Help me feed constantly hungry DS!

[DangerousMouse]

What on earth can I feed him to fill him up? He is 9 and its a constant stream of food going from fridge to mouth. He eats really well. no fussiness, just so much of it!

For breakfast today he's had 2 breakfast muffins - egg, spinach and ham baked with cheese on top, then he was hungry so he had 3 fish fingers with sweetcorn. He will happily eat 2 full dinners after school.

I want to try and fill him on protein rather than carb based foods but need some ideas and recipes please, things that can be grabbed from the fridge to save me cooking fish fingers at 7.30am!
Oh and he is very slim, muscular, and does swim training nearly every day and football twice a week.

Maybe he needs to learn that you don’t always have to be ‘full’. It sounds a bit excessive really. I wouldn’t be cooking fish fingers after those muffins!

Toast and peanut butter? Milk to drink? If he's anything like my brothers, he will be eating you out of house and home for the next 15 years!

I want him to learn to listen to his own body not what others tell him his body should be feeling, so if he says that he'd like some more food then he's welcome to more food, this is all the while he is crazy active and in the lower healthy weight range.
Ooh that's reminded me he loved peanut butter spread on apple slices, I'll get some apples in!

How big are those muffins in reality? Maybe half an egg and a sprinkling of ham and cheese are the sort of size I've seen before - and if it's those, my skinny 8 and 10 would be hungry.

Breakfast here: 2 scrambled eggs and a slice of toast. Glass of milk. Weekends - pancakes with fruit and usually cream for the 10 year old.
2 course school lunch, or fruit mid morning and lunch at home.
Crackers, cheese, fruit or cake and fruit on getting in from school.
Usually matching me (overweight) with supper portions of meat, veg, carbs.
The 10 yr old often has a yoghurt before bed.

Suggestions:
Yoghurt, eggs, cheese, cold sausages, Peperorami sticks- bulked out with veg or fruit.
Houmous or other spread (including cream cheese, or quick pates with cream cheese as the base) on crackers or half a bagel, or with veg sticks.
I dont limit carbs - they are very useful, but try to not serve them on their own too often.

I'm not looking forward to feeding them when the reach the teenage years!

Sounds like he needs more carbs to fuel all of the exercise that he’s doing.

I used to swim daily for a club as a teen and was constantly hungry-carbs were invariably the way in the end, balanced with protein.
Baked potatoes with beans, pasta salad/pasta bakes, savoury rice, porridge with loads of fruit and some nuts. Scrambled eggs on toast, beans on toast and so on
All the above are easy to make-so there’s nothing stopping him using some of half term to learn how to do them (& clean up after himself!) to take some of the strain off you and keep him busy

Tortilla wraps are a godsend in this house for a hungry DS.

All sorts of possibilities for fillings.

Some favourites:

• scrambled eggs, avocado and tomato
• refried beans and cheese
• Mexican chicken slices, guacamole and salad
• cheese and ham omelette with tomato
• sausage, cheese and baked beans

I tend to make a few at a time, wrap them in baking paper to keep fresh in the fridge and then they can be warmed in the microwave briefly (obvious leaving out the salad until serving for tte chicken one, the others reheat fine as they are).

When you open the wraps they keep well in the freezer if you don't use a whole pack.

As the wraps are quite thin they are not too carby so you can pack the protein into the fillings.

I want to try and fill him on protein rather than carb based foods

Why? If he's physically active I'd expect him to be eating a decent amount of starchy food, preferably wholegrain stuff.

Tortillas are a fab idea, I'll definitely try that one. Why low carbs? Just because I tend to keep carbs for meals and try and keep snacks more protein heavy.. don't worry, he eats plenty of carbs throughout the day.

Peanut butter and banana sandwiches or on toast
Porridge made with full fat milk
Cheese omelet

Macaroni cheese
Spag bol (full fat mince)

Snacks should be : cheese, hard boiled eggs, flapjacks, homemade banana bread, fruit compote, hummus and crackers.

I'd do a batch of homemade soup too, put lentils in it too

Just following because my 6 year old is never full!

Soup... fab idea, thanks

Sorry - thought of another I do for DS.

Spanish omelette.

It's carby due to the potatoes, so not quite what you asked for, but I can cook one, slice it into wedges and it keeps beautifully wrapped in baking paper/wax wrap - I don't use cling film for environmental reasons but that would also work).

It's also lovely warm or cold and a slice is very filling. DH and I love it as a lunch dish with salad, so that's often the catalyst for making it and the saving rest for DS snacks.

Takes a while to make (30/40 mins) but I cook it in a non stick pan and can get 6 generous portions (well 5 in reality as DH always eats 2 slices!).

I use this recipe, but you could add other veg to cut down the potatoes, some spinach might be nice, if unorthodox.

scrummylane.com/spanish-omelette-tortilla-de-patatas/

Also what about hummus with loads of veg to dip in?

Spanish omelette- perfect, a little potato is good, just avoiding bread and things like pesto pasta etc (don't panic he has these in meals just not snacks!)

I often have a Spanish omelette, great for using up random bits of ham, spring onion etc and easily varied.

You are massively underestimating how much he needs.

Both my boys do football, and Ds2 does dodgeball, Ds1 boxing 3 times a week.

I watched a programme where it said that the Cambridge and Oxford rowers eat 6000 calories a day.

I think your son needs more carbs. and more protein. Like the recommendation of toast, peanut butter and a glass of milk.

If the carbs are wholemeal I’d include them as they are ideal for slowly releasing energy. Toasties are great, I personally find hot food more filling.
If you want protein you can’t go wrong with nuts or nut butters. Apple slices with peanut butter etc.
I like roasted chickpeas, they crisp us like nuts you can add what ever flavouring you like.

Nothing wrong with carbs as snacks. My dd is 11 and trains 6 times a week for swimming plus other activities and spends time at the stables. We had a nutritionist/dietician(the one that goes to uni) come in to our swim club last year and she said the kids need a lot of food and carbs as they can burn hundreds and hundreds of calories in a two hour session. Sometimes my dd does two hours swimming and then an hour land training on top. Six times a week! I feed her all the carbs and enough until she feels nothing. Not feeling hungry or full/stuffed, just satiated and content.

Take him to the gp,maybe he has thyroid problems or worms 🐛