Is it OK for children to have a midnight snack?

Children are often hungry easily, so most children do not eat three meals a day like adults. Instead, they need to eat many meals a day. Otherwise, the baby's digestive system is faster, which will cause the baby to be hungry easily. Therefore, most babies will wake up crying suddenly at night. This is probably because the baby is hungry. This will make parents wonder, is it good for children to eat midnight snacks?

Eating midnight snacks is not a good habit. Three meals a day are enough. Why add a fourth meal? It will only burden the stomach. What's more, go to bed right after eating? The stomach does not have time to digest food in time when sleeping, and it is not good for children's stomach. Therefore, you should try to avoid eating midnight snacks. If you really have the habit of eating midnight snacks, don't go to bed too soon after eating. At least stay standing for 20 minutes.

If you must eat a midnight snack before falling asleep, it is best to eat it 2 hours before going to bed and avoid high-fat foods. Greasy food slows down digestion and delays gastric emptying time. Some people will not sleep well at night and even affect their appetite the next morning, making it impossible to eat the all-important breakfast. The calories of midnight snacks should be controlled at around 200 calories. Better choices: a cup of low-fat milk with 2 to 3 soda crackers, light soup noodles or salty porridge, oatmeal, red (green) bean soup, etc.

1. Obesity According to the operation of the human body clock, after nine o'clock, the functions of various organs in the human body are basically in a weak state, which is the time to accumulate fat. Excess calories will accumulate over time and cause excess subcutaneous fat, which can easily lead to obesity.

2. Stomach problems: Eating before going to bed is very irritating to the stomach, because the digestive ability of the gastrointestinal tract becomes sluggish at night, especially if you go to bed right after eating without exercising. In the long run, it will increase the burden on the stomach and intestines and easily cause chronic stomach problems.

3. Pharyngitis If you eat too much before going to bed, your stomach still needs to digest the food even when you are asleep, so it needs to secrete gastric acid. However, the supine position can easily cause acid reflux, which not only makes the esophagus susceptible to disease, but also easily causes pharyngitis due to acid reflux.

4. Tooth decay: Eating before going to bed and not paying attention to oral hygiene is very likely to cause tooth decay. The problem of tooth decay should not be underestimated. If you do not pay attention to the protection of your teeth when you are a child, it will be very painful if you get tooth decay when you grow up.