20 after-school snacks for the hungriest hour of the day

Why this hour matters

A child who left home at seven and ate a tiffin at eleven is genuinely starving by four. That hunger is real, and it is why a biscuit packet handed over at the door becomes the daily default.

It matters because this snack is a large share of the day's intake, and because a child filled with sugar at four eats nothing at dinner — which is where the vegetables and dal actually are.

The aim is a snack with some protein or fibre, eaten at the table, an hour and a half or more before dinner.

Twenty snacks, ready in five minutes

1. Curd or buttermilk with chopped fruit. 2. Paneer cubes with a pinch of chaat masala. 3. Boiled egg with salt and pepper. 4. A glass of milk with two dates. 5. Cheese with cucumber sticks.

6. Roasted chana. 7. Murmura chivda with curry leaves. 8. Makhana roasted in a spoon of ghee. 9. A small bowl of mixed nuts, for children over four or five. 10. Roasted til and gud chikki, a small piece.

11. Fruit, cut and put in front of them — visibility decides this more than availability. Banana, guava, orange, papaya. 12. Apple slices with peanut butter. 13. Boiled corn with lemon.

14. Leftover roti rolled with ghee and gud. 15. Roti roll with last night's sabzi. 16. Idli or dosa from the morning, warmed, with podi. 17. Poha or upma, ten minutes start to finish.

18. Sprouts chaat with lemon and onion. 19. Chana chaat from a tin, with tomato and coriander. 20. Peanut chutney or hummus with carrot sticks.

Make-ahead, for the week

Roast a jar of chana, peanuts and makhana on Sunday and keep it in an airtight box at eye level.

Ragi or besan chilla batter keeps for two days in the fridge and cooks in four minutes.

Energy balls: dates, roasted peanuts or almonds, a little ghee, ground and rolled. They keep for a week and satisfy the sweet demand.

Boiled eggs for the week, paneer cut and ready, and fruit washed and in a visible bowl. Everything at a height the child can reach themselves.

And keep a small tin of the treat they like — the aim is a shelf that is mostly good with something enjoyable on it, rather than a house with nothing they want in it.

What to keep occasional

Biscuits dipped in chai, packet chips, cold drinks, packaged juices, instant noodles and bakery cake are fine occasionally and poor as the daily four o'clock habit.

Chai for children under five is worth dropping entirely: the tannins block iron absorption, and iron deficiency is one of the commonest problems in Indian children.

Watch the timing more than the food: a snack at six ruins a seven o'clock dinner. Move it earlier rather than making it smaller.

And keep water rather than juice as the after-school drink. Most of what looks like hunger at four is thirst plus tiredness.

Frequently asked questions

Q: He wants only maggi and biscuits. — Serve the better options first when he is hungriest, keep the packets out of sight and out of reach, and let the treat be a named occasional thing rather than a daily battle.

Q: She eats a huge snack and then no dinner. — Move the snack earlier and make it protein-based rather than carbohydrate-heavy. A boiled egg at four does not kill a seven o'clock appetite the way a plate of biscuits does.

Q: We are out at tuition and classes at that hour. — Then it goes in a box: chana, fruit, a paratha roll, nuts. A child eating from a packet at a class is eating whatever the shop nearby sells.

Q: How much should the snack be? — Enough to bridge to dinner, not a fourth meal. A katori of something plus fruit is about right for a primary-age child.