Is it possible for 21month ds to be constantly hungry?

[may08]

I feed my ds what I would consider generous size portions for breakfast, lunch and dinner as well as having snacks in between meals (such as rice cakes, rich tea biscuit, breadsticks etc..)he also has 2 bottles of milk a day morning and night and yet he is constantly looking for food. Everytime I come in the house (even if he has only had lunch 15mins before) he goes straight to the kitchen and screams until I give in and feed him! I've tried leaving him to cry but he gets in such a state and yet as soon as I give him a snack he is fine. Could he really be this hungry?
I've been told that youngsters only eat until they are full and would be sick if they ate too much and my ds is never sick so perhaps he needs this much food? Hes a solid boy but not fat but I do worry that he will get fat if I cant curb the constant eating - it doesnt help that he wont touch fruit otherwise I would just give him that all the time and it wouldnt matter!

Any advice or anyone with a similar problem?

[woodlands35]

hi may, has he always had a big appetite ? if it is just lately that his appetite has increased then maybe he is just having a growth spurt ,

[MummyDragon]

Try not to worry too much about this.

What type of snacks are you giving him when he screams?
What does he have for breakfast/lunch/dinner? Does he eat everything you put on his plate?

Could be a growth spurt. Could be hunger. Could be that he has learned to associate screaming for food with attention-getting ...
I know you've said he doesn't eat any fruit but does he eat any veg at all, or even tiny bits of fruit? - e.g. bananas, cucumber sticks, raisins ...?? If he does, just give him these in between meals and if he refuses to eat them then he probably isn't hungry and he's doing it for attention, bless him. Hungry children will not starve themselves!

Snacking between meals is normal at this age - lots of professionals say that toddlers should be eating 6 small meals per day rather than 3 full meals.

A lot of kids love things like melon - you can cut it into chunks or slices so they can hold it in their hands (with the skin on if it's cut into slices!).

And if you're worried, have a chat with your GP or HV (I don't have much faith in HVs but I hear that some of them are quite good )