Children and snacks

[Lydiaatthebarre]

A friend of mine has just been complaining about some noisy kids on the train and said she couldn't understand why the mum didn't bring some snacks to keep them quiet.

Another friend brings a big bag of food for her son anytime we go to the park for a couple of hours.

I've also heard a mum complaining recently about a local supermarket not wanting loads of kids going in there at school closing time, and wondering what would happen if her daughter got delayed at school and needed a snack on the was way home.

When did all this essential snacking for children become the norm,?

Snacking isn’t new. Meals in the past would have included elevenses and tea. So breakfast, elevenses, lunch, tea, dinner. Difference now is that elevenses and tea are often eaten out and about, rather than at a table.

Probably not the best for teeth but I don’t have an issue with little and often, instead of stuffing yourself 3 times a day. I couldn’t eat enough in one sitting to keep me going until the next main meal.

School lunches can be very small portion sizes and if your child is fussy they may well have not eaten much at all.

Of course it’s a habit, but it doesn’t have to be a bad habit.

I guessthat’s Why kids are heavier built than they used to be.
My ds does have a snack after school but only because work means supper is seldom ready before 7pm.
It’s usually a bag of crisps and a tangerine.

@ChoudeBruxelles He's most certainly hungry but it's SO constant. He's the skinniest thing too. Despite being 19 months 12-18 trousers fall down on him (but he's tall so 9-12 is a better fit but awful ankle swingers). It's been ideal this summer as he's worn his little brothers 6-9 month shorts!

Mine never needed to snack walking home from school, I didn't think about it tbh, other kids were met with food

Snacking pisses me right off! Those superior mothers who have a selection of snacks in their bag at all times! I don't carry snacks, quite frankly I don't want them getting all mushed up in my handbag. If they're hungry, I might have to buy something , or they might, God forbid, have to wait until they get home!

When people say their children 'can't go between meals without an snack' what do they mean? What do they think will happen exactly?

Argh!

I was a constant snack carrier when the kids were younger, just to keep them quiet. All my kids are healthy slim and active so can't really see the problem.

I have a friend who's always moaning that she can't get her kids to sit down and eat the lunch or dinner she's prepared for them. But she never gives them a chance to get hungry. She's constantly offering them bananas and biscuits and bread sticks and seems terrified that they might feel hungry for more than two minutes.

I think you should just tell your friends what a superior parent you are OP.

Seems like a lot of them do stuff you want to criticise.

My son has always tended to eat fairly frequently although less so now he is older. He has never been overweight. I think it is more what children are eating and drinking that is the problem.
When he was younger he had horrendous meltdowns ( he has severe asd) if we got food timing wrong as he does with many things related to his body functioning.

People seem to think that their children should never feel hungry.

I use snacks to keep mine quiet. She can't shout or scream as much if she's eating grapes When weaning originally all sample meal plans would list breakfast, lunch, dinner and two snack times so I just assumed this was normal. Nurseries also list three meals and two snack times in their meal plans.

I grew up eating little and often so it seems fairly normal to me. My family and I are all slim, though rather active.

Snacking isn’t a new thing. We took snack to first school which was put in a tray, and you collected at break time.

Trying to name your snack was always fun!

I can see the benefit of snacks on a long journey. Passes some time.

Cm asks for snacks to be sent, but we've just spent 2.5 weeks in France and it was 3 square meals a day, neither of the kids made a single peep for snacks. I do tend to pack snacks for the car if we're doing a long journey or are going for a day out somewhere. If we're at home, both dc have free access to the fruit/ veg bowl.

My two are still preschoolers but we do have snacks. Mainly because they’re grazers. Neither of them have ever had big appetites and will never eat a lot in one go. Even when BF it was little and often with both of them. I’m much the same though so I’m not surprised.

The 1/2 slice of toast that my 4 year old eats at 7am will not last him til lunchtime so he might have an apple or banana mid morning. I don’t see the harm. It’s not a decision I’ve made consciously really, they’d be totally unbearable and screaming hungry otherwise!

I don't think there is a problem with children having a sensible mid morning/mid afternoon snack if they are hungry, that's normal; where I see a problem is with feeding children who are not necessarily hungry in order to keep them quiet or entertained or children who can't last through a twenty minute story session at the library without being given rice cakes or raisins or children who graze continuously in between meals so that they cannot possibly be hungry enough at mealtimes to eat a decent amount of food.

LittleLion of course they didn’t because they were doing fun, exciting and new things every day. That’s not every day life. You’re comparing apples and pears. Don’t give your kids snacks if you don’t want to but that’s a false analogy. I could argue that all of our family eat more snacks on a car journey therefore we should eat more snacks all the time as we must be hungry.

I don't think using snacks as a distraction technique is good but I do give DS snacks. I snack in the day as well.

Health visitors dole out this ‘snacking’ advice. It’s annoying. Kids tummies are little and in my experience breakfast will keep them going till lunch, lunch till dinner etc and any snacks in between make them more likely to refuse food and become fussy.

Obviously I know everyone’s experiences are different but I have 4DC and have brought them up like this and my siblings and I also never had snacks between meals.

All of us are healthy weights and know what real hunger feels like. I think there are too many people who think ‘peckish’ is the time for another large portion of something.

I've fed mine to keep him quiet at weddings and in hospital waiting rooms to limit disturbance to other people because if he is eating he can't be shrieking or making other loud sn related noises.

I prefer to take a snack over having to buy stuff . And do take snack or picnic if plan to be out most the day.

Yeah I can understand bringing snacks to avoid having to buy overpriced stuff in cafes etc.

It's the worrying about kids having to go five minutes without food that seems relatively new to me. I'm just wondering when all this started. When we were children you got three meals, something small when you got in from school and that was usually it. Obviously we bought sweets with our pocket money, but in general snacking between meals wasn't a thing the way it seems to be nowadays.

It's not only children. I sit on school appeals, and most of the parents come in clutching a bottle of water or a carton of coffee as if they'll get dehydrated during the hearing.

I have a friend who gets very upset that her children won't sit at the table and eat a meal nicely.

She also shoves snacks in their faces every two minutes all day. They are offered cereal bars, bananas, crisps, chocolate, cans of pop, haribos, etc every time they get in the car, get out of the car, walk past a cafe, get to a playground, whinge, squabble, are tired or even just try to talk to her.

She makes no connection whatsoever between the fact that they have eaten a day's calories in snacks and the fact that they won't sit down and eat a meal.

I tried pointing it out once. She told me that the reason she gives them snacks was because they won't eat meals. I gave up at that point.

When we were children you got three meals, something small when you got in from school and that was usually it

Not when 'WE' were small, when YOU were small. Everybody's experience was as different back then as it is now. Why is your way right? Maybe it's just simply, different.