Do your kids ever come home from nursery or school and ask for snacks? I know mine do and while I do not want them to fill up before tea we do often give a small snack to keep them going till tea is ready.
Is Giving Snacks To Our Kids A Bad Idea?
The challenge can be ensuring that snacks you give to your child are healthy and that your child will actually eat them. Some parents do not serve snacks at all, believing they will ruin their child’s appetite but I find my burn off so much energy that they need some extra fuel at times. But I also think if I did not give snacks then there would be more food eaten at meal times.
“Apparently, we have collectively decided as a culture that it is impossible for children to take part in any activity without simultaneously shoving something into their pie holes.” says Jennifer Steinhauer,
I asked 100 mums what snacks they gave after school and the following list is the most popular snack given.
- Cheese and crackers
- Fruit
- Fruit Bags
- Raisins
- Sandwich
- Yoghurt
- Dried Fruit
- Carrot sticks
- Bread sticks
- Cheese strings
- Slice of toast
What snacks do you give in between meals if any? Do you always have snacks on hand?
About The Real Supermum
Hi Emma, I just wrote a post about what we feed our children, including snacks, and I do let my son snack after nursery, he gets home at aroun 5:30, but they have their tea really early in my opinion at 3:30, so I usually give him a couple of crackers and some fruit xx
a child only has a small stomach and can only eat so much at a meal time, I truly believe 3 small meals and 3 small snacks a a day is a much better way to feed children. This makes for better sugar control, leading to better mood swings and less temper tantrums, and I also feel small meals as children = smaller portion size as an adult leading to less obesity. Also you are not enforcing on them “finish what is on your plate or you get nothing else” mentality that also leads to adults with the psychological problem of not being able to leave food on their plates, again leading to weight problems.
As long at the end of the week the diet is well balanced then what you serve and when does not matter too much
My son comes home and generally raids the cupboards, he’s starving after school, as long as he eats balanced meals throughout a week I’m not overly concerned on what snack he fancies when he does.
I think children make the right choices of food over a period of a week. Some days my 8 year old just wants junk but others he eats very healthy (sometimes refusing a meal with too much fat as he tells me!). As we all know when we are pregnant our body tells us when we want something, as they say its when we are lacking something, I think kids are exactly the same. I have never restricted my sons intake of sweets, crisps etc but it means he never seems to binge and go mad for them at parties and stuff.
I know people who have cut all bad things out of their kids diets when they are very young but in later life they have found they binge more on them because they crave them more! We know what its like when we do that when dieting so why should kids be different?
I give auron snacks sometimes, because he does sometimes leave quite a bit of his breakkie/dinner .. so i dont beleive giving him a snack is harmful
My little man is 22 months and if I don’t give him a and if he doesn’t have a afternoon snack he’s grumpy as any thing. He doesn’t eat more tea if he skips the snack. He normally has fruit or a yogurt
My son is 4 and has 3 meals a day plus 2 snacks which will reduce to one snack when he starts school. I by snack packs of rasins or grab a banana for him when out shopping xx
I give my 3 year old fruit as a snack, she often doesn’t eat all of her meals so it’s something to fill the hunger between meals. As long as it’s not crisps, chocolate or sweets I don’t see the harm!
My children have three main meals, and two small snacks – things like fruit mostly.
And of snacking is so bad why is my 5 year old encouraged to take fruit into school daily for morning snack time?
My lg has just turned 1 and i def give her healthy snacks! At the mo she has a bottle mid morn about 1030 after she’s had breakfast about 8. Lunch is about 1230 and then about 3ish she has snacks of cucumber / crackers / rice cakes / fruit … then her dinner about 5ish and a bottle before bed. I agree with everything previous comments here have said about smaller tummies, burning off energy, keeping blood sugar levels steady …. I get really fed up with my family and friends who, without asking, think it is ok that as soon as we visit them to give my lg a biscuit or a sweet without asking me. Ok, it’s a treat, and it won’t harm her however as we’re out and about all the time too many treats add up and I really notice the difference in her if nanny and grandad have been stuffing marshmallows down her that’s for sure lol!
I will give sidney a snack of fruit or cracker or soem organic crisps/rice cakes between lunch and dinner at about 3. Its such a big gap and they are running about they need that little extra to keep them going. And if we have got a long day and he has been up since 6/6:30 he will have a little snack maybe some raisins at about 10. x x
My 2yo eats a lot, always finishes meals and looking for snacks so he has 3 meals and 2 snacks a day, sometimes its healthy like an Apple or banana other days it might be a biscuit.. its rare for him to have crisps unless were out x
My daughter is 13 months and she has snacks, but she has things like grapes, cucumber, she tries carrots and stuff. As long as they’re not constantly eating ‘snacks’ then I personally don’t see a problem, and if it’s not junk food x
Yes my boys have a snack between breakfast and dinner and between dinner and tea whether it’s a cheese string baby bel fruit but there bound to get hungry running round all the time x
i do try not too but with growing boys that is near on impossible, i remember growing up my brother being what we called a ‘walking rubbish bin’ anything and everything in his way would be eaten and hes still as think as you like. i do try to just give them fruit (usually bananas as they love them) or little yogurts
My kids snack on fruit twice a day as well as having breakfast, dinner at school and dinner at home. They normally have a packet of crisps after school. They always come home “starving” apparently. They also enjoy yogurts and ice poles as well.
My boys snack. Mainly if theyve left some dinner and they need something to keep them going until tea time or car journeys etc x
Our 20m old barely ever has snacks, it just makes him lose his appetite at meal times, we struggle to get him to eat at meal times as it is and snacking I believe would make it worse!
hloe usually snacks on banana, pear or peaches. but she does have crisps n chocolate every now and then x
up till last sep i’d of said no BUT Lewis finishes preschool at 2.45 so has an apple or crisps on the way to the bus stop home as hes hungry n then mayb a kinder bar (tiny one) when he gets home as we get in around 3.30 n teas not till 5pm, i think as long as snack/meals r evenly spaced out i dont see the problem xx
If mt lg asks for a snack she nomally has a yoghurt or piece of fruit xx