History Main / ChildEater

* In the book ''Demon Keeper'', a demon known as [[NamesToRunAwayFromReallyFast the Beast]] ate ''lost'' children. However, they didn't have to still be children by the time he ate them - a teenage runaway grown-up was still a prime meal.

* The VillainProtagonist of ''The Enormous Crocodile'' by Creator/RoaldDahl sets out to eat as many school children as he can find, but he never really succeeds as the other jungle animals keep thwarting his plans.

* The title monster from Creator/StephenKing's ''Literature/{{IT}}'' is "the Eater of Worlds, and of children!" Technically, It [[EmotionEater feeds on fear]]: terrifying its victims before killing them 'salts the meat'. It primarily focuses on children because they almost always have simple fears that it can easily 'become', unlike adults, who tend to have more complicated fear.

* The eponymous monsters in ''Literature/TheWitches'' want to kill children because they can't stand the smell of them -- a child, particularly a freshly-bathed one, smells like dog's droppings to a witch. They eventually decide to turn them all into mice, because the parents would then poison, trap or otherwise dispatch the newly arrived rodent infestation, not realizing it was their children. The witches get sick satisfaction from tricking the parents into offing their own kids.

-->[[spoiler:[[LastWords Arioch: The greatest of feasts!]]]]

* ''Webcomic/{{Unsounded}}'': While Murkoph wouldn't visit upon children some of the horrible actions he's happy to inflict on adults he's got no problem with eating them. [[https://unsoundedcomic.tumblr.com/post/674456355249242112/so-when-sette-and-murkoph-met-did-he-want-to He's very hungry.]]

* ''[[VideoGame/ChoiceOfGames Choice of the Vampire]]'': Children are one option for the vampire PlayerCharacter's TrademarkFavoriteFood, but come with a hefty hit to the KarmaMeter and the unambiguous disgust of [[EvenEvilHasStandards every other vampire]] you mention it to.

* ''[[Creator/ChoiceOfGames Choice of the Vampire]]'': Children are one option for the vampire PlayerCharacter's TrademarkFavoriteFood, but come with a hefty hit to the KarmaMeter and the unambiguous disgust of [[EvenEvilHasStandards every other vampire]] you mention it to.

* During the [[WitchTrials witch trials]] between 1450 and 1750 in early modern Europe, the belief existed that witches sacrificed children to Satan as well as practiced cannibalistic infanticide. For this reason, midwives and nurses responsible for young children and new mothers could become targets of suspicion, since they were in a position to collect babies who had not been baptized and thus were more vulnerable. These beliefs did not find fertile ground everywhere, but in religiously and socially troubled Switzerland, southwestern Germany, and northeastern France, the belief in cannibalistic infanticide and child sacrifice were accepted as a part of the [[WitchesSabbath witches' sabbath]].

* During the witch trials between 1450 and 1750 in early modern Europe, the belief existed that witches sacrificed children to Satan as well as practiced cannibalistic infanticide. For this reason, midwives and nurses responsible for young children and new mothers could become targets of suspicion, since they were in a position to collect babies who had not been baptized and thus were more vulnerable. These beliefs did not find fertile ground everywhere, but in religiously and socially troubled Switzerland, southwestern Germany, and northeastern France, the belief in cannibalistic infanticide and child sacrifice were accepted as a part of the [[WitchesSabbath witches' sabbath]].

* In ''WesternAnimation/TeenTitans'', Cardiac only targeted children, because, according to WordOfGod, he was supposed to be more of an [[{{Animesque}} anime-style]] villain.

* The alien Tendu of ''Literature/TheColorOfDistance'' and ''Through Alien Eyes'', have several life stages, and as with the above example, early ones aren't very intelligent. The first stage, the tadpole-like ''narey'', feeds a lot of the wildlife. Eventually they metamorphize into the ''tinka'', adult-shaped but smaller and not as smart. Tinka roam around until they can wander into more distant Tendu villages, where they act as servants. They can age and die, or else get chosen by fully adult Tendu to go through another metamorphosis and become ''bami'', who ''are'' intelligent and considered somewhere between children and apprentices. From there they potentially have two more metamorphoses. Bami and above, if female, can lay unfertilized eggs for animals to eat. It's seen as a common courtesy for a Tendu female, taking some narey from a pool to eat, to lay some eggs to feed the others.

* Donato Porpora from ''Manga/TokyoGhoul'' is a Ghoul famous for his preference for child victims. To this end, he established himself as a SinisterMinister and opened a Catholic {{Orphanage|OfFear}} where the children lived happily with their beloved "Father". Then, one by one, the children would be "adopted"......and suffer brutal deaths before being eaten. He even went so far as to [[TheSecretOfLongPorkPies feed]] leftovers to the other children disguised as treats. Eventually, [[EvenEvilHasLovedOnes his favorite]] child, Kotarou Amon, discovered him eating another child and his secret was revealed. Because he couldn't bring himself to kill Amon, he ended up captured and remains an infamous Ghoul considered vile even by other Ghouls.

* The norm rather than the exception in ''{{ComicBook/Crossed}}''. One Crossed is even stated to wear babies as ''shoes'', and the Blood Men arc has the hedonistic rulers of the titular human subspecies raise their child indulging his every whim from birth so as to enjoy his expression when they eat him alive.

