The constant feeding / snacking of children

[Lordofthebantams]

At swimming lessons tonight I've sat next to two children chomping their way through a packet of crisps and a packet of chocolate biscuits at 4pm. ( No eating on the poolside but never mind that, the little darlings need some salty junk).

We had a day out with friends on Tuesday at a farm park and kids are being handed food every 5 minutes.

You go down the street and everywhere you look the toddlers in buggies have their little hands stuffed in packets of puffs or gripping a biscuit.

It's no wonder we have such chubby children everywhere.

Stop being so judgemental.

Swimming does make you hungry and reading a tip on here to give my kids a snack to occupy them so i can get dressed turned out to be a good tip.

The orthorexia on this site is really crazy. The number of posters who refer to the basic act of eating with derogatory terms is crazy.

Funnily enough, I've always been a little and often eater, as have two of my three kids. They're very active, often didn't eat much of their lunch, and no snack after school would have resulted in hangry meltdowns. I would actually equate taking them from school to swimming or another sport with no snack as verging on cruelty.

We also always had regular, home-cooked sit down meals which people ate or didn't eat according to how hungry they were. I would say we followed a roughly 90/10 protocol on home-cooked vs processed foods. A snack can be cheese, nuts, vegetables, fruit, cold chicken, white bean dip and crackers, a sandwich, etc. But at a moment where it was the 10, you would have seen them having a muffin or a doughnut or sausage roll or a bag of crisps without any context whatsoever on what they ate the rest of the time.

They're all slim, healthy young adults now, none of whom have ever had a cavity and seem to have the ability to self-regulate with food. And, interestingly, despite my being a little and often eater, i.e. 'snacking', I've never needed to be on the threads asking how to hide a 'mum tum' or complaining about post-menopausal weight gain...

Yeah. Seems deeply bizarre really. I have never once in my life noticed or cared when and what a complete stranger's child was eating.

I’m with you too.
My (now adult) kids were super-skinny and they did snack, but I bought relatively healthy food for them such as corn cakes w peanut butter/jam, dried fruit or actual fruit, chopped veg w humous (if at home). Of course they did get crisps and biscuits too (I did make my own cakes sometimes), and cereal bars.

They weren’t constantly snacking, they were very active and did need 3 meals and two snacks a day for sure.

I used to inwardly roll my eyes at the parents turning up at the school gates w pastries every day. Those kids were the chubby ones usually.

My DC only put weight on at uni - same as me! The gym sorted that out for them though.

Def a snack after swimming and after school. I think the distinction is between relatively healthy and really unhealthy snacking. Snacking per se isn’t bad but a whole packet of biscuits is.

yes - bad eating habits are formed early. Nothing wrong with the odd healthy snack, but this overloading of junk food and constant need to be chewing is trashing the health of some kids and some adults.

Which means a fortune having to be lammed out in health costs.

When my 3yo tagged along to eldests swimming lesson the best snack was pistachios. I did use it as entertainment, he would also try and open them himself so took him a good while!
Depending on the day my kids would also have fruit, cheese savories, crisps, fruit roller things ect. None of us are overweight. Now they are getting a little older if they tell me they are hungry I say it's okay to be hungry sometimes 🤷🏽‍♀️ then inform them of the next eating opportunity or offer water. Some little kids can get super hangry though!

I hope the parents stop them begging? I’d be very very embarrassed if my child was begging people for food and hated it when my niece used to do it.

In the past she’s approached strangers asking them for food and my sister just laughed it off and didn’t apologise.
If we went anywhere where people were having picnics I used to have to keep an eye on her to stop her wandering over and trying to join in.

My sister is one of those parents who is constantly offering snacks to her kids and they can help themselves to anything from the treat cupboard if they don’t eat their dinner. Of course this means they don’t eat their proper meals and fill up on crisps and chocolate instead.

I think it’s this kind of attitude that leads to overweight children and my niece gets bullied at school for her weight which is awful but my sister just carries on because she hates the hassle of saying no and it keeps her kids entertained.

