To think children can go a couple of hours without eating

[OnlyFoolsnMothers]

Not sure if this is just the people I hang out with but every park play date I go on at the moment (there’s quite a few- child is 4), the other parent brings with them copious amounts of snacks.
I’m in no way a food nazi, my child has a morning snack, the odd ice cream when out on hot days, a biscuit pudding after her dinner - I always carry water and an apple- but even I think she can manage 2 hrs in a park without me having to produce a family size bag of crisps, popcorn, a fruit shoot, a haribo.
I’m really fed up of it, firstly because I’m the grinch who says “no” when my daughter asks if she can stuff her face 2hrs before dinner and secondly, because then (unsurprisingly) the other kid sits there eating rather than playing.
If you take a picnic amount of food to a 2pm play date- pls why?

[quote DemBonesDemBones]@Flatdisco actually, not feeding a hungry child is much more likely to cause future problems with food. I can only assume that all these people not feeding their children snacks have very under active children. Children that move and exercise and play burn a lot of calories. [/quote]
no - you have completely misunderstood the science - it is the insulin spikes that cause the hunger.

chaosmaker

All the continual eating is why there's an obesity epidemic. Only storing up problems around food for later.

@chaosmaker is spot on

@DGFB

I bring food to the school gates, my kids are starving and we eat dinner at 6. I don’t care what you think? Yes I’d also bring snacks to a 2pm play date because they have a snack at 3pm.. in between lunch at 12 and dinner at 6. I think 6 hours without food is too long. Are you saying I’m a bad parent? All healthy weight kids here

But what snacks would you bring? An apple and a rice cake or a family sized bag of doritos or haribo?

I don't know why the op is getting such a hard time. She said in her first post her DC eats snacks...she just seems to be objecting to the type of food and the fact it seems to dominate the outing

@54321nought crack on then.

Snacking will be causing hunger for a lot of these children

At the KS1 school , that I worked in, children were offered free fruit both in the morning and afternoon.
Most of the fruit had to be thrown away as the children wouldn't touch pears, carrots, sugar snap peas, tomatoes etc..
parents sent separate snacks... popcorn, cheesy biscuits, those stupid processed winders, even hummus with wraps. Some children came in with those compartment lunchboxes with hummus, breadsticks, grapes, baby bels, cheese strings , pepperamis etc...

Come lunchtime, these children ate nothing as they were full up from their 'snacks.'

Parents would complain about their children eating nothing at lunchtime.

School policy was a piece of fruit at break time.
Parents just took no notice and felt that their child must have every snack they'd want, irrespective of the fact that lunch was 45 minutes after playtime.

So so much school dinners went in the bin. So many children didn't eat their packed lunches.

If ever a member of staff said anything, along the lines of ' you won't have room for your dinner, or, ' just eat the grapes' we'd get a rollicking from a precious parent for any comment that we'd made.

I despaired.

"Did you know that eating smaller meals more often can be better for metabolism?"

I think that's outdated now (for adults). And while it worked for you, I think the advice to eat 5 small meals probably made a lot of people more overweight than they would have been otherwise.

YANBU and it goes on for years. My dc used to be the only ones sent to scouts (7pm-9pm ie straight after tea) without a snack.

I don't know why the op is getting such a hard time. She said in her first post her DC eats snacks...she just seems to be objecting to the type of food and the fact it seems to dominate the outing

It doesn't take longer to eat Doritos than an apple so the comments about having to wait for the other child to eat aren't really related to the quality of the snack. The OP does seem to think there's something inherently wrong with afternoon snacks, whereas a morning one is fine because she does that

@54321nought

Snacking will be causing hunger for a lot of these children

Are you sure you're not just talking shite?

My son is an absolute nightmare of an eater. He's only 2, so not as old as the kids you mention, but it's hard to get anything inside him. Sometimes he'll have porridge, toast and fruit for breakfast and morning snack (at nursery)! That's a great day. Other days, he won't touch anything all day long and you can hear his tummy rumbling with hunger but despite being offered breakfast and lunch, we can sometimes head out on an empty tummy so I always have some snacks in his bag just in case. Though again, he rarely bloody eats the things.

