DD is in first year of secondary school and no longer attends wraparound care so she leaves 30 minutes after me in the morning before school and gets home 30 minutes before me in the evening.
Since starting secondary and being home alone for these brief periods, she has been eating vast amount of treat food which we have occasionally e.g. she'll eat a full 6-multipack of crisps in one day whereas this would usually last us both a week (we both sometimes take a packet with lunch) or a mutipack of chocolate.
Now, I've never been one to fully restrict these kinds of foods as I've seen first hand that this then results in teens gorging on these foods as soon as they get a bit of freedom. However, that still apears to be what's happening here! We have a pudding of sorts every night after dinner which might be something like a scoop of icecream, jelly, small slice of cake, biscuit bar like a penguin etc. I've suggested cutting that down to only weekends as DD has started to buy these types of foods with her school lunches sometimes also at interval!
She complains she is hungry all the time. She'll quite happily eat endless amounts of fruit but seems lately to only like berries which are expensive (she only likes fresh, not frozen). E.g. a £3 punnet of raspberries or £2 punnet of grapes will last her less than 5 minutes each and then she's still wanting more.
I don't know how I can manage her food choices at school. Apparently no one takes a packed lunch or their own snacks in 'nowadays' like they did when i was at school. I give her £3 a day which is enough for a snack (she says she's starving until lunchtime without one) then £2.50 for either a cooked lunch meal or snack type meal deal. Both meal deals come with the choice of fruit or a biscuit/cake/muffin and you can guess which choice she always goes for.
Like I said, I don't know how to help her with her choices at school so is the answer to stop buying these types of food for the house? But will that then drive her to start having more of these at school or using her pocket money to buy some on the way home? This is currently happening to my colleague - she's always forbidden 'junk food' and recently discovered a huge box of a 'sweet stash' under her DD's bed. She's been buying and saving up food in her room in secret.
We've did lots and lots of talking and education about her food choices and she quite plainly says that she just can't stop herself eating biscuits and crisps etc if she sees them there.
I'd appreciate any advice. More so cheap but healthy ideas of foods I can have at home which i don't mind her having large amounts of. I can't afford to spend £60 per week on berries which I think might be the only solution!
FYI she's at the high end of a healthy weight for her height and she isn't concerned about her weight currently. She does one hour of walking a day for getting to school and goes cycling 3-4 times per week. I do think she'll soon be overweight though even with a growth spurt.
She's happy at school and has very active, slim friends. They all seem to have a much healthier attitude to food than DD though!
Am i overthinking this? Is this just a typical part of the teen phase?