Asking for snacks one hour after meals

How do you deal with it???

They don't even finish lunch half the time and I really don't want them to think they can just get snacks if they don't eat lunch and I'm so tired of the whining/tantrums when I say no!

I usually give them if they ask when it's been 1.5 hour, but they're starting to ask just after lunch and it's driving me nuts.

 

Mine get one snack in between lunch and dinner, right after nap. That's it. They are fine with this. But the sitter has them on this schedule. No idea how she started it but it works.

 

One thing I've noticed is that my kids will fill up on milk & won't eat much of their breakfast or lunch. And then they are hungry for a snack an hour later. So we stopped giving them milk at the beginning of the meal & wait till closer to the end. This seems to help them eat more.....some days anyway!

 

Yeah milk intake is low here so I don't think it's the case

 

Have you tried saving the lunch and offering that again? That's what I'd do if they're not eating and then asking for food really soon after. Then you are not denying them food but also not teaching them that by refusing lunch they can fill up on snacks.

 

How about offering some water when they want snacks. That's what I do for my guys. That way they feel like they are getting something. Or Ill offer something really healthy, like veggies. I figured it gets them in the 'healthy snaking' habit. Life long lessons, ya know. And that way if they are REALLY hungry, they'll eat the celery (or whatever).

 

When I was a nanny we had a 3 meal/2 snack schedule at that age. At meals they got water to drink, or sometimes diluted juice. At snack they would have their big cups of milk and something small to eat. Their pediatrician said it's not good for toddlers to go more than 2-3 hours without eating and lots of small healthy meals were better than 3 big ones.

 

This is exactly what we do. My guys are skinny, so I offer food at structured meals and snacks 5 times a day. Sometimes I think my boys never get the opportunity to get hungry! But they generally eat pretty well, and if they don't at one meal I know they will make up for it at the next meal or snack. I also let them eat as much as they want of whatever I'm offering at each meal/snack and never cut them off unless they're just playing and not eating.

Hope this helps!

 

I swear Fran, you and I have the several of the same eating issues (with our kids that is ).

My DH and I have went round and round on this subject. He want to feed them what they want when they are hungry, and I want them to eat what I give them at meal time and snack time. I finally convinced him to come around to my way after he fed them a whole sleeve crackers because "they were hungry." It was awful because they were refusing to eat lunch and supper almost everyday, and the excessive snacking was a huge part of the problem.

We now only give one snack a day, and it's about 2 hours after breakfast. We also put a limit on how much they can have at the snack--E.g. 2-4 crackers. Our kids were pigging out on snacks and then refusing to eat at all meals except breakfast. Once my DH realized this we got on board the cut the snack program . What I do when they ask for food usually crackers and bananas is redirect them to something they really like, which buys me more time.

The biggest pay off to this strategy is that they are eating at meals, and eating much healthier. Right now they eat 7AM breakfast, 9AM snack, 1PM lunch, 5PM dinner. I do let them have water whenever they want.

I might be the mean Mommy, but I'm more than willing to curtail the snacks or delay them. It has helped so much. I used to dread meal time, but in the past several weeks it has gotten better. (Now we also move them to the table, which I think helped too. And we started trying to eat with them on some occasions to model good eating behavior)

Nevertheless, I feel your pain. Eating and sleeping have been the bane of my existence since these boys were born.

I like that idea.

 

They always have water... they just seem to want a crazy amount of snacks...