Are 'Boring Bedtime Snacks' Just Diet Culture?

Have you ever heard the advice to make bedtime snacks 'boring'? It was one of my my Kid Feeding Scams earlier this year, but as is customary, didn't say much about it. I figured it was time to go in.

Kid Feeding Scams

A non-exhaustive and contextless list of things in the world of feeding kids that are a scam - according to me. I will not be taking questions. Further reading: Nutrition ScamsPresented without context or commentCan I Have Another Snack?Laura Thomas Vegetable supremacy Love it. Like it. Learning it.™ Cutesy

Can I Have Another Snack?Laura Thomas

I don't know exactly where the BBS came from, but Kid Food Instagram is riddled with it. I just Googled 'Kids Eat In Color bedtime snacks' and found this gem from 4 years ago:

'Bedtime snacks should be nutrient dense, meaning no "snack" foods. Apples and peanut butter, hummus and veggies, yogurt and fruit, nut or seed butter toast, etc.'

Wow. Austere.

Look, I get it. Bedtime snacks are often used as a delay tactic by kids who don't want to go to bed. The rationale is that if we lay down the law and only offer a banana or plain buttered toast, that kids won't fuck about as much...

But is this true? Do kids acquiesce and just go to bed after their hummus and veggies? Or, is this another way we try to legitimise controlling what our kids eat? 'It's not micromanaging, it's boring!!' Or perhaps it's another way KFI makes us feel like we're fucking it all up?