of cheese to his room, cartons of fresh orange, smoked salmon and basically anything that wasn't nailed down, and he was tall and v skinny.

I have always given my kids their main mean as soon as they get in the door from school.
Ravenous at that time and I would rather they had a wholesome hot meal than survive on snacks until dinnertime.

No way could they wait until 8pm, and it;s too late for me too.
OH gets in at 8 and we don't wait.

My kids would eat a big meal at 4.30pm, then wouldn't have the need to snack again in the evening- my teens are not big on snacking because they have meals when they are hungry.

They would usually have supper before bed- peanut butter on toast, banana and pancakes or suchlike with a drink before bed around 9pm.

“They would usually have supper before bed- peanut butter on toast, banana and pancakes or suchlike with a drink before bed around 9pm“

I don’t want to be a dick, but I honestly can’t see a difference between having an early dinner and then supper before bed, and having tea when you get in from school then a late dinner. I know one’s the British Way and one’s foreign, but apart from that..........

But you won’t be going to bed at 8.30, will you?

I'm with you on that Bertrand.
Also, lots of parents work and won't be home at school finishing time.
I am as it happens, but I don't want to eat my dinner at 4.30.

Tell him off for drinking milk, let him have coke instead

Would never be enough for my 12 year old and he's pixie sized

Singing - why would you compare the eating habits of a boy on the cusp of adolescence with a child who is not set up for a momentous growth spurt? Why would you compare his eating habits with yours, a middle aged woman? You are really in for a shock in a couple years if simply eating a snack of a couple crisp rolls with peanut butter between lunch and a late dinner is alarming for you.

Peanut butter IS a healthy snack - fat is not bad, just certain fats are less "good" than others. Peanut butter is full of good fat, fibre, and other micronutrients and is a very sensible snack - "healthy" even. Your son also has higher calcium requirements as he will be, you know, growing. I wouldn't be concerned about drinking and additional glass or 2 during adolescence.

Do you have food issues? Just wondering because you seem awfully concerned about fat and calories and this is completely inappropriate when talking about the diets of pre-teens/teens of normal weight.

By the way, and fwiw, despite my ranting about people being scared of hunger, I also think that's an ok snack. And I also think 2 glasses of milk is fine.

OP most men I knew as 12 year olds and teenagers* would drink an entire litre of milk at a time not just two small glasses, and for an alternative drink have a litre of fruit juice. They would also drink water. Then they would eat whatever they could lay their hands on as a snack in the afternoon before having a large main meal.

However now they are all over 23 they eat considerably less.

None of them have ever been fat and they still all do plenty of exercise. In fact half of them have considerably sought to improve their diets e.g. limit/cut out the fruit juice mainly because they are aware of family illnesses.

Let your son eat until he's content making him aware what is healthy to eat and buy some of that foodstuff in so he can eat it. If you attempt to restrict the amount of food he eats then this could lead to eating or health problems.

I should add as a woman in her 40s who did loads of exercise up until a few years ago and until I was pregnant I still exercised a lot more than the average person, I'm horrified like PPs that you aren't aware that active people need more calories even more so if they are growing and in puberty. I had a mother who didn't understand that children going through puberty needed to eat more especially if they were active so ended up with a nutritional deficiency as a teen.

*6 of my younger brothers and nephews. I have more nephews and male family friends but aren't/wasn't in tune to their eating habits.

@massivelyouting but you aren't an adolescent boy. If eats dinner earlier he will just snack after dinner. What some adolescents can put away as a "snack" a few hours after a main meal is truly amazing.

@BikeRunSki

Why do you have tea so late? Why haven't you answered that question or the bedtime question?