Teenage Boys who DON'T eat..

[PolaDeVeboise]

I have two of them (15 and 13) and wonder where I went wrong. Everyone else bangs on about how theirs eat them out of house and home, and I have to nag them to eat ANYTHING. They seem healthy enough and eat when I cook for them, but never come and ask for food - should I be worried?

Mine can go a whole day without food sometimes. Other days they appear at 7pm along for dinner because they are starving (probably because they haven't eaten all day)
Other days they eat everything in sight

I have one of those, however he is borderline underweight and has recently been diagnosed with acid reflux, which is known to suppress appetite. Hopefully medication will sort him out.

That makes me feel a bit better. Mine blankly refuse to eat breakfast.

I have a 14 year old DS who never really seems to eat much and will quite often skip lunch in favour of being out with his friends. He's 6ft 1 and always playing football or lifting weights at the gym so seems healthy enough.

Mine seems capable of photosynthesis from the light from a screen when gaming. Every now and again is taken by surprise by sudden hunger pains and eats voraciously for a few weeks then nada.

Mines like this. He is 21 now but was never much of an eater. He certainly never raided the fridge.

I’m wondering if mine is on some kind of cycle. One week, refuses breakfast completely, only a sandwich for lunch etc. Few weeks later 6 x weetabix, lots in lunch box, and pre dinner pasta snack. Totally unpredictable though.

We used to describe ds2 as the crocodile at the watering hole: eats nothing for weeks at a time, gorges itself when a herd of wildebeest comes past, then reverts to eating nothing - until the next opportunity to gorge.

Ds was definitely a have-to-eat-to-live type, not hugely interested in food. Until he went to uni and got into cooking for himself. The food at home is the same as before, but he is now far more interested in it, and a far more 'even' eater. The crocodile has gone.

My younger son was like that. Terribly fussy, had real anxiety about eating, had a very limited diet.

When he reached 6th form he started to spend time with a group of friends who liked to go out to dinner. He started to expand his tastes and ate a little more although he was still underweight.

Now he is in his 20's and becoming quite a foodie. He ate Christmas Dinner with us for the first time this year and has cooked amazing meals for us since arriving to stay.

He was always very healthy - I think he maybe had two days off school sick in the whole of his time in secondary school.

I have an 18yo who doesn't appear to eat, even at meal times, but his weight seems normal enough. He's always been a fussy eater and never enjoyed food like I do He just sees it as a necessary thing he has to do as infrequently as possible

I suspect he's eating lots of junk when he's out of the house

Thanks all, this has been really reassuring - looks like they're doing just fine and that there are exceptions to every rule!