Do little kids eat too much these days?

[BlueBirdAmberBird]

I notice that most parents have a constant supply of snacks for their kids when they're out and about, and most 2/3/4 year olds are constantly munching on breadsticks and rice cakes etc. No judgement as I'm genuinely interested to know whether or not this is the right approach. Do kids need a constant supply of healthy snacks to thrive? Or are they physiologically capable of lasting a few hours between meals?

My ‘little kids’ are a healthy weight so no, I don’t think I’m feeding them too much.

A lot of "parenting experts" suggest giving the main three meals and also offering a morning snack and an afternoon snack - apparently it stops kids being over hungry and also puts less pressure on mealtimes if they're a fussy eater. My daughter has a good appetite, but if she has a snack she never eats her lunch or dinner so we restrict it unless we can tell she's starving!

I know parents who are constantly giving their children snacks, or letting their kids go and help themselves to the "snack cupboard", so they fill up on crisps and sweets and biscuits and then the parents wonder why the kids aren't eating their dinner 😬😬😂😂

My son doesn't really but he's still a toddler. If we are having a day out we do take a lot of snacks, mainly because of meals being unpredictable or food can placate him if he is getting annoyed!
He really only has breakfast, lunch, afternoon snack (if needed) and dinner. He does still have milk before bed.

My kids want to eat non stop if at home or unoccupied but they manage to cope fine in childcare without a constant stream of food.

When 3yrs and nursery, DC1 would have breakfast at home, snack at 10.30ish (fruit/veg) and then lunch at 12.30-1. She would nap after lunch, have a snack when she woke and then dinner would be after 6. At same age, DC2 would have breakfast at nursery at 8-8.30, lunch at 11-11.30, snack at 2.30 and then request to eat constantly at home before dinner if we weren’t doing an activity. Dinner would be at 4.30-5ish when DC1 also home from school so I would try make them wait.
(Their timings were different to each other at 3 because I used to make them fit in with each other for my sanity)

They now have breakfast, snack at morning break, lunch and then nothing until end of school day. When they get home, they have dinner by 4.30 (with no snack before) and then are offered a late snack before bed if hungry. Most parents do bring snack to school pick up but I refuse to as dinner is ready at home.

Both would want an endless supply of food at home but it would be limited to fruit, plain yoghurt and milk. When out and about , I would have other options including prepackaged food.

I didn’t really follow weaning guidelines for snacks, just offered when they appeared to be hungry (I was also terrible at remembering to pack food when we went out)

I thought NHS advice was to offer 3 meals and 2 snacks? It’s also what nursery does so DC who go 4 days a week are used to that food schedule. They don’t sit still long enough to have a massive meal the way an adult might; an apple or whatever keeps them going.

Dotingmumandgranny · Today 13:28
MrsSkylerWhite · Today 12:48
Our children were both grazers, rarely ate a full meal until school aged.

It’s none of your concern really, is it?
If nobody ever commented on things that were 'not their concern,' then Mumsnet wouldn't exist“

Fair enough 😁
OP sounded rather judgey and irritated me!

Doesn't it depend on what the snack is?
There's a big difference between having something like a small banana and eating a medium tube of pringles washed down with an energy drink. Same goes for free access to fruit compared with free access to biscuits and crisps.

They're tiny, they eat little and often. Without snacks my kids (6 & 3) get very grouchy and tantrummy because of low blood sugar.

I think it's more a question of what and how much you feed them, not how often.

Also mine will eat a veg snack (raw carrot and raw pepper, eg) but quite often reject veg at dinner times.

Snacking is a quote a modern phenomena. I'm in my 40s and we didn't have snacks apart from the warm milk (until Thatcher snatched it). After primary school we may have had a bit of a sandwich or fruit and that was that. I would play out all day at the weekend and only eat lunch and dinner.
My mum was horrified how often we gave stuff to the DC when they were small. There is a huge obesity crisis happening, the effects of which hasn't yet hit the NHS fully as the overweight adults now weren't overweight in the mainnas kids. Whereas the overweight kids now will never have not been fat. One of my DC is overweight and I feel to blame.

Snacking is a quote a modern phenomena. I'm in my 40s and we didn't have snacks apart from the warm milk (until Thatcher snatched it).

I'm 34 and we always had a piece of fruit for a mid-morning snack at playtime from nursery onwards, brought from home but everyone had one (and it had to be fruit or cheese).

Tbf though I think there is a big difference between regular, scheduled healthy snacks, such as a piece of fruit mid-morning and mid-afternoon, (which could even be re-labelled as having 5 meals a day, 3 big and 2 small), and children grazing on crisps and biscuits constantly all day long.

