to think children don't need to spend the whole afternoon grazing on food

[emkana]

Met up with friends at the park this afternoon. Friends had brought bags stuffed with food - choc bars, crisps, fruit, babybels, biscuits... I had brought - nothing. We had had lunch and were going to have dinner, I was possibly going to buy them an ice cream as a special holiday treat, but aibu to not understand why children need to be constantly be fed little snacks all through the afternoon? They're not toddlers either, they're age five to eight.

YANBU

If mine snack in the afternoon they don't eat their dinner so snacks very limited.

Perhaps that was instead of lunch/dinner though?

Maybe just treats as it's holidays?

I used to do this and have recently stopped, result; children eat their meals brilliantly, and are sleeping better. YANBU, they don't need snacks.

YASOOOONBU. If my DD (2.5) gets peckish, she can have some fruit (which I do make sure I have on me). And water, as thirst often mistaken for hunger. She has three meals a day and that's enough. I hate the trend towards constant grazing.

No this wasn't instead of meals.

These children are all very slim, so it's not causing a problem there, but I just find it quite annoying that it makes them think about food the whole time - "what can I have next?" "can I have this/that2

I'm afraid my super skinny 6 year old ds does need to pretty much graze all afternoon. Then he eats a huge meal in the evening. I marvel at his metabolism.

YABU
some children have high metabolism and burn fuel fast
some children also don't eat very high calorie meals - either their parents serve lower fat food or they choose it themselves - my eldest would mostly live off fruit and vegetables if he could, so he needs to eat frequently through the day
he is skinny and active and constantly hungry - i would say age 5 to 8 is prime time for being big snackers

anyway why does it bother you? the tone of your post implies you find it rather immoral to be eating between meals? perhaps they were hungry? what do you see as the problem here? from personal experience snacking is not great for my son's teeth, but it's the way he is designed, it seems, and i would be fighting a pointless battle trying to change it

Mine usually have a snack mid afternoon, as (being Italian ) we have dinner at 7.
I agree that constant grazing is not a good idea. Mind you, your friends dc might be going through a growth spur of some sort. My 7.5 yr old boy has been eating loads recently. He is very active, and has developed a huge appetite.

My 4 year old needs snacks in the afternoon, otherwise he's grumpy and a meltdown in the park at some point would have been inevitable. Would be fruit / plain biscuits or similar though, not choc bars and crisps.

I imagine he'll continue to be the same as he gets older, it seems to be a blood sugar thing (and no, I'm not making this up because I won't refuse him food - it really does affect him quite severely)

So YAB a little bit U - maybe your friends' children are the same.

mine eat non-stop from about 4 through till bedtime - including huge meal in between

they all do it

they are all skinny as rakes

Why do you care what other peoples children are eating?

My DCs are all super-skinny and I dread to think how even skinnier they'd be if they didn't snack between meals. They need the calories.

DS has a much smaller stomach as a result of abdominal surgery so needs to eat little and often, he can't eat large meals. As long as his snacks are healthy, I don't see the problem. It's no biggie.

But I can see what you are saying - ganneting for the sake of it annoys me a bit too

Don't see the problem with snacking, and as others say it depends on the child. I think what they eat is far more important than when- I'm all for fruit for snacks but don't like seeing kids eat crisps, chocolate and biscuits etc all the time.

I care because the children spent a large amount of time obsessing about what they could eat next instead of enjoying the sun/playing.

Maybe your friend's DCs have worms

So what? Each to their own.

There's lots of advice out there about snacking being a healthier way to eat than the old '3 meals a day' thing - I've no idea whether it's true or not but presumably parents can decide what's best for their children? If it's different to your way, that doesn't make it wrong.

My son is younger but FWIW he needs to graze because otherwise he just can't consume enough calories, especially as his favourite foods are fruit and veg. Better that than he eats all day than wakes up starving at nighttime.

you really shouldn't care though

unless you're happy with the thought that they are equally pissed off at how odd your children are

you need to spend a with teenagers, they have snacking down to fine art!

mamaduckbone Ds 14 was like your son at the same age, when he needed to be fed you knew it, but thankfully he has grew out of it when he got older.

I do care though because my children met up with these children to play, not to watch them eat.

My soon to be 13 year old as hollow legs and can eat all day for England and will still eats all his meals - and will ask for seconds!

DS2 runs around like whippet all the time... they need fuel.

We always take snacks if we go out.

YANBU. No one needs snacks. I don't know why they even needed to think of food if they were out.

Ds1 eats constantly. He is 9 years old and probably consumes more calories than me.
However he is phenomenally active. Does loads and loads of after school sport and stuff at weekends. There is not an extra inch of fat on him, and he has no fillings.

Why should normal sized active kids who eat a lot bother you?

YANBU.

This really annoys me too as the children can't seem to have a nice time as they are always looking for food. I went to the park in the holidays for five hours with two friends and seven children altogether and there was not a single second that there wasn't a child asking for food. These are school age children.

Mine were the only ones who ate their lunch at one sitting - as this is what they are used to this is what they did. It made me quite sad that we were in this amazing park and their main focus was eating. It wasn't the actual eating that bothered me but the talking about it, food was the most important thing. I wanted my children to play in the wonderful park.

I just think that it's OK to be hungry sometimes.

that's exactly it savoycabbage.