To find the obsession with snacks weird

[yipyipyop]

I've noticed in recent years lots parents seem to think their children can't survive a few minutes without a snack. We live a 5 min walk from school so I don't but parents with a similar commute seem to have a bag full of snacks they're handing out. It just seems over the top

DS finished school at 3:15 today had a banana, some milk, a babybel and mini cheddars then straight back to gymnastics until 5, dinner was at 6, he had lunch at 12:30 and outdoor PE this afternoon. I'd be hungry going from 12:30-6 with a good amount of exercise. He had porridge with nut butter and stewed apple for breakfast, he tells me he had carrot sticks and radishes at snack time this morning at school (🤷‍♀️), lunch was Carribbean chicken curry, rice with kidney beans and veg followed by lemon cake, (school portions are small) and home made Bolognese for dinner with plenty of veg in it and salad on the side.
He's 123 cm and 3st 5 so on the lower end of healthy weight for his age (6). I don't think cutting snacks out is a good idea.

This is what we do but snack is a bit of fruit, cracker etc. I don't have a problem with a small snack mid morning and afternoon as that's how I grew up.

It's the ones that constantly offer snacks that I find baffling. I've read people on here who's kids have been at nursery and had a snack/afternoon tea in the afternoon who are then given snacks by their parents on the short drive home and then a full meal after this (I always give a meal after nursery but certainly not a snack on top of this!). Or the ones that offer full meals for snack, I've been out before and people have had full lunchboxes full of snack food for their toddlers and read on here small toddlers and kids being offered bowls of cereal a couple of hours after having their breakfast.

Blimey some of you are such competetive under eaters.

there is nothing wrong with a healthy snack - some fruit, a yoghurt, some nuts, some crackers etc. if a kid is hungry after school, let them eat!

”in my day we had 3 meals a day and that’s all” - well good for you, but it’s proven that a snack can help boost nutrition if you use wide varieties of food, and being hungry is miserable. Some kids eat lunch at half 12 then don’t eat dinner until 6/7pm - that’s a long time!

I just don't see an issue with that routine. But then mine do go to nursery so it's completely normal.

Yes, nursery snacks are twice a day....
Why?!

But I like a snack so I don't actually have a problem with it :D

Because they get hungry? At DC's nursery, it is usually something like fruit in the morning and veggies in the afternoon.

I just don't get the outrage.

I've never given my now almost 5 year old a snack - although he's had plenty at nursery and school. It took me by surprise when he was a baby/toddler and I met up with other mums and they had multiple tupperware filled with lots of snacks and I had nothing with me. Never crossed my mind. But he always ate well at meal times.

It’s a fine balance between the ‘always giving snacks’ and ‘three meals a day nothing in between’ mindset though isn’t it. My parents both grew up poor with big families and so there was not copious amounts of food on offer, so they had no problems with my brother and me snacking whenever we wanted and we both have pretty ‘normal’ attitudes to food and neither of us have ever been overweight.

My SIL was raised in a household where her Mum was obsessed with how much her daughters ate, was obsessed with people who eat ‘too much’ and it was strictly no snacks. One daughter became anorexic and the other two are massively overweight. This obviously is both anecdotal and an extreme example but still I wouldn’t be wary of not allowing any kind of snacking.

I do however think there is a problematic modern day mindset of giving DC snack to keep them quiet. One family who attended one of my DC’s clubs used to give their toddler a full share bag of Cadbury buttons each time to keep them sitting quietly in the pram.

I'm one of those Mums who gives her child a snack even though we live a 5 minute walk from school. Judge me if you will. I do this because she's starving hungry. She had lunch before 12pm and has done a lot of running around afterwards in the playground and concentrated all afternoon until the day ends at 3.30pm. She's only 6. She gobbles up what I bring (usually a banana, sometimes malt loaf) and then often needs more food the minute we get in the door, and only then she settles down happily to play. I do her an early tea too plus sometimes supper as well. She needs it. It is true hunger with her. She's not overweight at all (can see her ribs) and she's really active.

I don't agree with chocolate / sweets / crap after school but my daughter does need food of some kind, and I don't see the issue with it.

moise

Yes. The same people then announce they’re doing their food shop for £60 a week for a family of 4. Not a chance. Snacks are EXPENSIVE

crackers and cheese, ham and cheese toastie, cut up fruit, a yoghurt. These are all snacks!

I was at primary school in the 70s and we didn't even get a drink with our school lunches.

School as well. My DD gets a fruit snack provided in the morning and afternoon, just during the regular school day (not breakfast club/after school club). There can only be about 2.5 hours between the end of lunch and the end of the school day.

I'm in a Facebook group related to Disneyland Paris and snacks are regularly suggested as ways of keeping children occupied in queues.

We always a take a snack to pick up, our daughters lunch is at 11:45 and pick up is 4pm, its a long time for her to not have anything to eat, and she’s often hungry and needs something to tide her over until 5:30pm when we have dinner.

Snacking isn’t a new thing, bit odd to pretend it is.

God I hate the word “snack”

But …

Giving kids something to put them on straight after school is fine,

Dragging kids away from soft play / gymnastics / football practice to shovel food down them is ridiculous.

Unless there’s a medical need, hunger isn’t going to kill them.

Yes it’s a pain, I don’t give my kids snacks because the middle one won’t eat his dinner if he has them (he eats like a bird)

My lovely friends kids who play in the same sports team always have snacks which they share with my Son.

He then doesn’t eat his dinner and I always look bad as my kids have eaten her kids snacks (she doesn’t mind) but now I’ve started buying snacks when they are there so I can repay they favour, dinners never eaten and I’ve spent a fortune on snacks I don’t want to buy

This is MN, where someone on 600 calories a day complains night nurse has too many calories, where half a tin of soup is too large a portion, and where any form of carb is evil and eating them is pure greed. Where eating normal foods is gobbling, shovelling and wolfing. Any mention of a normal diet is scoffed at by the very vocal posters with disordered eating and eating disorders.

I've just read the full thread and I agree, I can't see how the constant access to water can be argued as a bad thing! My toddler always has a water bottle at hand as do I. Most people don't drink anywhere near the amount of water they should and there's so many proven benefits to drinking water such as hydration, improved concentration etc. I think this is the one thing that's really changed for the better at schools since I was little!

Some of the ‘snacks’ you hear toddlers being given at nursery is crazy! Like they’ll have a breakfast and then at 11am toast or a bagel or something then 45 mins later lunch! A bagel is a meal in itself it’s not a snack!

Very true.

I feel like the only people obsessed with snacks are the ones who can't wait to brag? that their child as well as themselves happily go 6 hours without food.

Good for them. I'll feed my hungry 2 year old when he's hungry. It's that simple to me.

I always brought fruit and some biscuits to my kids after school. Kids do need a snack and mine have never been overweight. Adults don't though unless athletes/ underweight.

@stayathomer

a ham and cheese toastie is a meal! not a snack! Loads of calories

I don't think the problem is with 'snacks' but junk food.

School lunches are quite small. My child is tall and runs around a lot and sometimes goes straight to sports. I have nothing against giving him some crackers, cheese and a banana. He still eats his meals.

Actually I do. I have lean pcos. My nutritionalist informed me that healthy snacks like nuts or cheese & crackers help me balance my blood sugar and avoid huge meals that cause bloating. Not only did she improve my condition but caused my periods to be regular and I got pregnant after years of trying.