Do you give snacks to your toddler?

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Just a thought really. 16 mth old DS seems to eat his meals much better when he hasn't had a snack in between. He's 91st centile for weight, 50th centile for length, so a bonny boy (although not really walking yet).

Just I read everywhere that children have small tummies and need snacks to keep them going.

Any thoughts?

Thanks!

Hi - I think it depends on the child.

DS2 doesn't have that many snacks but eats his meals really well (he's 98th centile for weight and height ). If your DS seems happy between meals and eats well I wouldn't worry.

thanks gegs. tbh, i'd rather he ate his meals well. i'll see how he gets on.
thanks for posting

We don't regularly give snacks, unless there will be a particularly long gap between meals, like if we will be having lunch later than usual. DS (nearly 15mo) is a really good eater at mealtimes, especially breakfast, so am not convinced he really needs more. If he seems particularly hungry though I will let him have a snack.

On nursery days he does get 4 "meals" rather than 3 though, as they have lunch very early and a small "tea" mid-afternoon but it's not enough to keep him going so we have "second tea" when he gets home as well. So his nursery tea is kind of a snack I suppose.

I give snacks but not too close before a meal. depends on the kid. I usually have little packets of raisins for DS, or an apple, something like that.. depends on their individual metabolism, if they burn it up quickly.. DS (2.5) eats really really well, but some days or tea times just isn't hungry, unrelated to whether he had a snack or not..

DS (16 months) gets a small snack mid morning and one mid afternoon.
He really needs the mid afternoon one. He naps straight after lunch but when he wakes up he can be a bit grizzly and the snack helps him perk up again.
Some days he doesn't eat much of anything, other days he eats like a horse - snacks don't seem to affect this.

thanks, i am going to try to be a bit more relaxed about the whole snack thing i think.
thanks for posting

my dc have always snacked - fruit, oat cakes/ rice cakes, cereal etc. But I 'm a snacky type so think it's impossible to go too long between meals!

My DD has always snacked as we're real grazers. Some days she eats tons, other days very little, These days she'll tell me when she's hungry and I try and keep snacks healthy ie bananas, rice cakes, oat cakes etc but we also have biscuits and cakes depends what I'm having. I actually find it harder to get her to eat her meals if she hasn't snacked as she's so hungry by meal time that she gets very difficult and will end up eating nothing. Neither of us are overweight and I think have a healthy approach to food. Nothing is denied just perhaps restricted a little (I do draw the line at sweets in the morning!)

I think healthy snacks are fine.

yeah i give ds healthy snacks ... rice cakes, fruit, yoghurt, breadsticks type of things (and occasionally a bit of banana cake when i get around to making it!)

i was just asking as ds does seem to eat his meals better when he hasn't had snacks and seems 'hungry'. when he's had a snack, he is a little bit 'take it or leave it' with his meals.

DD (not quite 2) seems to really need her snacks. She is a tiny thing and very active so even after a bowl of cereal and toast at breakfast she is desperate for a snack by 10 or 11am and will still eat a good lunch. I also think its a good opportunity to get her to eat fruit as she isn't too keen on veg. She does have some cake or a biscuit some days as a treat too.

DD always has a mid morning snack and a mid afternoon snack. Nothing huge - a little packet of biscuits, some raisins/fruit, cheese and breadstick - something like that. But she has always had a big appetite so guess it depends on your childs appetite.

I've got really strict on snacks with ds1 (2.10) recently in the hope that it might make him eat better at meal times. If he says he's hungry the only thing I'll offer is a banana (the only fruit he'll eat), and he can take it or leave it.

The only exceptions to this are once a week at mother&toddler group where he eats biscuits, and SAturday mornings when we usually go out for coffee and cakes.

But I'm the last person who should be giving advice on eating. Ds1 eats next to nothing and is below 9th centile for weight and height.

Don´t they need snacks more when the´re walking and so need more energy?

aah, maybe that's why ds doesn't seem to 'need' them at the moment then inapredicament. he's starting to walk now, and spending half/half his time walking versus crawling.

DD has just started walking and she is ravenous dispite having her usual three meals a day.

She never snacked before she started walking at the end of January. Now she points to the fruit bowl and tells me she needs food. I follow her instinct TBH, she knows if she hungry.

We never have snack things in the house so I need to remember to keep buying them. I've fruit isnt so so good as a snack, it doesnt seem to fill her up very well and she always wants me. A piece of wholemeal bread with a spread of houmous does the trick

My DD is 2.6 and really needs snacks. There is no way she would make it through from breakfast to lunch or lunch to dinner. TBH, she quite often needs a some dried or fresh fruit or a rice cake when she first wakes up if we're not to have a hunger-induced meltdown before breakfast.

thanks for all of your posts. i am going to cut back on snacks a little, in the vain hope he is hungrier for his meals. i am sure he will let me know if he is too hungry until he is properly walking, he may not be expending enough energy to need snacks at the moment maybe.

DS1 didnt really need extra until he was walking. Hes 17months and constantly on the go so he has breakfast at 8am, lunch about 12, a snack about 3.30pm and then tea about 5.30pm.

mid morning he gets a beaker of milk which he drinks about 50mls but he's thirsty rather than hungry then.

My DD, now 20 months, gets a snack mid morning and then a yoghurt after her nap. I really just go with the flow and as she has never been that experimental with food if she appears to want sth I let her try. The only rule I try to stick to is not giving her snacks less than an hour before her main meal times. In my opinion if she is having breakfast at 8 then 4 hrs till lunch at 12 is too long to go without a little sth and again if she has lunch at 12 she shouldn't have to wait 5 or 6 hrs to get sth else to eat at supper time. If you make the snacks healthy then its a good way to get extra food into them!!

DD 2.6 has snacks. She has breakfast when she gets up (around 6:45am ish - this morning 2 scrambled eggs), then a snack whenever she says she is hungry - usually around 10am ish, usually toast, banana, yoghurt that kind of thing. Lunch at 12:30pm ish, snack whenever she wants it in afternoon, fruit, yoghurt, toast (sometimes biscuit or cake) usually 3pm ish. Tea around 5pm ish, pudding 6pm ish, milk.

If she wants more snacks, she will get them, as she is so energetic, she will only ask if she is hungry, she is not big on eating even treat stuff if she is not hungry. It does not affect her dinner times, if it did, we would cut it down.

I always give my kids a huge fruity crackery snack before they go out to tea with their dad, who thinks chips are a vegetable. He's great, but healthy diet = not his forte. i'd rather they filled up with a great big snack then just ate what they want of their meal rather than ram all the crap food in because they're ravenous.

Ds1 gets VERY bolshy when he's hungry, so snacks have to be handed out occasinally.

I tend to go along with dd wants. She is nearly 16months and very active. We don't tend to give her snacks in the mornings (she does when she's at the creche) but will have rice cake/raisins/breadstick at about 4pm ish as she doesn't have dinner until about 6.30

If she is teething badly or had a particularly busy day or eating much more at meal times then i will give her extra snacks. She does only have one bottle a day though, as i'm sure that makes quite a bit of difference

Totally depends on the child. At 16 mths my DS didn't have snacks. He wasn't that interested in food, really, and it was all I could do to get him to eat 3 small-ish meals a day. Fast forward a year and he was absolutely ravenous. Would have a morning snack and afternoon snack and a snack before bed on top of his 3 meals a day. He is 4 now and still like this most days (he's very tall and as skinny as a piece of string!). I think it's all the running around they do.