My niece is obsessed with food and is the child at a birthday party who is more bothered by the buffet than playing.
I was overweight and bullied as a child so it’s upsetting to see but she’s like the people on this thread who just say “it’s none of your business and normal to snack” so there isn’t much I can do.

Just in case others use this idea...whole nuts are a severe choking risk before age 5. I know this is an extremely sensitive topic on mumsnet (see grape chopping threads) but it is the official NHS advice.

I think it totally depends on what exactly the snacks being offered are. My 2 year old eats well at mealtimes but at that age they only have small stomachs and often do better with little and often. I have no objection to her eating fruit, cheese or breadsticks if she's hungry between mealtimes!

I grew up in the 70s and 80s and we just didn’t snack when going round museums or on journeys etc. It’s def a culture shift. I gave my kids more snacks than I had, but they were at the healthy end of the spectrum and def not as frequently as I see nowadays. They are slim and fit adults now, thank goodness and able to regulate their eating and they def don’t snack all day.

It is not great to give your kids unhealthy crap all day surely, unless there is a medical reason. The thing is children have a high metabolic weight so can burn it off. But the problem is they are learning habits which will not serve them well as adults.

I am currently debating a self guarding email to the school. The younger one does pretty much beg. The dad doesn't do anything. Just give them an apple or something. As far as I am aware they live in a big house too.

I am sure that poster is ok. In case nobody else has mentioned this, sorry have not read the whole thing.

pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC6489471/

For pubertal development and menstrual function in girls, it is essential to achieve a certain minimum weight or percentage of body fat (PBF): the “critical weight hypothesis.”15,16 A secular trend for earlier age at menarche associated with an increase in the prevalence of overweight and obesity has been reported.17 An accelerated growth rate in overweight children accompanied by early appearance of pubertal signs may raise the concern of hormonal abnormalities such as precocious puberty.

Ive 5 children 12,10,7,6 and 10 months old and they have 3 healthy meals a day they are allowed as much fruit/veg sticks as they like we keep the bottom of the fridge draw full and porridge,weetabix or toast before bed.
I dont think its the snacks thats the issue I think its whats being fed along side processed food isnt good for anybody! Ive also noticed alot of children drink fizzy pop! Mine drink water or milk with the odd glass of vimto.
In the early 2000 after swimming i was taken to McDonald's by my grandparents 🙃 or nana would make us fish finger sandwiches 🥪

I personally only know one larger child and its the entire family thats obese. Every other child I know (and I know a LOT of children) are normal sized healthy children. My own children love snacks and are all thin just like I was. My generation (I'm nearly 40) had larger children too... Kids can lose weight if needed, bitter sad old bints on Mumsnet can't change their personality.

One of the reasons behind this might be our discomfort with children moaning, making noise etc. I have done that too.

I think as a wider society (UK) we haven't found a happy middle yet. 80s and 90s parenting was too strict/neglectful and '10s/'20s parenting is too permissive and too keen to placate any grumbles.

Your generation shoved Rusks down their children's throats and put rice in a baby bottle...so.

I really don’t see what was wrong with that post. A bit more protein maybe, but when did feeding your child an ordered diet become so wrong?
I have small grandchildren - they get fed wholesome food with the odd i.e not everyday not that nutritious snack in between. Isn’t that normal?

I do hope they eat the fruit snack sitting at table. With a knife and fork, finishing school style.

Don't forget their judgy pants. 😎

And still yet very few kids were fat and ‘needed’ a snack every 20 minutes - go figure.

Just the same as drinking wine in front of your children,just another addiction.oohbut I forgot,you people probably pour it into a mug,so to hide it,way to go.

A bit more protein? wtf?

I'm 75 and this is all virtue signalling at its finest,why are women all scrambling over each other to be better than the rest,I just don't get it.

Don’t pretend to be ignorant of what a child needs rather than what a child might want.