In your country, do they also recommend 3 meals, 2 snacks, plus milk of some kind for 1year olds and up?
I read an article recently that said from early childhood many other countries don't encourage snacking and as a result, don't have the obesity problem in childhood/adulthood we do.
What is recommended in your country?
wonderful pear / 26210 posts
I lived abroad until my son was 2. Pretty much no child drinks milk at meals past the age of two. They do recommend 3 meals and 2 snacks, but there is far less pre packaged good available to choose from, so my suspicion is that it lies with the food, not the number of meals.
eggplant / 11716 posts
@looch: gotcha. I think the study I read was focused on Asian countries but sometimes I feel like these studies are exaggerated. And I agree that added salt/sugar/chemicals in packaged foods probably makes the situation worse.
grapefruit / 4584 posts
I'm in Hong Kong and I'm not sure what is traditionally recommended, but the only time my daughter's doctor has suggested removing snacks from her diet was when she wasn't eating well at mealtimes around 12 months. At 18 months she eats 3 meals and has milk at bedtime with a snack in the afternoon and occasionally in the morning if she asks.
I see local toddlers and older kids in my neighborhood munching on snacks on their way too/from school all the time and it is often pre-packaged junk (sweet or savory buns, chips or crackers, etc.) - definitely not things most American moms I know allow.
As for milk, powdered milk formulas like Pedia Sure are really popular follow ons to formula (many local babies are not breast fed) - even for much older kids (school age). My daughter gets some of this in her cows milk because she is underweight.
Sometimes when I read studies like that I wonder about the actuality of what is happening vs what is being reported, particularly in countries like mine where it's often a nanny feeding the child rather than the mom, who is probably the one responding to the survey . 
eggplant / 11716 posts
@PinkElephant: I wonder the same thing! That's why I wanted to ask people who actually live other places. Thanks for the info.
grapefruit / 4997 posts
@Anagram: I grew up in the USA but my mom is retired and lives in Vietnam now so I go back to visit her every chance I can. I can tell you from observation that they snack a lot but they eat very healthy foods for the main meals (tofu, spinach, fish, etc) are staples and are fed dinner early. They also eat desserts made of fruits and sweet jello. They are super active, walking everywhere, play jump ropes, run around with neighborhood kids, kind of like how I remember my childhood here is the USA too before the digital age! I think there are a lot of factors in that study that aren't accounted for.
apricot / 345 posts
As far as I remember from my babysitting times (my LO isn't here yet) You try to feed 3 meals but stop whenever the child isn't interested anymore. For snacks there's fruit or rice-waffles and most children don't really drink milk (maybe one glass a day?) but watered down formula, they sell one that is for 10+ month here... (I have no idea about formula in general)
Sorry for not being able to help more...
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