Mum wants to enforce ‘no snack’ rule on her young children

Do you have a fussy eater?

If you have one at home then you'll know how incredibly difficult it can be at meal times. Instead of simply sitting down to eat dinner, fights break out and tears roll down faces. It can be frustrating and worrying and sometimes, no matter how many doctors you visit or recipes you try, it's something that they'll hopefully, eventually, grow out of. This mum has picky eaters at home but is afraid she is posing a 'no snacks' rule on them too young. Taking to Mumsnet, the woman wrote:

"I totally understand that it’s a developmental phase but my elder two DC (4 and 2.5) are driving me to distraction with their eating! "Every mealtime, whatever I make, they either “don’t like it”, they’re “full”, they want to bring toys or activities to the table and ignore their food, or they bang on about “pudding” all through the meal and hardly touch their food. And if one does it, it sets the other off too. They then spend the rest of the day between mealtimes whinging that they’re hungry. "We don’t do puddings after every meal, I don’t give snacks to graze on all day, I don’t let them get down and play as soon as they say they’re “full”, nor do I shout at them or force them to eat. Where am I going wrong? "When they say they’re hungry and they haven’t eaten their meal, but there is still a long time to go before the next meal, I usually reheat their uneaten breakfast/lunch, or occasionally give them toast and fruit if it’s something that doesn’t reheat, but WIBU to start a strict “no snacks between meals” (usually 5-6 hours) rule with children this young?"

Many replied to the post with suggestions and tried and tested pieces of advice. One mum said:

"I would do a fixed snack time instead with something simple they will eat but not exciting. Then just make meals slightly smaller. Then you can just say they need to wait until snacktime/ next meal as smaller gap."

While another wrote:

"Children so young have very little tummies. In my experience they prefer little and often. Bit like grazers. I’d offer healthy snacks and let them help themselves. So fruit, cheese etc."

Do you have any suggestions of your own? Is this something you had to deal with?