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.

Scottish? 😁 I went to school in the 90s and every kid’s play piece was an apple and a bag of crisps or a penguin biscuit. The school tuck shop was open every day and you could buy penny mixtures in white pokes. You could get a lot of sweets for the 20p in your pocket. Can you imagine the posts on Mumsnet now about it? 😂

I’m on a Disney forum for tips and am genuinely shocked on what people bring over so they can snack all day. Absolutely crazy.
we have meals, snacks if late or special treats I guess. But people are bring packets and packets of snacks for in between actually eating.

I try not to have opinions on what others feed their kids but have to admit it annoys me when parents crack out the fun-looking snacks immediately as kids leave the classroom, in front of everybody else, and I have to explain that no mummy hasn’t bought a delicious snack for DC like the other children. It makes DC feel hard done by and envious of pals who get handed a bag of crisps or fruit winder on pick up.

We live ten minutes from school, and if DC wants to play in the park for a bit then the snack will come a bit later. No harm in waiting as far as I’m concerned, as fruit/crackers etc available at home when needed.

I don't think day nursery/ childcare providers help either tbh.

All day nurseries I have worked at offered option of breakfast 7.30-8.30 if parents wanted it, then it was snack time at 10.30ish then lunch around 12, then snack time again around 2 , then "light tea" at around 4ish. That snacking habit is built into a nursery day and becomes habit for the children. DDs school nursery had both morning and afternoon snack time and in reception they also have morning and afternoon snack time - fruit only but still 2 snack times.

Add in that most advice is to give snacks when children are needed to be quiet/ compliant e.g. during errand running, waiting for siblings to finish a club and snacking when out and about becomes ingrained.

Until DD went to preschool I didn't offer snacks unless she was genuinely hungry and then it was something like sandwich or fruit. Once she got to preschool she started snacking and her eating of meals went down.

Oh also we do a club one evening and if they’re ever doing something remotely active we will be instructed to “bring a snack” even though it’s right after dinner time. So I send DC with a piece of fruit and get lengthy complains about how all the other kids had xyz junk food… it’s so tedious!

Kids finish school 3-330pm. 4pm is a pretty normal snack time.

How can you do a snack at 3pm when they’re at school? Ohhhh you probably can’t, because they’re too young for school perhaps? So you’re judging everyone else who will likely have very set routines to accommodate after school activities too.

Kids are hungry after school and swimming quite often. 4pm is quite normal.

I truly love Mumsnet for posts like this 😂

I’d focus on teaching your child not to be such a rude snob to waiters instead of worrying about kids menus in restaurants.

My absolute favourite was the child (now late 30s) who refused lunch, snacked 1/2 hour later and became a vegetarian that doesn't eat vegetables. Yes he is very obese now.

This is part of the problem, fruit is healthy, it is better than crisps, UPFs, biscuits etc. All food in moderation, with a huge emphasis on real natural food.

I was bemused at a family member going out of her way to go to a shop to buy sweets, multiple packets, for a 30 minute journey. Eldest child (very picky) ate a couple of bits of chocolate. Youngest child ate his way through all rest. He’s what I’d call fat. Once we arrived, everyone had ice cream. Whenever there’s an event, he has both hands full with food. There’s always lots of sweets on offer.

Grandparents have a shelf full of Coke and sweets. Both grandparents and mum, their dd, have a weight issue. Youngest child is 4, I find it hard to pick him up. He’s in clothes 2 years above his actual age. If he wants food, he gets it. I find it really sad that he’s clearly overweight at that age.

The girls are hitting puberty earlier because they are fat - Are you ok?
The girls get curvier WHEN THEY HIT PUBERTY

Years ago I took my 4yr old to the theatre to see Stickman. I said there was no eating as its noisy and we had had lunch, low and behold everyone had sweets and crisp. I was annoyed that people cannot go less than 2hrs without eating. I have seen fully grown adults bring a picnic to the theatre!

Obesity causes early onset puberty. You just didn’t know that. Now you do.

I'm not judgy about people feeding their kids, but I do have relatives, well informed healthy types who definitely don't go in for giving their kids junk, but wherever they go they arrive loaded down with tupperwares of pre-prepared snacks.

As soon as they arrive, say at a relative's house for a meal, or a party, the snacks come out and there are great efforts to get them to eat them.

