To think it’s strange for a three year old not to snack?

[Beforechristmastime]

Just that really, not suggesting he’s malnourished or anything (3 meals a day) but no snacks in between.

Basically if you're feeding them a decent meal 3 times a day they should never need to snack

I don't know why they give them snacks at nursery these days because it's completely unnecessary and not needed

Never did snacks here, never needed to. Some children graze, but it seems some parents push that by constantly feed toddlers every half an hour

It’s not “a recent thing” - we all had a packet of hula hoops or raisins or something for morning playtime at school, which was over 40 years ago. There was free school milk before that.

Constant snacking is unnecessary, but mine has free school fruit at morning break and something after school (ice cream in hot weather, or more often a fruit yoyo, crisps or half bagel) as he is usually going on to an after school activity and won’t be eating dinner until 18:30.

My DC didn't really have snacks. Not regularly anyway.
My brothers DC snack constantly. Days out are a nightmare because we have to stop and eat so often.

@Saschka

what part of the country let you snack at break time 40 years ago

We never snacked

Just had school dinners provided by the the school

Packed lunch wasn't even a thing till late 70's so we didn't have have an option to bring in our own snacks or own food at all

I suppose once we were allowed to bring in a packed lunch if you were greedy then you might have secretly snuck out and eaten some of your lunch at break time but none of us ever did.

I deliberately didn't give my kids snacks from early on but I did do 4 meals not three. All four were hearty eaters and if they snacked then it just messed up meal times. I also only gave them water between meals.

I used to live in the States and some kids seemed to have snacks in their hands the whole time. Every playgroup we went to had snack time.

I wasn't ridiculous strict about this, it was a general rule rather than a fixed one. They are adults now and still don't snack much.

I think it’s normal for most young children to eat more frequently than adults - my DC always had a sit-down mini-meal morning and afternoon: like crackers and milk or a sandwich and fruit. They certainly needed it; there were lots of hangry tears and tantrums if they weren’t fed regularly enough. I did the same as a child decades ago - it was elevenses and tea in those days. I guess not all children need it. Also depends when they get their main meals.

My two children don’t routinely snack. They’ll have an ice cream if we’re out or something, or birthday cake etc, I’m not super strict with what they eat (chocolate now and again for pudding etc)
But they eat three proper meals and the odd pudding but that’s it really. If they wanted fruit etc they’re welcome to.

I think other people do go a bit over the top with snacking to be honest. We can be out at the local park with friends and their kids have several snacks over a couple of hours. Especially toddlers seem to always be given numerous snacks to keep them happy.

then again we don’t really snack either (not because I’m super health conscious, I just think if you eat proper filling meals you shouldn’t need to)
it’s like we’re scared of being a tiny bit hungry, but it’s normal to feel hungry just before you have your next meal. It won’t hurt you!

My children had friends to play the other day and they were quite put out to be offered a banana or apple when they asked for a snack. “Don’t you have crisps?” No, we don’t!
I’ve never offered mine snacks - seeing other parents constantly offering food from a young age seemed odd to me, I’d rather they eat their dinner - but there’s fruit on the table if anyone wants it.

I'm enjoying this thread. I hate snacks: the relentless requirement as a parent to provide them, the word, the types of processed foods they involved. No one ever seems to have a chicken drumstick or piece of broccoli or even bread as a snack.

On other hand, I drink some calorific drinks (juice, squash, kefir, milk, sugared tea) throughout the day. If I insisted on only drinking water maybe I would need to eat between 1 and 7. But much easier not to.

My kids get toast at home and fruit out.

Surely just thank your lucky stars that you're not going to have to fight that battle - at least for now

I noticed when DD1 started school, she really needed a snack when she came out. This never changed. No cooked midday lunch where we are so dc can rush their packed lunch. I found having fruit, cheese and a savoury biscuit worked wonders. So I think 4 meals is useful for some DC. As dd got older, doing clubs after school definitely required more sustenance . When she went to boarding school they had a morning snack and a tea time snack. Home made biscuits and fruit. She liked that. At home we don’t snack but I used to offer an ice cream or a chocolate as a treat or fruit if DD was hungry. Not constant snacks though.

My eldest didnt snack... we just didn't seem to need to do it.

I guess they had snacks at toddler groups where they'd sit at a table and have toast.

We still don't snack much. Though I had an icecream today.

Packed lunch wasn't even a thing till late 70's so we didn't have have an option to bring in our own snacks or own food at all

Lots of children brought packed lunches to school when I was in primary in 1965! And everyone had apple/milk at morning break.

I grew up in the 90s and my mum said we were never given snacks as children. Completely untrue! It wasn't called a snack but it would be fruit at school break time or a custard creme biscuit at 'elevensies' at home, and 'afternoon tea' type food around 4pm after school - malt loaf/fruit bread etc.

Eating food between the 3 traditional meals is not a new thing. Prolific use of the word 'snack' IS a new thing.

Also snacks are marketed much more nowadays by the Big Food industry, so there are supermarket aisles full of dried fruit, flapjack type things in bright packaging labelled 'suitable from 6 months etc.' This wasn't the case 20 years ago, we just had whatever the adults were having.

No parent should be shamed for offering their child snacks. It can be hard to avoid the culture and expectation around them.

Time for a new word for snacks!

If my kids ate snacks between meals they wouldn’t eat their dinner.

My Dnieces never drink soft drinks only water and I find this unusual because my DB grew up drinking 'pop' in the 80's/90's - this was so normal for us but not normal for DSIL.
I love this and hope my DB who is super unhealthy , overweight and a bit of an alcoholic doesn't pass on his bad habits.

Four different primary schools in Doncaster, Reading and Lewes. Everyone had a snack, not just “the greedy kids” (I would ask if you meant to be so rude, but it’s clear that you did). This would have been between 1983-1989.

There was a tuck shop in two of the primaries, and a Crusha milkshake station in one of the others run by one of the dinner ladies (cost 20p).

We had snack food at infants/juniors school in the 60s/70s.

In the infants we had milk mid morning, and we could buy biscuits to go with it. Packs of two or three. I rarely did as they were threepence and we didn't have much money, but my mom usually let me buy a Fruit Salad and a Black Jack on the way in for half pence, and I would have these with my milk.

The juniors had a tuck shop and the Y6s (or 4th years as it was then) took turns to run it.