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.

And the terrible state of many kids' teeth...!

This should not be allowed. Every supermarket shop should contain a certain percentage of healthy food, fresh fruit and veg etc. Only buying junk food should not be allowed.

Thank god it wasn't just me!! 😭 🤣🤣

For starters, I still remember being given a glass of dilute orange squash and a biscuit when I was a toddler at the mum's and toddler group I attended.

I remember having 11ses at my grandparents house after they picked me up from nursery usually a glass of milk/squash and a biscuit (shock horror my nan had a biscuit tin 😱). Obviously yes we did have the standard 3 (home cooked from scratch) meals of breakfast, lunch and dinner. However...I also as a kid used to have supper which was often a slice of bread and butter.

Oh and we absolutely used to pop into the sweet shop on the way home from school to buy a 10p mix of sweets!

My packed lunches were made up of a sandwich, a packet of crisps (the horror!), usually some kind of cake bar and a carton of juice.

Oh and at secondary school not only did we have a vending machine containing all manner of snacks and pop the canteen used to open during break times and you could purchase a chip butty for 50p! Or a burger!! 👀

And yet....there wasn't a child obesity crisis?

Granted it was never a free for all and we didn't have just unlimited access. If you wanted a snack you asked permission and there were plenty of times I would be told "no, you can't because you'll spoil your dinner!". So maybe that's one thing that does differ these days?

The main real change I can see between kids now and my life back then is the fact as kids we were far far far more active. If you weren't going out on your bike for a bike ride, or having a kick around in the field , you'd be in the back garden playing out. And you walked EVERYWHERE!! I can count the amount of times my parents gave me a lift somewhere on one hand 🤣 And all of us did swimming lessons and the treat after swimming was a Saturday chippy.

Oh and being grounded and stuck in your room inside was actually genuinely a punishment to us 😬😳

Tbh I was brought up with the mentality of a)you eat what you're given and b)you eat all of it cos there are children starving in Africa. Tbh that was obviously passed down from my grandparents generation who lived through rationing so damn right you didn't waste food (although that in itself I felt led to disordered eating thats taken a life time to adjust to and learn to eat until satisfied not bursting full out of guilt).

Urgh so judgemental you do not know what’s going on for those kids. Maybe that was their treat for the whole week!? Maybe that the only food they eat!? Maybe keep your nose out and if you don’t approve don’t do it for your kids!?

Allowed by whom? Presumably the adult has capacity and is able to choose her own food shopping, you may not like her choices but booked asking you to eat it.

And who would decide what “healthy” looked like? I’ve seen everything from cereal, fruit to crumpets demonised just on this thread alone. There are some very skewed ideas of what’s healthy eating looks like.

Children graze. They don’t usually do bigger meals, they eat little and often which compliments their lifestyle. They always require fueling. I have an 11 year old who grazes. He grazes healthily but a large sit down meal would outface him because he does get bored (ADHD) and takes ages to eat and not much. He’s always been this way. He is athletic and does all kinds of sports. Grazing alone, he eats far more than I do in a day but he probably burns more calories than I do. We still take food bags out with us so he can snack because he gets cranky.

Not allowed 🤣🤣🤣

I don’t judge what other people do, especially as I don’t see their whole day/week. As a whole though, I have noticed a lot of unhealthy processed snacks being given to children on the go. I am surprised how many people think crisps are a snack or part of a meal instead of a “treat”. Something I’ve noticed with our primary is that all the kids are pretty slim up until year 4 and then they seem to start getting bigger? By year 6, half the year is very overweight (aka struggling to get up off the floor after assembly). But you don’t see that in the younger years for some reason.

😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂

You never ever had sweets or ice-cream or cakes or lemonade or buns in your entire childhood... 🤔🤔🤔🤔🤔🤔

I notice this with myself. If I eat rubbishy snacks, I'm just having a meal for the sake of it.

I wasn't given any snacks apart from a bag of cheese and onion crisps once a week after swimming , then egg and bacon for dinner.

My DC eat a huge amount. 3 home cooked meals a day but also constant bowls of cereal, bagels, fruit plus occasional junk. They are both competing athletes, DS (16) runs 60km a week, DD (14) does pentathlons. They are slim and strong. It’s not the constant grazing that’s an issue - it’s what they are eating and calories in vs calories out. If they do a lot of sport they do need adequate nutrition.

I'm not against snacking per se....as sometimes kids do get hungry between meals but when mine were little I'd bring things like cheese babybells, fruit and wholegrain crackers....its much healthier and they behave better instead of filling them up with sugar.

I think it's genetic. We have always been a family that eats healthy, homemade food from scratch and exercises/active lifestyle BUT we also have healthy appetites. My mum likes her food. I do. My kids do. Unfortunately it means we have a tendency to put on weight....food calls to us (both healthy food and unhealthy food ☹️

I think the op was referring to kids who are fed non stop donughts and pasties to be fair...not the odd choccie biccie here and there

She stated "I stand by snacking is inherently problematic"

Ah yes. It’s like when there’s a school trip and the school says no sweets. The parents are up in arms because “how dare the school dictate what little Caiydden can or can’t eat for breakfast…”

The incessant eating is totally bizarre. But if you work in schools or know anyone who does, they will tell you that many children don’t know how to eat with cutlery, preferring to use their fingers and shovel the food in. Those who work in education are expected to teach the children how to eat and drink properly. And any manners are a thing of the past. Sad but true.

What happens if you are buying a pack of ice-lollies and going to the park with the offspring? Am I then forced to buy a bunch of bananas, some carrots and a block of cheese to get the dictated percentage? Even though I bought those 2 hours ago for the weekly shop?

Table manners is a separate issue.

Why do you refer to those other children as ‘little darlings’? It sounds like a jibe at the children even if you mean it as a jibe to the parents. (For the record my kids have never been overweight and eat different cuisines so I’m not being defensive).

Don’t be so bloody ridiculous! So I , as an adult, wouldn’t be allowed to buy myself some ice cream or cake unless I threw a turnip in my basket as well? 🙄

That was my shopping, my partner has a stoma and eats stodge. The rest was for the school summer fair. If you are judging people's shopping at the moment, realise that there are a lot of fairs on (churches, community groups etc) and crisps/cakes/sweets etc are being asked for.
@AmazingGreatAunt not all children eat breakfast. My youngest couldn't keep anything down for at least an hour after waking up. She still doesn't eat until after 1.30pm (her break at work). My granddaughter is the same. She naturally needs to eat little and often, as do a lot of women.
Posters are forgetting that more primary school children are travelling by bus. My GC has a croissant/pancake on the bus, or when we get off. She's been awake at this point for 1.5 hours and feels that she can eat. She takes a packed lunch, but doesn't always eat all of it, she sometimes finishes it off, on the bus home. We wait up to 30 minutes for a bus. When I was a child, we all walked ten minutes max to school. My GC would rather have cheese or hummus than fruit. If I'm hungry, fruit makes me feel sick.

@Lentilcakes why do see you children being super skinny as a good thing? One bad chest infection and they are in the danger zone. A bit of chubbiness isn't the end of the world.
Also just a reminder, you don't know if the child you are weirdly watching has a milk allergy etc. Or why they are overweight. It's taken my eldest GC to grow out of her MPA (through guided exposure) to be a normal weight. To some she might look weighty, but the hospital are happy and it's natural for the women in our family to be weighty until around 13.

Well I don't think it's inherently problematic.....it depends on the snack and I know from personal experience that a healthy snack has prevented a meltdown in my child when it's a while until next mealtime