How much does your 4.5 yo eat?

[JustJaamy]

8.30 - Banana
9.00 - Large bowl of cereal (more then you'd get in a multipack box)
10.30 - School fruit bar and stick of cheese
12.00 - cheese roll, half pack of goodies crisps, 4 slices of cucumber, apple

In between all this she is constantly coming to me saying that she is hungry and just now, an hour after lunch she has again come and said, "I'm hungry, mummy"

She will have a snack of a gingerbread man or similar and some more fruit or carrot sticks, etc at about 3 and an evening meal about 5.30-6pm typically of chicken/veg/potatoes followed by small bowl of ice cream. She wolfs down EVERY meal and nearly always clears her plate.

Am I not feeding her enough? She's not skinny by any means and she goes through phases of looking a bit podgy before having a bit of a growth spurt. She goes swimming 2-3 times a week and bike ride once a week.

What does everyone else's 4.5 yo eat in a day?

[posieflump]

Is she bored?
My 4 year old eats 3 large meals a day - breakfast is weetabix plus banana
lunch - cheese sandwich + apple + grapes
dinner - sausage and mash and beans, yoghurt for pudding

he often says he is hungry when he is bored and doesn't know what to do next

[JustJaamy]

Riven - we definitely don't have that problem. DD1 would eat all day if she had access to the food.

Posie - yes, I think it is boredom. I work from home and so can't spend as much time with her as I'd like. She's not the sort of child who will sit in front of the telly and I spend ages getting an activity ready for her and she'll spend maybe 10 mins on it! The hols are going to be a nightmare.

[JustJaamy]

Thanks Riven - I think she's the same when I'm not working but I perhaps notice it more when I'm trying to concentrate on work. Will have to quiz her granny to find out how DD1 acts when she's with her.

[JustJaamy]

Am going to spend a nice afternoon with both DDs - plenty to do so will see whether food is mentioned much.

[Fennel]

I think my 4yo dd eats about that much or more. She eats 3 decent sized meals + snacks. Say 2 or 3 small bowls of porridge/cereal for breakfast. A round of sandwiches and piece of fruit and some raisins and a biscuit for lunch. An apple and a sandwich at about 4. then dinner. Then maybe toast at bedtime.

She's quite skinny.

[bythepowerofgreyskull]

DS1 would also eat all day if he could, he is a bottomless pit.

yesterday he ate
Breakfast
3 children size bowls of cheerios with milk and a piece of bovril toast

Snack
a fruityoatybar snack and wanted another one

Lunch
2 bowls of bean and bacon soup with 2 pieces of toast. then portion of rice pudding

Snack
bag of hoolahoops banana glass of juice

dinner
2 bowls of fried rice with prawns & peppers then a yoghurt

snack
piece toast with jam

cup of warm milk before bed.

this is a typical day. He would eat more if I let him. I often think that he asks because he is bored/thirsty so I tend to offer a drink first to see if that sorts it.
He is on th 85% for his weight but I am not worried as he is on the 92% for his height he looks very slender.

[Fennel]

If mine are hungry I fill them up on wholemeal toast. Mine tend to say they are hungry when they are hoping for biscuits or ice cream, they try it just to see what they might be offered. Especially at other people's houses.

[bythepowerofgreyskull]

quick question fennel....
I had been told not to give them wholemeal bread until they were five because of the high fibre content... is that not true??
We end up buying more white for the children even though DH and I prefer granary.

[Fennel]

Mine have only really had wholemeal from the start. I didn't want them getting too used to white bread. but they were chunky babies and toddlers and had lots of fat and protein etc, there was never any question of them being under-nourished.

I have never been quite convinced of the arguments for giving children white bread. Unless they actually have some dietary problems. I see it as junk food. and it just doesn't fill you up.

[JustJaamy]

Ooooh, we only ever have wholemeal bread. DD1 not much of a toast eater but always wholemeal bread with sandwiches.

She is 3 stone and 106cm tall [rifles around for Red Book] - about 55th percentile for height and just over 75th percentile for weight.

Riven - yes, both DDs love rice cakes!! Good luck with your little one's eating.

