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This morning I was walking past the toy room, and happened to catch a glimpse of something out of the corner of my eye. It was a bunch of empty food containers. There were four empty pudding containers, three empty Dora fruit snack packages, and an empty fruit and cereal bar wrapper. This surprised me. Hannah has never had issues with food hoarding. After a brief discussion I determined that I did not need to be concerned, but there are many times when food hoarding is a major issue for kids.
For many of our kids, lack of food was a big part of their lives. We have dealt with this issue in various forms. Sammy has always hoarded junk food. He can eat quantities of sugar that would make the average person sick. Kory was a child of neglect and would eat anything you put in front of him, and for a while would eat quantities equal to my husband, and he was only four. The source of the kids food hoarding were vastly different, and needed to be handled quite differently.
Kory’s issues were pretty common, and were easy to handle. He had “plain old neglect”. Letting him know that there was not a shortage of food for him was the key to help him develop healthy eating patterns.
Here are a couple of suggestions for dealing with this:
We keep a bowl of fruit out at all times. Our kids can always have fruit without asking. Other foods require that they ask first.
For some kids night time is a time to leave their rooms and go hunt for food to hoard. For these kids, keeping a sealed box of food in their rooms can help. Be prepared for them to eat it all in the beginning, but this will usually diminish as the security increases. Keep things like fruit and cereal bars, small boxes of cereal, animal crackers, graham crackers, or other non-perishable foods.
Let the child carry a backpack or fanny pack that contains food. “Stock” the pack daily. Again, foods similar to the night time box, but you can also add things like raisins, apples, juice boxes, or whatever your child might like.
Keep a shelf of food low in your pantry or refrigerator just for your child. Have foods that they can easily see and have access to. You might want to have a requirement that the child ask for the food first so that you can monitor how much is being eaten, and that nutritious food enters your child’s body.
If you are doing holding time, or cuddle time,incorporate food into that. Feed your child some ice cream, caramels, or something else sweet. This is a good component for nurturing, but also helps the child to understand that mom and dad provide food for kids.
Be prepared for this to take a long time. Most kids that I know took six months to a year before they felt confident that there was always going to be enough food for them.
Our foster siblings horde and eat HUGE amounts of food and they are only 4 and 5!! We turned the under-the-counter wine cooler into a fridge for the boys….just alittle retro fitting and they’re good to go. Still shocks me that they guys have so little experience with eating fruit, veggies, yogurt, ect. But they can rattle off all the junk food names…no problem!! When I found them trying to eat a banana without peeling it my heart broke just alittle more! Its been 6 months and they are still sneaking into the pantry to “steal” things…anything. When does this slow down?????
If they have been through this for 4 or 5 years, you could easily be looking at another 6 months of this behavior.
Have you tried feeding them so that they understand that food comes from mom and out of love? You might also try having them help prepare meals, or choose the menu one night a week.
Our kids were fed food that was cheap and easy for them to eat. Fruits, veggies and yogurt are more expensive, and sometimes take preparation. A bag of chips or a box of Ding Dongs are easy to open and therefore they can self feed.
Hang in there, this is a hard thing to deal with!
I have two siblings that hoard. One eats so much you are certain he cannot possibly hold that much food. He is always hungry. He is slightly overweight which is a concern as well.
His sister eats like a bird at meals and takes an hour or more to eat each meal. I have several times found food wrappers in her drawers, under her bed, ect.. We do have a food box just for her.
They were VERY neglected and had no food in the house at all when taken.
They love chips and candy. Food I do not buy, and will eat massive quantities when they do get them. It is quite challenging to know what to do. I do not mind the snacks except when they are to full to eat at mealtime, because they were always snacking.