Can you just not offer prepackaged snacks?

[Anonymous]

Op I thought of you and chuckled a little bit today when my six year old home for a snow day announced he wanted a snack and I was busy working so said help yourself. He went to the fridge and came back with a block of cheese he cut chunks from and a large carrot that he just chomped on like a rabbit. Normally I wouldn’t have noticed but after your post I had the thought huh maybe it did “work” if you will because he didn’t go straight to a snack drawer with packaged things -which let me just say, there nothing actually wrong with!! We all find balance in different ways and saying foods are bad or good can be far more damaging than the food itself. But was just funny in light of this conversation! (And again, a significant part of this is his personality not my parenting choices!)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I'm not asking this to be smug but genuinely asking when your baby starts solids and progresses to snacks can you just offer meals and whole food snacks and skip puffs, bars, pouches, crackers?

As a kid I was extremely picky to the point I lived off buttered white rice and goldfish. At an age that it wasn't cute anymore. I guess I'm hyper aware and just wondering if we don't offer will they even know what they are missing. Obviously until a certain age when they are heading to playdates and parties but when they are 1-3 can you just avoid the pre packaged convenience snacks? And hope they eat well.

I'm not talking about restriction or limiting carbs, calorie of anything like that. We want to follow Ellyn satter feeding guidelines but in terms of what can we control quality until x age. And that does not hat look like?

The longer you avoid daycare the longer you have complete control. With daycare, I would say complete control til age 1. Then after 1, daycare fed things like goldfish and animal crackers (despite my request to not feed anything with added sugars before 2). However, I have never bought those things. I used bambas puffs for peanut introduction and vegetable and meat pouches were like a lifesaver for me because of their convenience but of course you don't need to use them (just not all puffs and pouches are terrible nutritionally)

By the time they hit 2 they start being exposed to enough social events (assuming you bring them to those things) to know about and be exposed to things like ice cream, cookies, cake, etc. In Ellen Satter these things are supposed to be in regular snack rotation so they don't become "special foods" I buy a little more "junk food" than I did prechild to have them in "rotation" sometimes (more like I randomly feed them to her since I'm not very scheduled with meal planning.)

I don't actually follow Ellyn satter very well though. Single parent so typically I get food ready that my toddler wants eat (lots of pasta, bread, cheese, fruit, sweet potatos, leftovers) - we come home from daycare/work late and she's always a bit tired and hungry and then if I have time and energy make something for my self. She usually wants "Mama food" so my jaw drops as she eats kale with onions, bok choy with parsley, garlic and onions, beet greens etc.) She says it's good and I have to reserve enough for second and third helpings. She definitely became pickier as a toddler but she likes her greens at least for now.

[Anonymous]

You can try it and see if it works for your lifestyle. We like to travel and do lots of outings, so need some snack options that are not perishable and our kids gets excited about.

Yes we have apples and cheese etc around, but sometimes you're on a 6 hour plane ride and they're yelling out of boredom and you're running out of options. Or the Dr. appointment took too long so you rely on an emergency stash of goldfish at the bottom of the diaper bag. Or they didn't eat much at daycare and are in a horrible mood at pick up, so you need another emergency stash. Or the line at the Air and Space Museum cafeteria is insane and my son is starving. Point being, sometimes I don't happen to have an endless supply of healthy snacks on me, and sometimes its easier to focus on getting through the day and having fun with my family than stressing too much about a few grams of sugar. I wish I had learned this parenting lesson earlier.