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.

It is indeed a societal problem. We live in an obesogenic society caused by people giving and expecting constant access to snacks and food.

Something really needs to change.

My 5 year old will inhale a sandwich, banana, and fistfuls of other fruit/veg after swimming and then eat a full dinner an hour later. Swimming makes you ravenous.

I thought it was normal to give your children a snack

I did feel when my were young toddler groups and especially sure start did push snacking a bit too much - but life happens and sometimes having a snack means the hangry kids aren't exhausting parents and ruining everyone elses experinces - it's more an issue if it's every day rather than after an activity which often seems to cause hunger like swimming.

I used to work in a very deprived part of my city. Each morning mums would go to the shop across the road from us and buy the children sweets and crisps that they would eat at the bus stop before getting on the bus to go 2 stops. The school was a 12 minute walk away. I always wondered why they wasted their money like this.

I used to have chips after swimming.

I live in a very deprived city and I see exactly the same.

Also the same faces queuing up in the chicken shop regularly when I walk past.

Don't get me wrong, I love a chicken burger and chips now and then, but most of the regulars are very overweight as are their children.

I thought one was going to collapse at sports day after running a very short distance.

Don't get me on the litter too. I had to meet and photograph a young mum once. Her 3 year old was munching snacks, gave her mum the wrapper and the mum just told her to throw it on the ground. Grr.

But... swimming. Swimming as a kid made me marvin. I was always so hungry after a couple of hours of larking about and would spend a bit of my pocket money on a bag of crisps out the machine.

Yes there is a problem with the worst diets in deprived areas and the reasons are multi faceted and well understood

that isn’t a reason to not attempt to change society to make junk food snacking seen by all as a bad thing

I never entertained this. Mine has always had 3 meals a day and occasionally they might want something more but not often.

And now you’re a saint if you think it’s important not to give children processed crap. This is why we have an obesity crisis. Studies have found that diets high in ultra-processed foods are associated with an increased risk of bowel cancer, including early-onset bowel cancer.

Normalising constant snacking in childhood, creates adults who eat out of habit rather than hunger. We’ve all seen them - unable to get round Tesco without eating or shoving food in their small kids’ faces.

Giving children healthy habits is not pious. It’s just good parenting.

My DD started puberty aged 10, she was in the 10th centile for weigh so definitely not fat. And she snacks (even eats crisps and ice cream on the regular). You’re seeing a snap shot of a child’s day and have no idea what’s going on behind the food you’re seeing. My two were handed a snack coming out of school daily because lunch at school was early and portion sizes were tiny. By the time they were 9 and 10 it simply wouldn’t hold them over til tea time.

The mumsnet minimal eating, pearl clutching brigade are no better than the Greggs dummy lot.

I don't remember being told off about snacks. I do remember finding snack habits strange when I visited friends. I also remember apples, cubed cheese, glasses of milk, fruit, as snacks. Sometimes toast or crackers or a soft boiled egg.

Somehow my parents succeeded in making old-fashioned sit down meals seem normal. I wonder how they did it.

We did have snack foods sometimes as a novelty on a long drive or as party leftovers.

ETA I didn't eat minimally then and don't now.

The small children OP describes are probably the ones who won't know how to sit at a table and use a knife and fork when they go to reception. Teaching good eating habits is a fundamentally part of parenting and so many have no clue.

When my DD was small, I kept a packet of rice cakes or oat cakes in my rucksack because they are sugar free, quite cheap and easily portable. When DD was older, she went through a phrase of saying she was hungry about half an hour after we had eaten in the evening. I used to tell her that there had been plenty of food at the table and that she should have eaten there. So no more food other than a biscuits before bed.

We learn from our own parents. My mum used to give us a piece of cheese, a couple of crackers and an apple when we got home from school. All my friends were given cake so I felt quite aggrieved. But she knew what healthy eating meant.

I needed to carry snacks for one of mine who would get completely hangry without them.

it was for the benefit of the entire planet that I did.

when he was older we realised it was an early manifestation of his AuADHD

I don’t give a fuck what anyone else thinks about that. Snacks worked.

I have two active, healthy weight children who are enabled snackers. They definitely do not eat a packet of biscuits or a packet of crisps but will go at the bear yoyo, ritz crackers and frozen fruit in a maddening way. It drives me mad but isn’t something I have the energy to change or get overly upset about.

I’ve never seen the harm in supper. My 5 year old eats beautifully at the table, enjoys his food, enjoys snacks too, doesn’t fuss over food and will try new things. If he says he is hungry after his dinner he has Greek yoghurt or even a pudding some nights. I have fond memories of similar growing up, tinned pears in custard and so on. If he says he’s hungry before bed he has a banana and a cup of milk. If I feel like he’s not been his usual self at dinner and not enjoyed it or eaten as much as usual I don’t mind him having a bowl of porridge and banana before bed.

I’ve never thought to say he should have eaten more for his dinner. He’s a very active child but some days are even more active than others so I completely believe him if he says he’s hungry even after having dinner as a family. He eats more than I eat.

I agree.

Growing up in the 60s and 70s there were very few places to buy food/snacks/drinks other than supermarkets or newsagents. There were cafes, but they tended to be sit down only, rather than take-way.

The influx of coffee shops and fast food places over the last 40 years or so has really changed the typical high street so that food and drink outlets are now the predominant business, and practical shops have declined.

I often avail myself of their offerings, I don't deny it, but I don't really think we NEED all the Starbucks, Costas, etc. My tiny express supermarket has installed a Costa coffee dispenser. Can people not manage to pop to the corner shop without the need to buy a coffee and a snack to go with it.

Naught wrong with a shivery bite.

Doesn’t everyone have a snack after swimming?!

Another huge problem with constant snacking is the dental issues. So many kids have to have teeth pulled due to decay. A young girl aged 21 who I work with has recently had all on one implants fitted overseas due to decay in almost every adult tooth. It is shocking.

You are guilty of child neglect if you allow constant snack snck snack throughout the day. You are better off allowing your kids to eat a whole pack of biscuits in one go than letting them have one every 10 mins over three hours.

Google Stephan curve.

I’m in my 50s and we always got a snack after swimming! Known as a shivery bite.

I am very old and I remember going to the sweet shop after school and choosing fruit salads and mojos . Am not overweight and have perfect teeth!

Oh no, they're poor and fat. Avert your eyes!

I love crisps

Can I be the first to say "no wonder there's an obesity epidemic"?

I agree with your premise. Overall we are a nation that eat far far more processed snacks than our european counterparts - and we carry the extra pounds to show for it.

However, I would hesitate to judge after seeing just one instance. My almost 2 year old sits and has all her meals at the dinner table, using cutlery and proper cups (no sippy cups etc). Our meals are cooked all from scratch, high fibre, good protein and half the plate is veg. Snacks are generally fruit, cheese or natural yoghurt.

However, there have definitely been times when I have forgot to pick up the lunch bag or whatever, and instead of buying the mankly bruised apple for 90p from the leisure centre cafe, I get the chocolate finger for her.

And I don't think anyone responds to feeling judged. I think we need to make unhealthy food less accessible, and reasonably priced healthy food available in food deserts etc.