I haven’t noticed really, DD (3) refuses anything but a cup of milk in the morning then at nursery a morning snack and then lunch at 12 ish comes home sometimes a fruit snack about 3ish (if she’s not too busy doing her own thing) and then dinner. At home it’s usually a late breakfast, lunch, sometimes a snack in the afternoon and then dinner. But she’s a solid little thing, top end of healthy weight.

I’ve never carried snacks around for her because she packs it in at mealtimes and rarely wants anything, if she says she’s hungry I will stop and buy some food if we are out, But tbh I know kids with tiny appetites who do seem to need regular feeding so wouldn’t judge.

DS1 gets (understandably) hungry after activities so snacks when we are out and about but we do try to limit it because he’d graze and not eat his meals, given the chance.
DS2 has multiple food allergies and lots of the things he can and will eat aren’t as nutrient dense as ‘normal’ food so he is hungry all the time.
Both are on higher percentiles for height than for weight and are leaner than other children their age so I think they need the food.

I’m 44, and when I was 5 I had cereal for breakfast, small snack at morning break (usually a bag of hoola hoops or a small packet of raisins), packed lunch of a sandwich and a biscuit, small snack after school (finger of fudge, Milky Way), then tea (main and pudding). In retrospect I didn’t eat much fruit! But we were all thin.

DS has a similar breakfast (Weetabix), fruit mid-morning, cooked school lunch, substantial snack after school (mini cheddars, or small cheese sandwich, or fruit yoyo), and one course tea. Fruit or yoghurt later if he says he is still hungry. He is also thin, as are most of the kids in his class actually.

He eats a lot more fruit and vegetables than I did, and does a lot more exercise. His diet and lifestyle are much healthier than mine was in the early 80s, and we are similar BMIs. So I don’t recognise this picture of the healthy past and podgy, biscuit-laden present.

@Changechangychange you must live in an unusual area then. As in the UK by year six, 25% are obese and 15% overweight. We live in a poorer area which even higher than national average obesity rates.

We’re in Lambeth, so lots of deprivation. There are overweight parents, but the kids all seem slim.

Mine is in the 1st percentile and she has stayed that way since birth so she always has snacks. Though we do two snacks a day unless she is clearly very hungry or there is an unusual wait for dinner then she gets a bonus snack. Her first snack between breakfast and lunch is always a healthy snack. So baby carrots, cucumber slices, apple slices, orange slices or bell pepper slices. The snack between lunch and dinner is a usually more relaxed so a mini muffin, granola bar or sometimes cereal. We don't do dessert really so she's not getting a ton of sugary stuff constantly. We go out to eat at a cafe once a week and get her a half donut with no frosting sometimes. People give us mean looks. I don't really care? What is wrong with treating your toddler once a week? Maybe they think we do that everyday? Even if that's the case it is not their business.

If she gets a bonus snack it's another healthy snack.

I think everyone eats differently, and I think it's SM, (what I eat in a day) ect my children had breakfast, lunch and Dinner. If they were hungry they asked for something,
I was watching YouTube and someone packed snacks to go for an MoT. If your children are hungry feed them, I suppose snacks is just planning,

Most parents are trying to desperately head off a tantrum and as hunger is one of the biggest triggers and one of the easiest to try and rule out I think thats why you see kids snacking a lot.

My LO also has a small stomach and is underweight so I don't expect her to eat big meals and take the approach that whatever she eats it's better than nothing.

I have lots of snacks on hand at all times. My daughter hardly eats anything and I have no idea how she survives so I frequently offer her, dried fruit, cereal bars, yoghurt biscuits, nuts etc. She's much more likely to accept that than even consider looking at her lunch.

DD has set meal and snack times and doesn't eat in between. I guess it never really occurred to me to offer snacks round the clock and she doesn't ask for them, so 🤷

Don’t worry OP, your little one will let you know how often she wants feeding 😁

I think you’ll look back and (hopefully) laugh in 8 months when she’s had her 10th snack of the day.

Seriously though, toddlers have small stomachs and do need to eat quite often. It’s also quite a physical effort for younger ones to eat things that need a lot of chewing and they don’t have the patience to eat a lot in one go. So regular snacks are needed in between meals.

The amount of snacking now is certainly not what I grew up with (in the 90s) I do think we've lost some perspective on being hungry

I’m not too far off 60 now. Used to spend most of my pocket money on Tomato flavoured Snaps at school tuck shop. Those were the days 😁