Preteen with hollow legs - snack ideas please!

[Scrunchcake]

DS11 is impossible to fill up these days. I think this is pretty typical for his age?

He's always had a reasonable diet, eats his meals well and has always enjoyed snacks - fruit or cereal bars, crackers, etc.

I don't buy loads of biscuits, cakes and crisps but we usually have a few in, mainly because of my own complicated history with food I don't want to ban certain things. We try to be pretty chilled about food choices as long as overall his diet is healthy.

But right now he's turning into a sugar monster, seems to inhale sweets when he gets them and constantly grazing on toast, biscuits, anything we've got in.

So I'm after your snack ideas. If he's hungry I'm happy for him to eat - I'm not asking for tips on stopping him. What do you keep stocked in the house to steer your kids towards? I sometimes buy "healthier" things like Sunbites instead of normal crisps, cereal bars, snack-a-jacks etc, but I'm probably kidding myself that they're any better. He'll still eat fruit but eating 4 apples before tea isn't great either, is it?

I'd love any MN wisdom on this

Can you make tea earlier?
What does he eat for lunch? Maybe eating more then will help fend off the bottomless pit.

Otherwise, mine tend to eat cereal, toast, sandwiches or pasta. House rule is that they do not eat so much that they can't manage a normal portion of evening meal.

sounds like he needs less sugar and more fibre and protein to fill him up.
Worth getting some oat bran to sprinkle on stuff, like
Yoghurt
cottage cheese

Is he putting stuff on the toast - cheese, peanut butter, hummus?

or apple slices spread with peanut butter/ hummus/cream cheese

Its crazy isn't it, my 16 year old has just stopped with the constant hunger. I think he's finally finished growing.

His favourite snacks were crackers and cheese, muffins with cheese on and full fat Greek yoghurt with honey and fruit.
He ate plenty of crap too but quickly learned that the above filled him up for longer.
He also had more substantial breakfasts, things like omelettes, beans on toast etc.

Peanut butter and banana on toast.

Protein tends to give you more of a sated, satisfied feeling than just carbs. So what about hard boiled eggs, a chunk of cheese with an apple, or a spoonful of peanut butter to dip it in. Some hummus or bean dip with crudites or crackers. A glass of milk.

If all else fails porridge is the stodgiest cheapest stomach-filler going!

I've been making peanut butter balls for my empty legged ones to tide them over between meals - if you use a natural peanut butter they are healthier than shop bought cereal bars.

1 cup peanut butter melted with 1/2 cup honey, gradually add rolled oats (about 2 cups) and some crushed cashews, the mixture needs to be pasty rather than flaky. Roll it into balls and chill in the fridge to bind them together.

This is all so helpful - thank you.

Lunch is definitely a problem - he's just started secondary school and he's struggling a bit with the lunchtime mayhem, so often brings his packed lunch home. We're working on that though.

Your ideas have reminded me of stuff he used to like. Rather than "banning" anything I'll just make sure there are plenty of other options and focus on protein /fibre.

They sound good @throughabushbackwards. He'd probably really like them, especially if I tell him he can't have too many (reverse psychology, haha)

Peanut butter on celery sticks, flapjack things, hard boiled eggs, a crumpet with marmite, cream cheese bagel (as a between school and dinner thing).

Prioritise protein over sugar.

I remember the impossible to fill stage and my teens still come home from school ravenous. Cooked chicken legs and Swedish style meatballs are good snacks as is home popped popcorn (plain not sugary). A bowl of muesli is also a good filler upper.

Cheese in snack sizes (saves mess and cheese going hard because - well teenagers and covering food correctly don't mix).

Breadsticks with things to dunk them in.

Instant porridge pots.

Slices of cooked meats.

Dd (12) we cook a chicken and so she always has cold chicken to pick on. Dh also like having that to snack on. We also have huge amounts of satsumas in over winter for her, as well as making sure she has those oven bake rolls in the freezer.

Ds(11) we keep big pots of greek yogurt in fridge which he will have with banana and honey. Also sugar free muesli - we always have full fat milk rather than semi in.

We dont tend to have biscuits/cake etc. in the house but dd in particular will end up walking down to newsagents to buy sweets if we dont have food in after school so I do try to keep on top of it.

One of my teens used to go through 1-2 jars of peanut butter every week. Another munches hard-boiled eggs - I boil a dozen most weekends and they're gone by Friday. Another makes themselves pots of pasta with either tomato soup or pesto.

Definitely teach your ds to cook. A useful life skill, and cheaper and healthier to cook himself something. Convenience snacks are all too often nutritionally unbalanced. My egg-eat will scramble eggs if there are no hardboiled.

All of mine still love chocolate, cakes, crisps, burgers etc. A packet of biscuits lasts about 10secs in this house!

I've started giving mine soup when he gets home from school to stop him snacking on biscuits etc. He likes homemade leek and potato if I have time to make it, otherwise tinned tomato does the job and is cheap and cheerful. That and a couple of oatcakes keeps him going until dinner, which usually isn't until 6.30 in our house.

Lunch is definitely a problem - he's just started secondary school and he's struggling a bit with the lunchtime mayhem, so often brings his packed lunch home. We're working on that though.

Since Covid, dc's school has switched to 2 x 20mins breaks, instead of morning break and a long lunch break. Ds2 really struggled to cope with this. He was permanently hungry because he could not eat his lunch quickly enough. The solution has been for him to take two separately wrapped sandwiches, one for each break. No faffing about with multiple pots of different things, a fruit plus a salad plus a biscuit plus a sandwich etc. Nothing to juggle, no need to find somewhere to sit. Unwrap, chomp, done. They are big sandwiches!

DB was a very sporty bottomless pit from about 14-20-something! He would eat crisps/biscuits/toast etc but what he actually wanted was more "proper" food.

He often had sports practices at lunch as well, so eating then tended to be a bit rushed.

We'd usually eat at 6.30ish, and he'd have basically another meal before bed, either leftovers or an omelette or some pasta.

My two sons were average eaters but my DGS(15) has hollow legs!

I'd try to steer him off sweet things if possible and towards beans on toast, bananas, cheese, eggs, etc. But they do seem to have the capacity to eat whatever!

Wholewheat cereal. Lots of vitamins.

Eggs on toast
Beans on toast.
Hummus and pitta bread and veg if he will eat it.

Mine had a phase of eating every hour... Grew half a centimeter in three days. I think he had been doing some growing before that.

I roast a chicken and then hack bits off for him for a few days. Works out quite cheap. One is veggie allergic to eggs so we have vegetarian teas with one having added roast chicken if appropriate.

DS is a bit like this. Aside from normal stuff, we have had success recently with Bonfire lollies. I had to buy a shop sized jar as they don't sell them round here and, since they take him half an hour to eat, they work out better than a handful of sweets or a packet of crisps!

Peanut butter on seeded bread withsliced bananas, olives, avocado, cheese cubes, big huge salad, nuts, insist on water, soups, and yes dinner early with a small snack later.

My hollow legs sporty DSs would have a large wrap/sandwich at breaktime. Another one for lunch. I would try and coordinate dinner within 30mins of them getting home around 6ish.

I also had fruit, porridge pots, yoghurts, toast and fruit loaf.

Yet still I could hear the kitchen cupboards banging late into the night!

Cheese sandwiches and a pint of milk
Peanut butter toast
Hard boiled eggs
Cheese omelets
Porridge made with full fat milk

Serve a big bowl lentil and veg soup before each meal, then serve a baked potato with the main dinner. Then a pudding such as jam sponge and custard should keep them quiet for a bit.

Good idea to make banana bread, carrot muffins etc.

Buy full fat everything.