Then the main event happens and the kids (around age 6-8) are not sat at the table to eat but left a plate on the table which they pick faintly at, before wandering off.

Then as soon as the meal is finished more snacks / special things brought for puddings come out.

There's almost a sense of anxiety around food, like there's a constant flow of it, being unpacked, loud encouragment to eat, then all packed away and then after a 15 minute gap it all starts again .

It feels like a lot of effort when you could just let them get hungry and eat with everyone else.

I've seen others behave similarly. Constant encouragement to graze, rather than sitting down to meals. The kids never really seem hungry.

He was direct but not a rude snob.

His Mum could explain he should not say ‘I don’t like’ in future though.

Yep. Shop near the school sold sweets in ounces and was queued out at lunchtime (in the days when kids could leave school at lunch time). Mumsnet would have conniptions at the sweet treats we were allowed as kids. We also usually had some kind of dessert after dinner.

Mind you we weren’t ferried around from pillar to post, fewer organised after school activities but lots of outdoor play.

Of course it’s rude to complain to a waiter “I don’t like these things!” after reading a menu. What planet are you on?

I think this is child dependent.
My 6 year old is fab with portion control. She wouldn’t ask for a snack unless she were actually hungry. You could give her a massive bag of sweets, she will eat 2 and hand them back declaring she had had enough. Now I will be honest she is a picky eater, but will happily eat the same (rather small!) selection of fruits and vegetables every day.
My 3 year old is has also become more picky (although not as picky as her sister). But my god if I hear the word ‘snack’ off that child less than 100 times a day I would be shocked. Yes I say ‘no’ or ‘not until after dinner’ or ‘no because you didn’t eat your breakfast’ but yes, she eats snacks!
My children do multiple activities, are slim and healthy.
The child with their cheese puffs, that maybe their only snack of the day, it’s just that’s the moment you happened to see them. You may have missed the 50 times earlier in the day their parent had said ‘no’.
The children at swimming were probably hungry having finished school and had to go to swimming before dinner. Parents may have come straight from work and had no opportunity to home-bake sugar free, gluten free chia seed muffins.
You can’t judge people life's on a snapshot.

I agree about the playground snacks thing @Jamtomorrowneverjamtoday . There are quite a few at our pick up that are handed snacks as they come out. I understand that some children have clubs after school so might need a snack but a sandwich or wrap would be a far better snack over crisps or sweets.

DDs best friend comes out every day to a snack of either a chocolate bar or bag of sweets. Her mum has tried to stop it but her DD is collected by grandparents 3 days a week and her Disney dad 1 night a week who pretty much brings the sweet isle with him.

DD is not impressed with me as I'm much more of a you can have toast/ crumpet/ sandwich/ fruit when you get home mum. DD is usually ravenous after school and I've found that a more substantial snack is needed or else she will just raid the biscuit and crisp cupboard or natter for more snacks.

It's so sad, and it's shocking how many overweight children you see out and about. YANBU

You say it was complaining. I am suggesting the child was stating a fact, which was tactless, but not intentionally rude. It would have been better to say nothing then look at his parents’ menu of course. But calling him a rude snob for stating a preference is going too far in my opinion.

The food on kids’ menus often has much less variety than on the main menu.

edited for a typo

Is it okay for skinny children to snack? I give my children snacks at home or sometimes at the park after school, but they are all skinnier than other kids. Would you look down upon that as much? I also snack and I’m skinnier than most mums.

Spiking is bollocks.

When I was a kid and your mum took you to the park - we took the house key and my brothers inhaler just in case.

now a days - you need to pack 50 million snacks, 3 water bottles and a bucket of sun cream to survive 30 minutes at the park on a damp Tuesday morning!

I honestly don’t think kids need feeding every 20 seconds and believe it or not they can wait until they get home to have a drink.

they will not shrivel up and die without 24/7 access to a water bottle!

@Lordofthebantams My kids would drive you insane then! My 2 youngest are always snacking. Constantly. And yes they eat the meals and fruit and veggies too. And no they aren’t overweight. My eldest you would love. He doesn’t snack, hardly ever. He also doesn’t eat veggies or barely any fruit… I think we need to consider that we don’t know what’s going on with people or their children and we are all out here doing the best we can.