@Sexnotgender

I really hate the word snack.

Me too! It's a horrible word, I'd put it in the same horrible word category as moist

"I would assume (but could be wrong) that kids are like adults in that they have different ways of eating. I am underweight and struggle to maintain the weight I am (as in, struggle to keep it this high), I also get shaky if I go too long without food - by too long I mean a few hours"

I'm not an expert in kids, but I don't think kids are like adults in that way. Kids do need to eat a bit more often than adults, but maybe not constantly like OP is seeing.

As for shaking after not eating for a few hours. This is completely not normal and you should see a doctor.

@BastardMonkfish quite! I know what is 'causing' the hunger. Lots of sport and never sitting still. Being kids. I'm ignoring this poster.

@Hardbackwriter

I don't know why the op is getting such a hard time. She said in her first post her DC eats snacks...she just seems to be objecting to the type of food and the fact it seems to dominate the outing

It doesn't take longer to eat Doritos than an apple so the comments about having to wait for the other child to eat aren't really related to the quality of the snack. The OP does seem to think there's something inherently wrong with afternoon snacks, whereas a morning one is fine because she does that

I don’t expect people to turn up to a play date and the very first thing they do is open a giant bag of crisps and pass to their DC no- I’m not anti snacks at all- it’s the constant crap that is shovelled into these children who on the whole don’t need it. I also do say no to my child- I have no issue with that.

I personally think, and hear me out on this one, you should keep your nose out of other peoples business, especially when it comes to children that aren’t yours :)

I take snacks everywhere for my child. We've always been a little and iften family. There my kids so I don't give a toss what anybody else thinks. If you want to make food an issue for your children, go ahead.

Many reason why I take snacks out:

My dc get hangry.
They might not have eaten lunch/very little of it.
We don’t drive-often it takes us quite some time to get anywhere, so could have been quite a while since he’d eaten.
Thought they’d like a treat or a pick me up.

I once took my toddler to the doctors for a 12pm appointment. I thought it’d be ok & I could feed him lunch after. We were still there at 2:30. It was hideous.

@chaosmaker

All the continual eating is why there's an obesity epidemic. Only storing up problems around food for later.

But the age group most likely to be obese in the UK is the 65-74 year olds. The 'three square meals a day and no snacks' generation.

[quote DysmalRadius]@chaosmaker

All the continual eating is why there's an obesity epidemic. Only storing up problems around food for later.

But the age group most likely to be obese in the UK is the 65-74 year olds. The 'three square meals a day and no snacks' generation.[/quote]
People put on more weight as they go through life and become less active. It's possible that today's toddlers will be even more overweight when they reach 65.

Both my children (6 and 10) come out of school ravenous, and need a snack before their next activity (be that cycling to swimming or football, or just running round the park). They are both very active and slim. There is a difference between a planned, healthy snack and constant grazing.

And 70% of people over the age of 45 are obese, whereas only 10% of 4-5 year olds and 20% of children aged 10-11 are obese.

People put on more weight as they go through life and become less active. It's possible that today's toddlers will be even more overweight when they reach 65.

But there are loads of posters advocating for three meals a day as a way to teach good food habits. Surely all those 54-75 year olds learned the eating habits that were prevalent in their generation and have gone on to become obese.

YADNBU , OP.

@PurpleVerbena

Cue fat kids eating snacks on demand. It is NOT necessary. If a child has 3 meals a day, there is absolutely NO need for 'snacks'.

I always have a snack for the children if we are at a park, reason being my 8yo child is not a 'fat kid' they are actually incredibly underweight due to an eating disorder/asd hence the need for more than 3 meals in a day and rather a completely different eating schedule to everyone else. So yes there is NEED for snacks as advised by a multidisciplinary team of experts.

This thread is making me crave Doritos.

Just me?