To not give my toddler snacks?

[doweneedsnacks]

My four year old has copious amounts of them so I’m not being smug. But he is a hoover and devours everything. She is very fussy and just won’t eat fruit. She used to eat apples and cucumber sticks but now has stopped.

She will eat vegetables mixed in casserole, chilli, bolognaise etc. so I’ve just been doing this for her meals. Today she had boiled egg and toast for her breakfast, chilli con carne with rice for lunch and chicken stir fry for dinner.

Her brother has had the same but plenty of snacks … he had an apple after breakfast, then some cucumber, grapes and melon after lunch and more apple mid afternoon. He’s now eating strawberries and banana … But should she be having something even if it isn’t fruit or veg?

id offer an afternoon snack and see whether it affects the evening meal at all. If it doesn’t then you know.

the NHS guidelines recommend it so why not try it? You’ve already said they don’t communicate hunger so can’t tell you or don’t know to tell you.

Giving some cheese, fruit with some sort of healthy carb is more opportunity for nutrients. Especially as their brains are using so many more calories just learning/figuring things out.

Sounds like she eats quite well, to me.

DS is 5 & refusing lots of things he used to eat.

I don’t use “kiddies snacks” they’re treat food only.

Oatcakes, no sugar yoghurts, crackers, breadsticks.

He also loves goodies. Maybe a Freddie or KitKat.

I would continue to offer fruit and vegetables as snacks, I suspect in time she will want to copy her brother and will go for it

You could consider putting out a snack platter for both of them including some things she will eat but she might get tempted to try some of the others - e.g. sliced fruit and veg plus cheese, boiled egg etc

Otherwise for a long time my kids thrived on second breakfast - they got into the habit of this on nursery days and it stuck, they would have breakfast at home and then again at nursery

That's a snack then. You approve of snacks.

What's wrong with fruit?

Not what I thought I said. I said if energy flagging. And no, I don't particularly approve of snacking.

Preschoolers often refuse snack time at nursery whereas the 2-3yo olds always want it.

Many 4yo are able to manage on the three meals a day pattern without extras if they eat well at meal times.

Ahhhh. Don’t know what but my iphone often changes carrots for catguts 🙀😂

Mine are all about snacks but they also generally eat meals well too.

I'd offer crackers, breadsticks, cheese cubes, rice cakes, yogurt, boiled eggs etc if she isn't as keen on veggies/fruit and keep offering those with meals.

If she doesn't eat anything else then I'd just assume she isn't hungry.

I’ve never offered snacks, my kids just eat a shitload at meal times. Plus I cannot abide hearing kids beg for snacks, especially as what they mean is sugar.

However, I don’t actually think that three bigger meals a day are particularly healthy. They’re an arbitrary human construct, we should eat when we’re hungry.

At 4, I’d probably still offer a small snack such as a piece of fruit, cheese and a single cracker or a single biscuit mid-morning. But I wouldn’t allow all day grazing - it’s doesn’t encourage them to ever learn the feeling of being hungry and is terrible for their teeth.
7am breakfast, 10am small snack, 12:30pm lunch 5pm dinner. If dinner is later, e.g to fit with whole family dinner time, I’d probably add another small snack around 3:30-4pm (yogurt or a piece of toast etc.) after school / nursery.

If he is a healthy weight, meeting milestones and otherwise thriving I wouldn’t worry. You are feeding nutritious, balanced and filling meals.

No one told anyone off for giving fruit. I personally made a comment about too much, in the context of the balance between fruit and veg. Fruit is not particularly nutrient or calorie dense for snacks either.

You can cook literally any veg in a sauce, though. Including these: courgette, broccoli, peas or sweetcorn (used to but now refuses) spinach, mushroom, even sweet potato, carrot. Why do you think you’re limited to
tinned tomatoes and onions, pepper if I can get it in.?!

Because she won’t eat the others.

Have you tried blending them all in? Grated courgette: carrot cooks away to nothing in a tomato based sauce so that‘s one I often just chuck in. I also add it to porridge - grated carrot, courgette and apple with a few raisin and some cinnamon, we call it carrot cake porridge!

You can also add the broccoli or spinach or whatever and then just blend it all in. Of course it does affect the colour somewhat so it’s whether or not your kids will still accept it.

I used to just cook up a big batch load of onion, garlic, celery, carrot + whatever veg we had in till
it was all really soft, add the tinned tomatoes (and I always think you need a pinch of sugar to balance the acidity but up to you). Blend it, use for whatever for that meal and store in portions in the freezer. Really reduced down you can use it as a pizza base or in those pastry pinwheels/ twists. Otherwise just with pasta, over couscous or rice, as the base of a bolognase or chilli etc.

I’ve got quite lazy about it lately actually, I should start doing it again.

I have thank you. She just won’t eat it. She used to eat peas but now refuses.

Which ones have you tried her on and how have you served them? You can grate or blend literally anything into a tomato sauce. Carrots and courgettes cooked down with onions at the beginning will disappear. So, that’s your bolognese and your pizza base. Anything involving mince can be bulked out (indistinguishably) with red lentils. You can incorporate most vegetables into a stir fry (what are you currently using?) and so on and so forth.

Well … to be honest I don’t really feel like answering that post! It may not be the intention but it sounds like I’m being cross examined at the old Bailey, not seeking advice on a fussy toddler.

I’ve never bothered offering mine snacks, because they both (also 22m and just turned 4) eat well at mealtimes and don’t seem hungry between meals. Obviously if they say they are hungry, they can have something to eat between meals - so I think it’s fine to offer a snack if this is the case!

I (quietly) find it a bit disconcerting when snacks, especially those weird puffy things, are offered as a cure-all for a grumbling toddler. But I accept I might be more pro-snack if I had fussy eaters.

Interestingly, they’ve never really been snacky eaters even when breastfeeding - never fed more frequently than every 4h or so, so maybe it’s something constitutional?!

I think small children generally need more meals - so 3 main meals and 2 smaller meals mid-morning and tea-time. My DC used to get a savoury morning snack like breadtsticks, crackers and cheese, crisp bread etc and the afternoon tea was usually a dairy item, a carb and a fruit in varying combinations, so it might be a sandwich, a fruit and a glass of milk or a yoghurt, glass of juice and a piece of plain cake, or cereal and fruit. Then a cooked dinner a couple of hours later.

I'm not a fan of fruit on its own as a snack as I don't think it's filling.

Anyway that's just my experience - if you don't think your DC is hungry then I wouldn't worry about it.

Interesting theory, Krumpit. DS cluster-fed, and could go on all night & day. He doesn’t like sitting & eating, never has. He doesn’t want big meals. I stealth feed him, healthy snacks as I can. He also has a sweet tooth too, I wonder if it’s linked…

Does she eat with you and her sibling? Sit down altogether to eat and serve the same to big for everyone. Serve her plate with no fuss, just put it down in front of her and everyone starts eating and talking about your day. Do the same for snacks, serve fruit and veg and and take it away if she doesn’t eat it. Put one thing on her plate you know she’ll definitely eat but everything else the same as what everyone’s having.

OP, would you say you’ve a fairly cooking repertoire? As you’ve described what your toddler eats, but seem to think that only a handful of foods fit that description when it’s a really broad range. And she eats food you could really easily hide loads of veg in. But you seem really resistant to any suggestions of this.

Lol 😂 😂 so she does snack.