"I want a snack!"

Do I need to give them bigger meals or something? What is up with begging for food all the time? I had dropped the morning snack around when they turned two, but now I'm back to giving it because they are apparently going to starve to death. Now it's only been an hour since breakfast, and they are whining about a snack! They had a decent sized bowl of cereal and a cup of milk for breakfast. Are they having a growth spurt?

 

QUOTE(Snittens @ Mar 19 2009, 09:49 AM) [snapback]1235132[/snapback]
Do I need to give them bigger meals or something? What is up with begging for food all the time? I had dropped the morning snack around when they turned two, but now I'm back to giving it because they are apparently going to starve to death. Now it's only been an hour since breakfast, and they are whining about a snack! They had a decent sized bowl of cereal and a cup of milk for breakfast. Are they having a growth spurt?


Since we appear to stay in a perpetual growth spurt, I would say yes. My son greets me everyday at preschool with "Mommy, I hungry. I need a snack". This is then followed by "Mommy, we need to go to the restaurant to eat dinner". I digress... It does sound like a spurt to me but again, my son appears to have been in a "spurt" his entire life. As for giving bigger meals, it doesn't seem to make a difference in my house but I guess you could try it and see what happens.


ETA: Added additional stuff

 

My kids would eat ALL DAY LONG if I let them, however they dont usually ask for a snack in the mornings after they eat breakfast.(when they're home on weekends) It usually hits around lunch time. . and OMG if they dont get a snack after dinner the world will end! My 5 yr old just recently started saying he's hungry at bed time. I personally think its a stall-tactic to not have to go to sleep. . but Im not sure. Dinner is usually around 6pm and they lay down for bed between 8-830. More likely than not, they also had a snack after dinner.

I know on weekdays when they go to preschool, I give them a small breakfast/snack in the morning i.e poptarts, waffles, bagels, etc. and they also have a morning, breakfast type snack at school around 8:30-9ish.. then lunch is around 11:30, then nap, and they have a snack after nap time. . I think snack is between 3p-4p. Then we eat dinner at 6ish. . so they definitely arent starving.

I would say as long as they are eating healthy type snacks then its fine to give them to them.

 

Oh Kelly!!! Mine do this. They are relentless. They will leave food at the table and then say they want a snack!!! :angry: I'll say 'finish your lunch" - they say "I'm not hungry" So they don't understand that they are just ridiculous!! :laughing:

It's infuriating!

 

I'm paying the price on grazing right now. Because they have been underweight, I was more flexible on eating. Well, now they don't always eat a good meal and then turn around and want snacks!!! And, they don't want grapes or apples or carrots....no....a COOKIE or crackers or some other worthless sugar-loaded goody.

I'm really in a bad way right now with this. I get tantrums which turn into time outs. That's the only thing that I know to do after telling them their snack options (good ones) and then counting for cookie tantrums. I'm at a loss for the demons that I created.

 

That is a constant at my house! Only from Alexis it's "I want a couple snack." It drives me crazy. You would think we never feed them! I keep a huge box of fruit snacks from Sam's on top of the fridge and if I'm trying to get something done and they start bugging me about a "couple snack" I can just throw one of those packs at each of them. The worst is when we go somewhere to eat, then get home and Alexis starts whining "I'm hungry!" GRRRR! You JUST ate! I don't get it!

 

All of mine want to eat all day. I do 3 meals and 2 snacks and yet they are still looking for handouts.

 

Oh, you know what's super annoying? When it's lunch time, and I say no to a snack because we're about to eat lunch, and they say "No, I don't want lunch. I want a snaaaaack!" :huh: I do try to keep the morning snack to fruit, afternoon is usually graham crackers and raisins or something like that. But they do whine for the not-so-great stuff like animal crackers. Taking them to the grocery store has gotten super annoying too. They want everything!

 

Here's one thing that has worked in our house. It's a double winner: I put out bowls of things I want them to eat/try, and that I'm ok with them snacking on. For instance, a couple bowls of nuts, cut-up apples, carrots, celery, cheese cubes, or whatever. Then say, there is food on the table you can eat if you are hungry. I'm not fixing you anything else before dinner. They can whine, but that's all they are getting...and they will actually eat it if they are hungry enough!

 

The "couple snack" is sooo funny. That reminded me that when my 2 1/2 yr old son wants something and I tell him No, he'll say "baby one" lol :lol: . .like he just wants a little bit. "baby one mommy"

 

Kelly, why don't we change kids for a couple of weeks, or just one kid maybe. Because I'm soooo tired of begging mine to eat.

 

If it's new, I would think it's a growth spurt. Mine will go from not eating a thing & I think they're going to starve to constantly eating all day. The doctor has told me it's totally normal.