Do you encourage your toddler to pick a snack out of a snack drawer or do you prefer not to let them open drawers/cabinets/the fridge? Our almost 2 year old is going into the kitchen and opening the drawer all the time to the point it is almost a game for him now - he opens it and DH is telling him No; then LO smiles, wants to do it again.
I thought it was good thing to give LO that independence to get his own snack but DH disagrees. We're seeing lots of tantrums now because he doesn't get to eat what he wants when he wants. How do you handle it?
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My 2 year old has free access to whatever she wants to eat within her reach. We don't keep many unhealthy snacks around though so I'm not concerned with what she chooses or when. She does a good job of regulating her own portions and variety of foods, so there's no reason for us to really step in and restrict it. If there was an issue with us not wanting her to have certain stuff at any time, we wouldn't keep it in her line of sight.
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I don't think a 2 year old has the maturity for that kind of independence. Like you said, they want to eat what they want when they want and I know my son would eat nothing but goldfish if we left it up to him
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We keep all snacks out of reach. LO can certainly go into the pantry and let me know what he wants, and he could probably pull a chair over to get what he wants, but we regulate snacks. Like @erinbaderin: said, he would eat goldfish 24/7 if we left it up to him.
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@autumnleaves: At some point I'll have a snack drawer in the pantry and in the fridge, but not yet. My DD is turning 3 in a few weeks and would be a hot mess if she had access to a snack drawer.
To start her on the road to independence, I let her pick between two options when she's having a snack.
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@erinbaderin: @2PeasinaPod: @My Only Sunshine: thanks ladies! I think we'll go with not letting him access the snack drawer for now.
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@autumnleaves: It will also help to cut down on tantrums. If he can't reach it, or if it's out of sight, it may go out of mind!
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LO is 2 and has access to a snack drawer. She has to get our help to open anything so by default has to ask and we say yes or no. But she enjoys being able to pick her own snack.
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At 2, we had the snack box on a low shelf in the pantry. He could let us know he was hungry and, if it was a good time, we'd open the pantry for him to choose his own snack. I think giving them the independence to decide which snack and physically retrieve it is great, but having the drawer so easily accessible gives them the option of choosing *when* they want the snack, which isn't really what we wanted out son to be doing. (He's 4 now and can open the pantry door, so we had a period of tantrums when we had to tell him he couldnt eat a snack, but he was older and could handle it better).
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I keep snacks in a basket on a high shelf in the pantry - that way, I choose when the basket comes out, but my kids (4 and 2) can choose what they want. Actually, I have a basket that has things like dried
fruit snacks, applesauce pouches, granola bars, and things like crackers/pretzels/goldfish are in separate containers, so the super-snacky things like that aren't always on offer. -
I personally would not, because even if my snacks are all healthy, I probably won't want her to eat a snack right before meal times.
DD (20 mo) knows where all the food is, so she can ask all she wants (and she can open some pantries but snacks are out of reach) but it's up to us still.
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I'm going to set up a snack drawer for DD who is almost 3- she can already get her own stuff out of the fridge(yogurt, fruit, cut veggies, cheese, etc) and she doesn't tend to take a snack without asking first unless she is REALLY hungry. I don't buy a lot of stuff I would mind her having- I plan to stock it with applesauces, crackers to go with her cheese, and a couple little tupperwares of grahams and goldfish. If she eats all the unhealthy snacks really quickly I think it will help her learn to regulate what to get because I just won't replace them.
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