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

Id be furious. They were put away and she deliberately looked through the cupboards until she found them and ate them all.

There would be a stern talking to about fair shares and making sure everyone in the family can enjoy a treat, not just one person hogging it all.

It sounds like she's developed a bit of a sugar/UPF addiction and I'd cut it completely for a week or two. I once had the same problem and when I was waking up in the night and eating tablespoons of golden syrup I decided it had to stop and cut all (artificial) sugary snacks and drinks (including alcohol) for a month. The main thing I noticed was how I started to really taste the sweetness of fruit. After the month was over I bought a raspberry muffin and it tasted so overwhelmingly sickly sweet that I only had one bite.

Craving sugar is an early sign of diabetes. I once ate an entire pavlova before my diagnosis. It may be worth getting this checker out just to be on the safe side.

We have a snack drawer and my DDs know where it is but always ask me if they can have a snack before they take one. I’d usually say yes or at least offer a fruit alternative but then they don’t ask all the time. If they were sneaking food without asking I would wonder what was going wrong and have a chat.

Keep on - your daughter will soon develope an eating disorder. What you’re doing is incredibly screwed up.

Isn't that because they are never in the house? If you make things off limits when they are available it's going to be harder for her to resist not wanting to eat as many as she can as she doesn't know when she'll get them again

OP you haven’t failed because she can’t control herself. She does need consistent boundaries but some children (and adults) struggle with self control more than others. Some have ADHD and others don’t. I gave some advice further up the thread but honestly just set the boundaries for her until she is mature enough to make them herself. Not all children are the same, I have one who would raid the cupboards until they vomited at any given opportunity and two who like sweet treats but will happily stop halfway through a cookie if they are full. Deal with the child you have. No shame or guilt just boundaries. You wouldn’t let her raid the booze cupboard or drive the car. So you limit her intake (not extremely) until she can limit it herself. I assume she tells you if she’s hungry??

No, it’s naughty behaviour.

Don’t be ridiculous. Limiting a child’s access to food that is unhealthy is a parent’s job. Some kids never learn to self moderate even if given free reign.

I think binge eating of junk food is something to be concerned about as it goes. It would suggest a strong appetite and an inability to eat sweet, processed foods in moderation. I would be concerned as to what that might look like when she is older and has pocket money. All of that would make me less inclined to have that food in the house and much more inclined to have plentiful amounts of alternative foods that she could eat a good portion of.

Oh really. What are your qualifications to pronounce this?

No it isn’t. I’ve raised two healthy and athletic children. If they are hungry or want a snack they can eat without fear or guilt or having to hide anything.

Right so then what experience do you have that limiting it will give OPs daughter a medical disorder? You have only experienced children who can self limit and who you have not limited. So you have no idea what the opposite would do.

I would be cross. She knew they were for others and that they'd been hidden deliberately. She still hunted and ate them all. Greedy and selfish. I do wonder if she has a problem though. That sort of behaviour is like that of an addict. I would try to nip that in the bud somehow. Also kids like that eventually are able to go buy food at school and out and about. They then go mad on all the stuff they didn't have freely at home.

Utter bullshit. OP is not screwed up for limiting junk food and not letting a 7 year old eat a whole packet of biscuits.

You’re clearly being purposefully obtuse. Go and speak to a therapist about eating disorders in children and how they start. I’m coming from personal experience.

Here’s an opposite for you:

My dad’s business partner always gave us a huge 5lb box of chocolates for Christmas every year.
Mum would allow us 3 kids each one piece, then she’d hide the enormous box and eat the rest all by herself.
I asked her once, when I was a grownup, why she hoarded all the chocolates for herself, and she confessed that she couldn’t help it - she craved those chocolate candies and would sit with the box in her lap and gorge on them. She had some sort of chocolate eating disorder.

All those years we were angry at her, and now I just felt sorry for her.
Imagine plowing your way through half a giant box of rich dark and light cremes and caramels and chocolate nuts and chewy nougat and all the other flavors in one sitting.

You need a better hiding spot. I used to stash things like that in the vegetable crisper drawer in the fridge. Worked like a charm.

If Op's daughter can't limit herself then surely it's up to Op to do it for her?

Having had a couple of biscuits & knowing there are more for another day would most 7yr olds look for the rest & eat them all?

I’d be raging, but wouldn’t say anything,
I would have done in the past!
I never make empty threats(is my autism showing?) Daughter is at the age where perfect nutrition is everything imho.
I’d probably never buy them again… well give me 5 yrs!

Don't be silly, surely you don't just let your kids eat a whole packet of biscuits every time you buy them just because they want to?

Some of the answers on here are very weird, it's like people believe if you don't let kids eat as much crap as they like then they'll end up with an eating disorder - no it's just called parenting and helping them establish healthy habits.

I would be cross OP, those biscuits weren't for her to pig out on all by herself in one go. She'd had a perfectly reasonable amount and I would be cross that she took something that wasn't hers without asking. The consequence obviously is that she ate all the biscuits for the next couple of weekends so now there are no biscuits left to have and you won't be buying any more.

She's 7. It's totally normal to snaffle all the chocolate biscuits. Don't be cross

My daughter is exactly like this with any type of snack/sweet food even fruit it got so bad she was even eating her sisters packed lunch for the following day for context my daughter is awaiting an assesment for asd I never used to hide food or restrict food and she has a well balanced diet and eats well all her dinners etc ive now had to buy a medicine lockbox to put snacks in otherwise she would just eat it all and its worked great

I’d be a bit cross tbh. It’s a bit naughty seeking them out and finding them and then eating them all. It’s the sneaking and stealing that would irk me not the food/calories especially as she ate them all and didn’t leave any to share with others.

I’m not saying I’d be uber cross and go mad but I’d be explaining that it’s not ok to take things without asking and that they were to share and now she’s eaten everyone’s portions and then I’d hide them in a much better place next time 😂

It’s a weird thing that she has to eat ALL of them. Mine all have access to the ‘snack drawer’ at all times (although I do insist they ask as I may have a meal ready and don’t want them eating biscuits immediately beforehand.

Eating entire cakes and packs of biscuits isn’t normal behaviour, what does she say when you tell her it’s selfish and no one else can eat them now?