Snacks-what do you give your 4+s?

galvanizersbaby

pukkamum wrote: »

I don't really allow snacking ( as another poster said i offer fruit only and if it's not taken they can't be very hungry).
My children have a good breakfast (porridge and toast) and a filling lunch, ds has a packed lunch wholemeal chicken sandwich home made flapjack a yoghurt and a piece of fruit, DD at home with me will have soup or cheese on toast etc with yoghurt and fruit.
Dinner time is around 5pm so i really don't see why they would need a snack.
I want my children to grow up with thinking you fill up on a main meal then you wont need to snack.
I really don't know where this snacking mentality has come from children do not need to be eating constantly.

:DI'm not sure it's a good thing for children to be eating constantly - having said that I was always told it was better to eat little and often rather than to have large meals.
I have a high metabolism and both my kids seem to have inherited this - even now I eat healthily but I probably couldn't eat what most people would consider an adult sized dinner all at once - I cope better and prefer to have smaller portions more often.

Obviously appetites in children vary as they do with adults.

As long as commonsense is applied I think healthy snacking in moderation is not such a bad thing

fernliebee

I'm somewhere in the middle, my DD eats a large breakfast (by my standards, ie a big bowl of porridge with 1 banana, handful of raisins and a spoon of tahini and some ground flaxseeds in, then when I have my weetabix she wants to share that too and on occasion has eaten a whole weetabix directly after brekkie!!!)

Then she generally won't need a snack in the morning at all, but if we go to certain baby groups they do a snack time so she will sometimes have some fruit there, but she generally just has it because the others are she never can fit much in after all that breakfast

She will then have a smallish lunch ie half a slice of toast with either peanut butter or marmite on, and some fruit,

Then after her nap (about half 2-3) she will sometimes wake up and need a drink and a snack to get her started again iyswim. Mostly it will be a piece of fruit but sometimes a rice cake with hummus or a cracker with marmite or similiar.

We eat dinner at half 5 and she doesn't eat a great deal at dinner time, but she eats enough to get what she needs, and she tends to mainly eat the veg anyway so no concerns there.

If we are out for the day and she has to be in the buggy for a while I do sometimes give her a breadstick or cracker or something to give her something to do, as she doesn't like being in the buggy much now she can run around, however this is a rare occasion as I prefer for her to walk where poss.

So while I don't encourage snacks really, if she needs one I'll give it to her, as she gets bigger then the fruit bowl will be open if she is hungry between meals and I do think all children are different like galvanizersbaby says, you need to do what works for your own family.

Counting_Pennies_2

Mine love the GEO bars, Organix Goodies Rusks are a huge favourite, in fact any of the Organix range are enjoyed.

Honey sandwiches are a good hole filler.

tandraig

sort of ambivalent on this - i dont encourage snacks but my fruitbowl is always available! but - for sweet treats for grandkids - i buy bananas and then peel them cut them in half and insert a lolly stick (funnily enough i find big packs of them in craft shops) and wrap them in cling film and freeze them. the grandkids love my nana lollies! and it takes them ages to eat them! if they come here from school really hungry - i do boiled eggs and soldiers - again takes them a while to eat and doesnt spoil appetite for supper when they get home.

fernliebee

tandraig wrote: »

sort of ambivalent on this - i dont encourage snacks but my fruitbowl is always available! but - for sweet treats for grandkids - i buy bananas and then peel them cut them in half and insert a lolly stick (funnily enough i find big packs of them in craft shops) and wrap them in cling film and freeze them. the grandkids love my nana lollies! and it takes them ages to eat them! if they come here from school really hungry - i do boiled eggs and soldiers - again takes them a while to eat and doesnt spoil appetite for supper when they get home.

I've made these before, and they are lovely, freezing them makes them go all creamy and not particularly banana like at all, they are yummy! You can also dip them in yoghurt before freezing them too, so they have a yoghurty coating on top! Yum! Making me want one now! Lol.

Gingham_Ribbon

pukkamum wrote: »

I really don't know where this snacking mentality has come from children do not need to be eating constantly.

Small children have small stomachs.

No-one is suggesting that children need to eat 'constantly'.

Do you never eat unless it's breakfast, lunch or dinner?

No-one is suggesting that they give their children all these snack foods all the time.

*

I was held up this afternoon so dinner was a little later than usual. While the kids were waiting for it, they ate 3 apples and a pear between them, then ate a full meal (pasta and garlic bread) then were allowed a small piece of halloween candy each. There was a full, large bowl of fruit on the dining table on Saturday. There is one apple in there now and the 2 large bags of grapes in the fridge have been reduced to less than a handful.

There's not a pick on either one of them but they play hard and grow at an alarming rate at that age. They need the energy.

Gingham_Ribbon

tandraig wrote: »

sort of ambivalent on this - i dont encourage snacks but my fruitbowl is always available! but - for sweet treats for grandkids - i buy bananas and then peel them cut them in half and insert a lolly stick (funnily enough i find big packs of them in craft shops) and wrap them in cling film and freeze them. the grandkids love my nana lollies! and it takes them ages to eat them! if they come here from school really hungry - i do boiled eggs and soldiers - again takes them a while to eat and doesnt spoil appetite for supper when they get home.

Great ideas.

My mum used to make us 'egg in a cup' which was basically chopped up boiled egg and butter in a mug. And home made mushy peas in a cup with vinegar. I still love that.

bylromarha

Gingham_Ribbon wrote: »

And home made mushy peas in a cup with vinegar. I still love that.

Sorry, but eugh!!!!!!!:rotfl:

Saying that, I used to put salt and vinegar in a cup as a kid, stick my thumb in and lick it off:o

Teerah

I too am concerned about the amount of sugar in some of the above mentioned snacks. The sugar in cereal bars may mostly come from dried fruit but it is still sugar and will still cause the same problems as sugar in any other form. I see a lot of distraught parents who think they have been supplying healthy foods for their children only to learn about the high sugar contents of some so -called "healthy snacks".

The following document has useful information regarding healthy snacks both in terms of general and dental health. If you scroll to Page 51 or appendix 5, they have an excellent traffic light system for between meals snacks.

Nutrition and dental health

NB
"Dried fruit has a high concentration of sugars and is therefore not regarded as a
suitable between-meals snack. However, if taken at mealtimes dried fruit can help
to meet the fi ve portions a day target. One portion of dried fruit counts, but other types of fruit and vegetables should be eaten to meet the rest of the five-a-day target."

Frith

I thought children *are* supposed to be given snacks?

Anyway, mine often have a bowl of Weetabox or Malties. They will make sandwiches (peanut butter, jam, honey, Marmite etc) and eat most fruit. Sometimes they'll have carrot sticks or dried raisins. They also like a cube of cheese or Babybels and recently have had these little bags of sort of crouton things that I have completely forgotten the name of! Little bread type snacks.

I didn't like the Humzinger bars but they have school bars or Geobars from time to time and I also make quite a lot of fairy cakes and flapjacks.......