A mom's viral post is raising the question: Do kids need snacks? Dietitians have answers.
Content creator Tori Winstead is a mom of two boys in Scottsdale, Ariz. Her claim to internet fame: not giving her kids snacks.
In August, Winstead — whose Instagram bio reads “less snacks more fun” — shared her no-snack stance in a now-viral post . “I stopped giving my 2- and 4-year-old snacks and this is what happened,” she says in the video, rattling off a list of improvements to her home life. She has a “cleaner car.” Her kids are “cleaning their plates” at meal time because their tummies aren’t full from Goldfish and fruit snacks. She feels “more sane and more free.”
In her posts, Winstead, whose professional background was in real estate, lays out the kid snacking culture she’s rebelling against. “I cannot go to the park without every single mom there having packed snacks,” she says. “It’s literally 10:30 in the morning and every single kid out there is eating puffs, granola, fruit, you name it.”
It’s driven her to go on a “snack strike.” “You’re hungry?” Winstead says in another post . “Good. Maybe you’ll eat at dinnertime.” (Speaking to Yahoo, Winstead clarifies she would never actually “deny a hungry child.” Says Winstead: “I believe children should eat real food when they’re hungry. My kids can have snacks if they are expressing hunger. … If they are hungry, I offer an apple, a meat stick or a piece of cheese.”)
Read the comments reacting to her social media posts, and you’ll find a mix of parents cheering her on (“I never bring snacks to the park,” one mom responded. “Only water. Them getting hungry is how I convince them that we need to leave.”), other parents defending their own kids’ snacks and eating habits, and pediatric dietitians weighing in to offer their guidance. So how did snacks become such a divisive parenting topic — and do kids need them?
No, says Amy Johnson, who runs the parenting site Amy Baby . “Kids eat way too many snacks,” she tells Yahoo, adding that “the store-bought snacks found in the U.S. that target children are typically unhealthy.” Like Winstead, Johnson has two kids. “When we cut out snacks, our kids eat better at mealtime,” she says. “We try our best to cram activities and events into the weekends so the kids don't even notice they are missing snacks, and eat better during lunch/dinner.”
