Eating Guidlines Throughout the Day for Kiddos

We eat 5-6 small meals a day (as recommended by nutritionists) instead of a couple of "big" meals. Essentially we eat every 3 hours.

Ex) times being fairly flexible:

7 - cereal (or dinner leftovers)
10 - brunch (eggs, crepes, omlettes, etc)
1 - sammies (hot or cold), or soup, or salads, or sushi, or, or, or...
4 - 'tea'
7 - dinner
9 - hot chocolate (whole milk) and a bananna (for the K+ to avoid muscle cramps from growing pains)
midnight - during growth spurts (dinner reheated & whole milk hot chocolate)

HOWEVER, we eat about as "much" as if we only ate 3 meals a day (less for the adults, more like 2 meals a day... because we're not overeating from being overhungry. Kids naturally self regulate except with certain kinds of food, adults overeat when there are large gaps between meals). It's just spaced out. When kiddo is really active, like the winter when playing in the snow, or summer swimming, we eat every hour. I only cook 3 times a day (brunch, lunch, and dinner... but we hold over leftovers from each meal for the in between one, and have lots of easy access food - like bagels and lox, or yogurt and granola, or cucumber sammies, or sushi, or deviled eggs... things that are already prepared, like leftovers, and just need to be taken out.

From a nutritional standpoint it's better for both kids and adults not to starve and gorge. But for kids, eating right before bed helps them sleep through the night. Many kids, however, go through periods of eating like birds during certain phases. When kiddo's hungry, he eats. When he's not, he doesn't. It's pretty simple and amazingly healthy to watch how his body naturally knows what it needs when. As an adult I've had to relearn how to eat healthily from YEARS of being unhealthy in my eating habits. But I can tell EXACTLY where he is in his growth cycles by watching how much he eats. I always give him adult portions, and he eats until he's full. Then the leftovers go on his shelf in the fridge, and he can have them whenever. Right before growing he eats ALL of the portion I give him, and will ask for more. During a growth spurt he'll only eat a few bites at every meal. Most of the time, however, he eats about half. It's been really fun to watch over the past 8 years just "feeding on demand" how apparently humans are born knowing when and how much to eat... it's just that our parents have trained us out of listening to our bodies.

I need a schedule or I don't function, so we eat at the same times every day. breakfast is within 30 minutes of waking up and I generally cook all but once a week. we have a snack at 10, most often fruit, lunch at noon, snack at 3, this is a free snack that they choose from several healthy options, dinner is at 530 and we have a treat at 8, fruit smoothies are a favorite. /they also get 1 piece of candy a day, we are still working through the trick or treat candy, lol. We have done this for so long now, that at 11,10 and 8 I can leave snacks out, and they just help themselves or come ask me at the proper times, I never have to worry about them sneaking snacks or snacking all day long.

this kinda isn't just a sahm mom question, for the record. the rest of us feed our children as well, not to mention we have the input of professionals, since my son has been in an accredited childcare facility his whole life. my son has always (since he's been off the bottle) eaten: breakfast, light healthy snack, lunch, snack again, and dinner. as long as you use common sense and spread them out fairly evenly, it's fine. i am not one of those moms who allow my child to have access to snacks at any and all times. it leads to exactly what you describe, not to mention possible weight and health issues on down the line. there has to be some self control taught. we usually have a light snack in the afternoon, but keep it to 3pm or so, then by dinner time at 5 or 6, (you can see i'm not one of those rigidly scheduled moms, either), he's ready for dinner.

My mom has used snack dollars when my daughter was younger and with my nieces. She took some old monopoly or dollar store money and wrote a number on them (1-4 or 5) and they had to trade those for a pre-chosen set of snacks and when their snack money was gone, it was gone. It took my daughter a few days to realize yes, she could eat all her snacks before lunch but then she couldn't eat anymore the rest of the day. I don't know how old your kids are but if they are older you could also assign a money amount to each food so they can learn their money (1 penny for a string cheese, 1 quarter for a yogurt, 1 nickel for some goldfish etc). Good luck!

We have a schedule and eat 3 balanced meals a day together as a family (8am, 1pm & 5:30pm). Our daughter is a grazer so if I depended on her only eating at mealtimes she would never eat enough. She eats a good amount at meals (some days more than me, it feels, and other days less than I would like) but she gets snacks as she needs them between meals. Fresh fruit, dried fruit, small snack cup of crackers/cereal, cheese. Whatever she wants to eat that is within reason and healthy she gets.I have found that she really only snacks when she needs it. Food will be out and she doesn't touch it half of the time because she knows its there if she needs it so there is no panic to down it or have an unhealthy relationship with it. This has worked well for us but each kid is so different.

Kids need to snack.
"Grazing" throughout the day is actually healthy and the best way to eat.
Growing kids, especially at growth-spurts... NEED to eat. Or they can get hypoglycemic and FUSSY.

I rather have my kids, KNOW their body's cues... for hunger and fullness... than to just eat according to a clock etc.
Sure, they are hungry at our regular meal times 3 times a day... BUT aside from that, I do let them snack.
It has never gotten in the way of my kids, losing their appetite.

Our Pediatrician also says, kids need to snack.

"Snacks" in our house... is not junk. Even an apple is a snack.
I don't have my kids eat a 'meal' at their snacks. A snack is a snack.
I go my my kids cues... and per growth-spurts... my kids can literally really.... eat and graze all darn day. PLUS they can still eat their 'meals.'

all the best,
Susan

Didn't really have anything to add, just wanted to commend Riley's response. wow, that's a house I would have wanted to eat at as a kid. I feed my daughter when she wakes up and every couple hours throughout the day (small meals) and 3 main meals. I am currently experimenting with Sammies. I cook a lot but that stuff still is a bit new to me. I was deprived of home cooked meals, so I tend to give my daughter a lot of cooked meals like ck cordon bleu and silly things that could be downplayed. I was the kid who ate those kid cuisines every day so I overexaggerate the formality of dinners sometimes lol