Breakfast - is this enough and can I improve?

[WitchityGrub]

This morning for breakfast my 14 year old DS (skinny and growing) and I (not remotely skinny and dieting) had this:

1 slice of brown bread and butter (I didnt have this)
1 softly boiled egg
2 sliver/slices of smoked salmon (obviously we wouldn't usually have this but I picked it up as a treat)

He isn't doing a huge amount (almost none) or exercise. Im doing a couple of online workouts a day.

He'll be 'hungry' again in an hour. Am I being mean with food? I'm trying to give him decent food rather than sugary carby cereals.

Was he full at the time or did he ask for more?

Most boys of that age would eat two eggs and two bread at least. My DD is 15and skinny and she has three scrambled with two toast.

I'd have added another toast and egg

At least add another egg to it, maybe more toast.

My 7 month old baby would manage most of that....nowhere near enougg for a 14 year old. 2 eggs and 2 pieces of bread is what I’d serve a teen and myself!

Would you be able to give him double the amount? I don't buy cereal either, they have porridge with fruit or, scrambled egg/ poached egg with mushroom and tomatoes with toast or bagel. Weekends they can have bacon if they want. They have breakfast around 8am and then apart from drinks they don't ask for anything until lunch ( they can ask and would be given more) The boys are on the go constantly.

It depends on his appetite, if he is satisfied then its fine, if he is consistently hungry an hour later I'd say its not enough.

Just to add my 5 year old would eat one egg and one toast, my 7 year old would eat 2 eggs 2 toast and fruit, each child is different

I don't think that's enough for a 14yo. My eight year olds have two eggs, two pieces of toast and probably some Greek yoghurt and fruit too.

Oh right ok, seems like I am being a bit miserly with food then. He did remark that he could eat it again but didn't ask for more.. I just thought as he's not doing a lot of exercise then he shouldn't have too much?! I'll give him a snack in a bit then!

Your being very stingy! He is a growing lad, feed him properly.

My DC who are 7 and 4 ate a big bowl (dispensed as per appetite) of unsweetened cereal with milk each at 6.30 and have just followed this with a slice of toast and jam each an hour ago and are now on a banana. They expend alot of energy just growing.

It sounds like a good breakfast, but I agree with the others, the quantities need to be doubled, especially if he's complaining of being hungry shortly after.

I really wish parents wouldn't put their own issues with food onto children.

To start with, he's still growing. That burns calories like you wouldn't believe.

Secondly, that's a pitiful amount unless you're dieting. Which you are. He isn't.

Thirdly, if he doesn't have enough calories and nutrients during growing not only can you stunt his growth but you can permanently damage his bone formation.

It's not very much food. Maybe he's more hungry in the morning than later on. I much prefer to eat a big breakfast, medium lunch and small dinner than the more common practice of eating hardly anything all day in anticipation of a big dinner, if I try to do that, I'm just starving all day.

Or maybe he's just going through a growth spurt. No doubt you'll get lots of posters telling you of bottomless pit teen boys that eat bread by the loaf, cheese by the block, eggs by the dozen and fruit by the bowlful.

Can't he just feed himself.
I don't mean that as a typical mean MN snippy comment, it just means that he can eat till he is full and you don't need to worry about it.

Eggs and salmon are a brilliantly healthy breakfast but he needs about double what you gave him!! Fill him up on proteins and fat!!

I have slow metabolism and that would be fine for me

My DH would definitely need 2 eggs and 2 toasts

2 eggs at least.

Good grief, that portion is tiny and growing teenagers are hungry all of the time. Please stop policing what he eats. Mine used to start the day with a mixture of cornflakes and weetabix and continued to want feeding throughout the day, both are slim 6 footers now.

Definitely double on eggs and bread. On hungry days DS1 at that age might have had 3 slices of toast.

That seems measly to me.

My slim six year old girl had a boiled egg and soldiers (similar to you 14 year old). She also has a bowl of bran flakes!

What he had was probably around 350 calories which isn’t too bad but I would guess he needs about 2000 a day so closer to 500 for breakfast would seem about right.

My 9 and 5 yr old who are both skinny bordering on underweight had for breakfast yesterday
Half a pack smoked salmon and scrambled eggs made with 4 eggs

When my DB was that age he was permanently hungry, he’d easily eat double that. He usually had a big bowl of porridge and fruit for breakfast, a couple of slices of bread and cream cheese mid morning, 2 sandwiches + soup/ fruit/ extra veg etc for lunch, afternoon snack of more bread and cheese/pb or fruit and cheese or cake/ biscuit, then a big portion of normal dinner. And still complained he was hungry all the time. Not a lot of exercise but turfed out to kick a ball around/ go for a walk etc. every day

Yes, maybe at 14, now's the time where he starts sorting his own food out, with conversations about budgets and not snacking on food meant for a main meal, plus healthy eating and avoidance of comfort/boredom eating, of course. The way you talk about 'giving him food' makes it sound more like he's 4, not 14.

Maybe you could take it in turns to make big pots of soup or stew with lots of veg and pulses in, or point him towards the supply of beans on wholegrain toast or things like bananas if he's 'always hungry'.

Meant to add he is/ was tall and slim, growing fast, and feeding frequency only started to reduce around 16-17

That’s not much at all.