* Homelander in ''ComicBook/TheBoys'' receives blackmail photos of himself committing all manner of horrible crimes, including eating babies alive, even though he has no memories of the events. This eventually drives him to break down completely and becoming a full-blown villain, leading the various superhumans in an attempted coup against the U.S government. [[spoiler: The photos are actually of Black Noir, in reality a clone of Homelander driven insane because he's unable to fulfill the purpose he was created for; destroying Homelander in case he became uncontrollable. Black Noir committed the crimes in hopes of giving Homelander a psychotic break so he'd be allowed to kill him]].

[[folder:Live Action TV]]

** Olaf the Troll demanded he be brought babies to eat. Spike at first suggested they check the hospital, and then suggested onion flowers as an alternative.
** Der Kindestod ('The Death of Children') from the second season episode "Killed By Death," who preys on sick children and kills them horribly. His appearance is clearly an homage to Freddy Krueger.
** In the third season episode "Band Candy," the demon Larconis requires a tribute in the form of a ritual feeding every thirty years. What does it feed on? Newborn babies.
** In "I Only Have Eyes For You" Angelus is so disturbed by being forced to feel love (he and Buffy were possessed by the ghosts of dead lovers) that he insists on going out and killing a child to bring back a sense of evil in himself.
** In the episode "Gingerbread", a demon actually creates a panic by falsely making people believe children have been killed. Buffy laments the fact that this creates a panic, but the daily killing of innocent adults doesn't even cause a stir.
* In the second season of ''Series/{{Blackadder}}'' the title character owes a large sum of money to which he can't possibly repay to the Bank of the Black Monks. They send the 'Baby-Eating' Bishop of Bath and Welles to collect or if Blackadder doesn't pay up, he gets to have his 'fun'. He seems to live up to his name when on first confronting Blackadder he asks if he has any children. When he gets a 'no', he says he'll skip breakfast and move on to business then.
* ''Series/DoctorWho:'' The Krillitanes, from "School Reunion", masquerade as teachers in a school, and are implied to eat students who don't measure up. Their boss begins the episode by explicitly eating a girl just for having a headache (and because she was an orphan).
-->''You have no parents? No-one to miss you? Poor child. Poor... ''thin'' child. Why don't you come inside [my office]? It's almost time for lunch...''
* In the ''Series/{{Grimm}}'' episode "El Cuegle", the eponymous Wesen hunts down and kidnaps babies, intending to eat them at a specific ritual time. [[spoiler: It turns out El Cuegle get horrible visions of the future, and know these babies will grow up to be killers. The one in the episode hates what he does, but hates what happens if he doesn't even more]].

** In "Under the Bed", a boogeyman like monster steals children from their bedrooms to devour them.
** In "The Grell", many humans believe that the Grell eat humans, especially children, but this is only a myth.
* ''Series/MastersOfHorror'': In the episode "The Washingtonians", a secret cannibal society known as 'the Washingtonians' price children as a meal. Their founder, [[HistoricalVillainUpgrade George Washington himself]], professed in his hidden diary that he skinned them and made utensils out of their bones as well.

* In the ''Series/StarTrekTheOriginalSeries'' episode "And the Children Shall Lead", the Gorgon orphans all of the children living on one planet because orphaned children are more easily influenced by parental figures... such as the "friendly angel", as the kids call the Gorgon.

** The episode "Something Wicked" features a Shtriga, which sucks life force from children, leaving them in comas.

* ''Series/{{Angel}}'':
** The season 2 episode "Judgement" has a demon in Lorne's karaoke bar who is announced as Durthok the Child-Eater.
** Another child-eating species pops up in early season 5. Angel kills it but later learns he was supposed to be meeting with it.
** The fifth season episode "Smile Time" involves demonic puppets that are sucking brain power from the children that watch their TV show.

* ''Series/TrueBlood'': Nigel Beckford is introduced in season 5 as a pedophile vampire who disguised himself as a nurse practitioner and ate babies at the local hospital. He was arrested by the Authority (the vampire government) and imprisoned. He's later released by [[spoiler: Salome]] when the Sanguinistas take over, and we see him feasting on a child when [[spoiler: the Authority crashes a wedding reception and slaughters all of the guests there]].

* Cronus/Saturn in Greek/Roman mythology. After hearing a prophecy that he will be overthrown by one of his children, he eats every one of his children [[spoiler:except Zeus/Jupiter, who was saved when Cronus/Saturn was tricked into eating a stone wrapped in swaddling clothes, under the impression that it was the real deal.]] As seen by the current image, famous artists such as Creator/PeterPaulRubens' ''[[https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/dd/Rubens_saturn.jpg Saturn]]'' and Creator/FranciscoDeGoya's BloodierAndGorier ''[[https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/82/Francisco_de_Goya%2C_Saturno_devorando_a_su_hijo_%281819-1823%29.jpg Saturn Devouring His Son]]'' (during his black period).

* According to folk legend, {{cats|AreMean}} steal the breath from sleeping babies. This is an explanation of Sudden Infant Death syndrome. However, it's not true, and a cat sniffing your baby's face is a sign of affection.

* The Ladies of the Wood in ''VideoGame/TheWitcher3WildHunt'' [[spoiler: fatten up the children that live at the Crookback Bog orphanage in order to eat them. This can happen to the kids met by Geralt depending on his choices]]