Bento snack box for two year old?

[pontipinemum]

My 2 yr (+ 4 month) old is constantly looking for snacks.

I was thinking of getting a bento box and filling it in the morning and that is his for the day. Is he too young to understand that? DH think he will just throw it around the place.

The other problem is that is will want the box to mainly contain crackers!

handle him “constantly looking for snacks” rather than indulging it

Snacks available throughout the day will mean u r putting their teeth at risk, and u r encouraging over eating, kids don’t need lots of snacks, 2 small snacks is more than enough, most dentists say only eat at mealtimes.

Maybe he needs bigger meals?

OK, I will try encourage him to eat more at meal times. I can make a pasta bake one day and he will eat loads of it, then the exact same one a few days later and he won't touch it.

He started so well. I did all the individual veggies blended when he was 6 months and progressed from there. He would eat anything I gave him until he was nearly 2 and it changed.

He won't eat eggs (of any type), most veggies, gone off all fruit inc strawberries which he used to love, hardly eats meat. Yesterday he had mash and gravy for dinner.

@CurlewKate he won't eat the meals. I know that's because of the snacks but yesterday he had 1 slice of toast of breakfast then no snack and hardly touched lunch.

It is probably completely not it, but I breastfed on demand. Did he just get used to eating little and often exactly when he wanted?

Eating little and often is OK as long as it’s balanced food so cubes of cheese, cumumbers and crackers. Normal food and not too exciting. I would make up
some snacks at the start of the day and just produce them at snack time. Make sure they’re not raisins, organix style snack bars which are bad for teeth.

Are you happy with bf on demand? I feed DD2 until she was 3.5 years but by 2 it was no longer convient for me to bf on demand so I put some boundaries in place. If it’s fine to put boundaries in place if you want but it’s not needed.

There are always lots of strongly anti-snack posts on here, but now I have two DC I think it probably depends on the child. DS2 seems fine if he doesn't eat in between meals, but DS1 turns into a fucking goblin. And he eats like a glutton at mealtimes, so I am definitely not underfeeding him. What works for me is (mostly) anticipating when he will need a snack so I'm in charge of when they are offered. Yesterday we were on the train and I found myself thinking 'why is my normally charming 3 year old being whingey and irritating' and then I realised I just needed to give him an apple.

I wouldn't expect my 5 year old to regulate snacks for a day, never mind a 2 year old!

I agree though it's child dependant - DS1 is a terror when he's hungry, and couldn't cope with just 3 meals a day. I just make sure he has a healthy snack in the morning and afternoon. We also found it helpful to do more of a full meal for him around 4pm and then something like toast and peanut butter as a supper.

@Lifeglowup It does tend to be cheese, crackers, yoghurt, banana, or raisins (1 little tub per day). I have lots of little tubs I could prep things in. He opens the fridge though and stares in there for ages.

I stopped bf at 13 months, I meant did he just get used to not being on a schedule to eat.

He used to get a mini ice cream every so often but I've stopped that completely because he goes mad looking for another one. Like banging on doors until he works himself into a complete state etc. He still looks for it nearly daily. I froze some greek yoghurt he wasn't a big fan

Nah, their stomachs are still tiny (size of their fist) and little and often is totally fine. Snacks are normal. Healthier for all of us to eat when we’re hungry and stop when we’re full, rather than have a couple of big meals.

My kids were amazing eaters till age 2, then a few horror years when they hated hot square meals and lived of snacks (note: snacks ≠ junk). Now eat anything again.

It’s fine!

Some kids are just grazers. DD1 had a phase of this so I got a couple of snack boxes off Amazon and filled them with stuff like cubes of cheese, some cooked chicken pieces, veg sticks, breadsticks, bits of rice cake, fruit, etc. and she just ate it over a few hours.

I never worried about snacking as long as it was healthy.

I always took a little lunchbox filled with cheese, cucumber, carrot sticks, rice cakes, peanut butter sandwiches, crackers and humous etc etc out and about with me when mine was that age.

It tapered off at 3 years old and now he eats 3 big meals a day. Still snacks sometimes but far less frequently. Often when they're younger they like little bits of food often.

It's fine. If it's healthy I wouldn't worry about rationing it. Just let him have fruit, veg, cheese, Greek yoghurt, humous and so on when he wants it.

I find a little box of food they can access at anytime means they get to respond to
hunger and manage their intake. Second what others have said about having the right type of snacks in the box

Raisins are really bad for their teeth by the way. I would lose the raisins, but I see no problem with for example 5 small meals a day at that age. It's not snacking, it's just spreading out the food. Forget the snack box idea though that would be terrible!

Hi OP,

Just in response to your Q of his he too young to understand that- At age 2 his frontal lobes aren't very well developed. This is the part of the brain that helps with planning, inhibiting and moderating behaviour amongst other functions, so he's unlikely to understand that once all the snacks are gone that's it for the day.

Our three year old asks for snacks constantly when she's at home but is fine at nursery with one small snack between her meals, so I suspect it's something like boredom, habit or just knowing that the food is there in the kitchen that drives it with us! Personally I'm encouraging her to wait or distracting her unless I have genuine reason to believe that she's hungry and doesn't have a meal coming for a while.