Seconds, thirds ?? How much is too much?

[mom-in-alberta]

At snack/meal time in my daycare, we have a couple of guidelines:
1. If you want more, you must finish all of what you have been given initially. So no more fries until you have eaten the portion of chicken and veggies first. Then we can have seconds, etc. It doesn't sound like that's the problem, though?
2. We eat at snack/meal time. Not in between. I would not be giving out crackers, etc, personally. For me, it just avoids the "how come HE gets another snack?" discussion. You eat enough at the designated times, or you wait until the next one. If you must have something, you can have all the water you can drink!
3. School age kids are welcome to have something left from their lunch bags. I know that snacktime and lunchtime can be pretty hectic, especially when kids just want to go play. I would double check, just to make sure that lunch kit is coming home empty. If not, there you go, some more to snack on.
4. A snack is just that, a snack. It is not a full meal, nor should it be. Not that you can't have hot, meal-type foods (I think that's a great idea, and will try it out!). But in no way should you be having meal size portions.
If you are concerned, I would mention it to mom/dad, before the child can complain about "starving"!! Any chance it's boredom? My own kids frequently think they're hungry when they are just bored and looking for something to do.

[Sunflower]

I also used to have SUCH a hard time saying no more until I had an inspection from my head office one day and I was told I was actually feeding them way too much ! lol She showed me what a regular portion looks like ( 1 fruit, and 1 granola bar are plenty) and I have since learned to say , no more.
We should be trying to show them proper eating habits anyways and portion control is one of them.
Lunch or supper is never too far away anyways

[Spixie33]

At snack/meal time in my daycare, we have a couple of guidelines:
1. If you want more, you must finish all of what you have been given initially. So no more fries until you have eaten the portion of chicken and veggies first. Then we can have seconds, etc. It doesn't sound like that's the problem, though?
2. We eat at snack/meal time. Not in between. I would not be giving out crackers, etc, personally. For me, it just avoids the "how come HE gets another snack?" discussion. You eat enough at the designated times, or you wait until the next one. If you must have something, you can have all the water you can drink!
3. School age kids are welcome to have something left from their lunch bags. I know that snacktime and lunchtime can be pretty hectic, especially when kids just want to go play. I would double check, just to make sure that lunch kit is coming home empty. If not, there you go, some more to snack on.
4. A snack is just that, a snack. It is not a full meal, nor should it be. Not that you can't have hot, meal-type foods (I think that's a great idea, and will try it out!). But in no way should you be having meal size portions.
If you are concerned, I would mention it to mom/dad, before the child can complain about "starving"!! Any chance it's boredom? My own kids frequently think they're hungry when they are just bored and looking for something to do.

Not sure it is boredom....this is a very high energy child and their parents told me (and wrote in the forms) to expect a LARGE appetite and that she likes to eat a lot. When the parents told me that I smiled because I thought 'how much can a 6 yr old possibly eat?" I have a 7 year old and he eats pretty average...but this child eats probably double or triple depending on the day. lol

I should say no but I just feel bad. We were raised to feed hungry kids, to feed the kids before yourself, etc so it feels bad to say no. The one day we had some really expensive cookies sitting out and dck ate their snack and then saw the cookies and asked for some. I knew that dck would eat the whole box of these expensive cookies and I did not think that the $10 I get paid plus the large amount of snack I had already served warranted anything else so I put my foot down and said no. Well.....the next day our fridge & freezer broke and I had the throw hundreds of dollars of meat and food out. I wondered if that was bad karma because I said no to the cookies. Now I am in an even bigger worry to say no to food. lol