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

Yeah I’d be cross. And I’m surprised so many people are saying OP needs to hide it better - I don’t hide food from my nearly 7 yr old. She knows not to eat entire packets of biscuits!

She has things when out at the cafe, her dad brings something home on a Friday night, we bake and have things at the weekend, she gets something if we go food shopping. Treats haven’t been made a big deal of or an issue, I just can’t get any and leave them casually out or in the cupboard as she eats them all 😬

This! My mum used to hide food, was very strict that was 1 small piece of cake on a Sunday only. My Dad used to secret eat after she went to bed, I found his stash and used to secret eat too - I still do in my 40's. I do not hide food, I leave in plain site if get given a box of chocolates, but I will say to the girls that it is mummy's present and they need to ask if they want some. Then there is a mixture of healthy and less healthy snacks in the cupboard, they know it's 1 less healthy one per day except for special occasions, but at 7 and 10 they are old enough to monitor this themselves.

But you HAVE made them treats. You've placed value on them as different to just food. Once you do that they are a prize and that fuels binging on them. You need to rethink your attitude to food I thinj

Yes it’s more that and that she knew they were put away for tomorrow/another day and for other people to have

Agree 💯. It’s bananas to let a child think she can forage for food without asking and then wolf doesn’t a what packet of biscuits.

I’ve always scoffed biscuits. I can’t just eat one or two, it has to be most of a packet at once. The issue is simply fixed by rarely buying them.

He was supervising but I can imagine she ran into the kitchen and wolfed them
all and thought it was funny. He had no idea where they were or that there were more most likely

I’d be cross she took them without asking. I’d be clear if she wants a back she asks or there’s a consequence she can’t just take what she wants

Don’t make a big deal of this. I’d tell her biscuits aren’t to be eaten all in one go. My 6 year old DS wouldn’t eat a whole packet, but would definitely sneak 2/3 when I’d said to wait for dinner etc.

You need to allow treat foods in the house else she’ll get food issues, but also say it’s 1-2 after school etc not a whole pack ot you’ll stop buying them.

No eating issues at all but not particularly happy with her eating packets of biscuits..is that weird?

Yeah I’d be livid if it were my 7yo. But I find this a little strange. I know kids are all different but neither of mine would ever take anything that they hadn’t be given or been given permission to take. They’d even ask for an apple out of the fridge. They would never rummage through cupboards. I find that behaviour and the lack of impulse control unusual at 7. I once found my youngest eating his way through his advent calendar but he was 2 at the time!

This is it I think…as a child I just didn’t do that, probably wanted to but knew I just couldn’t eat everything, i’d ask but probably wouldn’t get extra

Sorry you went through that but i’m not strict at all

I think it's more weird that she came and told you she had hunted them down and ate them all. It sounds like she doesn't know how to regulate her impulses and id probably try and get to the bottom of it before she turns into a teen and has her own money.

I have a good attitude to food…If I leave them out, she will eat them all in one go every time, I’ve tried it before

When food is labelled as a treat it becomes good or bad instead of just food. Some foods fuel the body well others not so much. This is why we have such food issues because it’s thought about as a treat. If you’re concerned about her lack of regulation around your idea of treats. Don’t buy them.

I raise you washing or drying machine drum. Have a handy fleece to throw on top to hide said stash.

Yes I think I need to say this more

Have you never wolfed down sugary treats? I have and still do…because it’s satisfying and deliciously rebellious when I should be eating healthy food. Okay, so the packet of biscuits were meant for others on another day, but this is a minor issue. No, I wouldn’t be at all angry with her. I’d chuckle and move on.

I wouldn’t be cross but I would be concerned. Based on my experience with a couple of family members, I’d say keep an eye out for binge eating behaviour developing. It sneaks up on you and if you yourself have no experience of eating disorders, you need to read up on them as they can start very early and very innocuously. To me it sounds as though you yourself have a good attitude to food so it may be nothing to do with that, but EDs emerge from all kinds of influences. Please be alert and vigilant.

I think hiding food from children is extremely weird and unnecessary.

It seems calculated to lead to her having real issues with food. In fact her actively searching for these biscuits and eating the whole packet woukd indicate she is already developing an unhealthy attitude to food.

Surely having a balanced diet means just that : allowing a small amount of not so healthy food alongside healthy stuff. And stop making it a coveted thing that has to be hidden and then gorged on.

My cousin doesn't believe in dessert every day or sweet things similar to you, and her little girl is the same with sweet things when they're in the house for an occasion like birthday or Halloween. She is hyper focused and sneaks away to eat them 😅 her sister has dessert every might for her sons and they aren't as hyper focused or fussed when there's sweets round. It's healthier your way but just may be an explanation of why she's binged when there was a sudden glut of sweet treats!

There are treat foods in the house sometimes and more when out, I don’t call them treat foods either, they’re just foods-eg-out at the weekend, chicken salad toasties in a cafe, then a chocolate ice cream or in the car for the journey-a banana and crisps

Yes this. This child obviously doesn't have an appetite like a "normal" child. I wouldn't let my child eat a whole packet of biscuits. Children with a "normal" appetite couldn't eat a whole packet of biscuits like that. There is something wrong here and I'm not sure what the op can do as apart from hiding snacks until she gets to the bottom of it.