[bythepowerofgreyskull]

but there is nutritionaly nothing wrong with good quality white bread what is wrong with it?

[Fennel]

I'm not a nutritionist, maybe someone will come along who actually knows the answer. But white bread is bread with all the good bits removed, isn't it?

It seems to me that wholegrain food is better in general if you are thinking about long term obesity and bowel cancer issues. and it's hard to wean children off white bread onto wholemeal unless you start with it.

[bythepowerofgreyskull]

interesting I am eager to know if there is a definative answer.. going to start another thread

[Morloth]

White bread also results in a blood sugar rush (well it does for me anyway) I am big on heavy dark breads and that is all DS has ever had.

As for what he eats, it varies heaps from day to day. Some days he appears to live on air, and the next he can eat more than I do.

He too podges up before a growth spurt.

Average Day=

One Weetbix, with banana and greek yoghurt.
Snack: fruit + rice cakes with cream cheese or something.
Lunch: if at home sandwiches of some description, they do a hot lunch at nursery.
Afternoon snack: often more fruit/chopped veg with hommous.
Tea: Often a snack plate consisting dried fruit/cheese/cold meat/leftover pasta etc etc.

Everything varies, with the possible exception of the weetabix in the morning, but he has been known to get up with DH (i.e. really early, have toast with him and then still have his weetabix when I get up)

[Morloth]

He is 100cm (on the dot!) and 15kgs - he looks about right to me, lean and muscular but with a bit of fat on his legs/bum/cheeks etc.

[FAQ]

Averaged day for DS2 would be

2 Weetbix for breakfast
Snack at nursery (apparently always goes back for 2nds)
Sandwich (2 full slices of bread), couple of cherry tomatoes, few slices of cucumber, apple or banana and a cheese string
Afternoon he'll usually havve more fruit, and biscuits, and maybe another slice of bread
Dinner - can very easily demolish 2 (thick) pork sausages, fried egg, mash, baked beans, mushrooms, tomato, followed by either yoghurt, ice cream, cheesecake etc etc

[FAQ]

all meals/snacks are varied obviosly - apart from lunch where he HAS to have his "set piece"

[JustJaamy]

Seems we have a very similar diet to most of you...must be a boredom thing!

Re:the wholemeal bread issue. We've jst always had wholemeal. DDs will eat white if given the option but we just always have wholemeal in the house...

[scotsgirl]

Although carrot sticks and rice cakes etc are healthy, they're not exactly filling are they? Maybe the snacks could be more protein rich (e.g. boiled egg, slice of meat, slice of cheese etc) which will keep her going longer.

I am not a dietician or anything like that, this is just what works for me.

[LittleMoosh]

DS age 6 - cereal, toast and yoghurt for breakfast. If he's at home he will have a banana mid morning. Lunch followed by yoghurt or mousse or fruit. Afternoon he will have crisps or biscuits. 5 pm full meal followed by yoghurt or mousse. Another snack in the evening
DS age 19 months - 7 oz milk, cereal and toast, banana mid morning, lunch followed by yoghurt and fruit, snack in afternoon (fruit or biscuit or skips). 5 pm full meal followed by frutapura pudding or some other desert. 7 pm biscuit and 7 oz milk. Not sure where he puts it all, he's very petite.
Both boys absolutely love yoghurts and both drink water all day long

[Oblomov]

My ds(4.6) has always had a ferocious appetite. In the last week and a half, he comes to me telling me he is hungry constantly.
I am totally astonished what he has eaten, each day. He must be going through some sort of spurt, or something.
It would take me too long to type out everything he had eaten today.

OP, I think we have the same problem

[Oblomov]

O.k.
I will try:
7am - 3 weetabix. 2 slices of toast.
I hour later banana, orange and satsuma. Hour later crisps.
Hour later grapes and tiny packet of raisans.
Lunch at 12.30- big tin of baked of baked beans on wholemael toast. 2 small yougurts.

Breadsticks and dip
Grapes
Ice cream

Dinner at 6.30 a bowl of home made spag bol, than a 10 year old would eat, and 3 pieces of garlic bread.

Home made apple crumble and custard

before bed, said he was hungry.
Banana and slice of toast.
glass of milk

Told you it was mad.