She ate all the biscuits

[Imissmusic]

I got a pack of chocolate chip cookies for today after dinner for everyone to have a few-Dd has a balanced diet but we don’t have a dessert or biscuits, crisps etc every night or in the house that often-more on weekends or if we bake something.
I hid the rest of the biscuits away for another day.
I went to have a shower, when Dd came up to bed, she told me she looked everywhere for them, found them and ate them.

Would you be cross? She’s 7

I find this quite strange, hiding food is not something I have ever thought to do. My children would obviously enjoy eating chocolate everyday but they know they need to ask not just take what they want.
She is 7 at this age she knows right from wrong. If she were in school and the teacher left something out would your daughter have no self control to not take it? Id be more concerned about the relationship with food you are fostering and the lack of respect

I have ADHD and I confess I strongly relate to your description of how your daughter would just not stop and eat a whole packet if left lying around. I still struggle to eat sensibly /not too much sweet stuff and I'm in my 40s!

Didn't want to armchair diagnose, but worth keeping in the back of your mind. As you said though, to a certain point she's a child who likes sweet stuff - that's fairly normal! just keep it in mind.

I'd be cross but also laughing. Everyone does this sometimes. I'd be saying that it's better to save some for later and not eat them all at once.

But I wouldn't get angry. My Mum used to get so mad when I ate all the biscuits. It didn't stop me, I just got really upset.

Its not clear if you are actually telling her that these remaining biscuits or cake or whatever are for another day...

If you are, are you following through on that, so making it clear 'well, there are no biscuits for dessert today because you ate all of them yesterday' - and do that EVERY time she does this.

It does sound as if she gets quite a lot of treat/junk food and that taking and consuming all of something results in zero consequences whatsoever.

That behaviour might be mildly annoying now when it is just biscuits but what about when she is older and you reach for ingredients to cook a meal with, only to find she's eaten them all as a snack earlier on in the day? Thats going to cost you a lot of time as well as money.

I think hiding certain foods away suggests an unhealthy dynamic around food and control.
Did you explain to your DD that the biscuits were being set aside to enjoy for another day or just "hide" them and say nothing ?
Is it that your DD ate the biscuits perse angering you ?

Whatever you do, please don’t shame your young daughter for eating too many biscuits. My mother gave me long lasting body image issues as she regularly did this to me as a young girl, and it took many, many decades to get over it. I’m sure the way she treated me made the overeating worse.

Why? Has she not been taught to ask before she takes something?

She took without asking, that is crossing boundaries in my opinion. Its not about the food its about what she did.
If you didnt tell her she couldn't have a biscuit without asking then in future you need to stipulate the rules and possible consequences.
I remember asking for another piece of chocolate cake when I was about that age. I was told no, but helped myself (to probably about a doorstep sized piece!) anyway and I remember being sent to bed early and not being allowed anymore of the cake the next day. I remember my dad asking me whether helping myself to the extra piece without asking was worth it...... I learnt a valuable lesson that day.

... So...?

Nether option is acceptable.

She can’t regulate herself around that food, so you need to be let her have a good amount of it but then be clear she is not allowed to help herself and have a consequence if she does. My DSS has adhd and will nick sweets/chocolate at any opportunity if he can get away with it because he literally can’t seem to help himself. It doesn’t matter how many treats we have on offer at other times. I thought initially we weren’t giving him enough chance to have it but that wasn’t it and he had it every day when he lived with his mum and would still sneak food with her. It’s the temptation. So until she can regulate herself she shouldn’t be accessing that food herself. You can be honest with her that we can all struggle with self control when it comes to certain foods so it’s your job to set that boundary until she can do it for herself. No anger, no guilt, just acknowledgement that she can’t go sneaking around and taking something that’s for everyone and you’ll help her manage it until she can manage it herself.

Children do not NEED biscuits. They’re ultraprocessed and full of saturated fat and free sugars. Children can enjoy them on occasion. They’re not an everyday food.

I wouldn’t like if my 8 year old did this, but we have a larder groaning with easily reachable biscuits, chocolate, etc. I don’t think the problem is that she ate the biscuits after you’d told her not to (straightforward disobedience I always get cross about), because it sounds as if you weren’t clear. It’s that eating a whole packet of biscuits after dinner is greedy and unhealthy. Nothing wrong with biscuits, but you need to teach her that she can have two or three as a snack, and none after dinner. Otherwise how will she learn to eat well as an adult?

Exactly. A 7 year old sneaking sugar is just typical 7 year old naughty behaviour.

THIS!

The number of fat cells you have is laid down when you are a child - as an adult they just get bigger and smaller, you don’t gain any but they don’t disappear. So more biscuits is literally storing up more physical problems in life.

My mum also worried I was too small and thin as a child so, as she says, she filled me up on cake and cookies. 🙄 It didn’t stop me binging on snacks as a child or as an adult.

I think your reasonable worry is she has a high appetite and this will easily lead to her becoming overweight. I think the only thing I do is be very mindful of the foods that are addictive and fattening so they are not available.dont buy them don’t have them in the house. It is too much for her to learn to control her appetite at that age. Hopefully any binging habit will go away. It does mean the rest if you will have to go without easy snacks but no bad thing. Of course you will have days for treats it sounds like you operate a bit like this anyway just tighten a bit more. It is a real thing. It’s not a moral failing but can be controlled a bit by you because habits are hard to break.

She's 7 - it's completely normal behaviour.
I'd be more concerned if a 7 year old didn't use their initiative.

Scientists have discovered that children who were denied treats as in sweets chocolate, crisps etc are more likely to become obese throughout adulthood.
Im not saying it was the right thing to do but my 3 brothers and myself had a limited amount of sweets per day and was always allowed to have a biscuit if we were hungry between meals when young, we are all slim, fit healthy adult's now, as are my teenagers who were brought up the same way .
I doubt she would've eaten the rest.of the pack had they not been such a rare phenomenon!

She isnt denied them

What scientists are these? Because all the research that we know about shows us that children who have fat parents, who have a poor diet full of calorie dense but nutrition light food and eat a lot of UPFs and lack vegetables in their diet are overweight children who grow into overweight adults.

OP has set out she provides a balanced diet, not one of restriction or fuel only.

Absolutely nothing wrong with your little girl by the sound of it!

I was the same and still can’t get enough of sweet things. I can easily eat a whole cheesecake or malt loaf 🙈 despite being slim.

Still, if you’re looking for solutions, maybe say to her, you can have (for example) 2-3 biscuits, then if you want more, you have to wait 20 minutes and drink a glass of water in that time. Apparently that’s how long it takes the brain to register fullness. So she can learn a bit of impulse control. I’ve tried that in previous years when I was tempted to eat all the kids Easter eggs and it worked. This year, I got my husband to hide the Easter eggs from me 😂

Get a life.
This is the most ridiculous thread I've read on MN.

Child knows sweets/treats in house.
Child finds sweets/treats and eats them.

Have a look online. Info is all there.

Perhaps say ‘well next time you won’t get any’, unless you promise you won’t take and eat things without asking first again, as she seems to know she shouldn’t have eaten them, and explain that amount is very bad for her …

There are lots of reasons why obesity is on the increase in the UK, I was just highlighting this one in particular as per the original post.

This thread would not exist if HE ate all the biscuits.

A small boy would be celebrated for finding the hidden biccies and called a "cheeky little monkey".

When a girl does the same thing it's viewed as an anomaly and she must be punished to get her to behave like "a good little girl".

Someone even went so far as to suggest she may be neurodiverse...
How else could you explain this egregious behaviour?