Teen eating SO much

[GlitteryFarts]

I'm at my wits end with my 14yo ds.
I have 4 boys, ages 6, 8, 12 and 14. The 14 year old is an actual bottomless pit.

For example, on Monday I spent £50 stocking the freezer with a variety.of ice lollies to tide them over the summer holidays. I've just looked and there are about 8 left.

Yesterday we went to the beach and I bought the most humongous watermelon ever before hand for the picnic. I cubed it and we shared a quarter of it between the 5 of us (it really was that big) along with other bits. This morning he ate the other quater to himself and I've just caught him in his room with the remaining half.

Every time I stock up on things to last us the week, the wrappers are in his bedroom and cupboards are empty within a couple of days.

I know the usual consensus is to simply stop buying things but its so unfair that his younger siblings should miss out because he is so greedy. He can't say its hunger because ice lollies and watermelons aren't filling! Its just that its there and he wants it.

The biscuit jar will be empty within 2 days of it being filled and the younger ones may have had 1 or 2 each, they get sweets for their birthdays from family and they go missing and nobody knows where until I search his room and find the empty wrappers. He will sneak down countless times of a night to get toast, crisps, cereal, anything.

Ive bought microwave popcorn at 25p a bag, healthier and fills a large bowl, he was over it in 3 days and back to normal taking everything else. Ive bought rice crackers - he ate the whole pack in a night. I bought pot noodles as a carb fix - he ate 3 in a night.

His portion sizes are huge, I try to fill him at mealtimes with lots of protein, veg and carbs to avoid this but he just inhales his food within 30 seconds and is on the mooch for more an hour later.

He is 6ft tall and as thin as a string of spaghetti, he doesn't have worms as I deworm us all regularly due to letters from school. I don't think he has any kind of illness unless sheer greed is an illness and I'm at my absolute wits end. He is costing me a fortune and it isn't sinking in! I've explained how much I spend, how selfish it is etc, he just stares at me and either agrees or says he's hungry when he isn't!

What can I do except put a lock on my kitchen door which I absolutely won't as its our home! I hate the thought of not buying as much over the holidays and the younger ones missing out on treats because he can't bare to eat only his fair share.

Any advice please?

Agree with this ^^

It's not just about the relentless eating. It's the lack of respect for anyone else.

I have teen boys including a 6ft 14yo and yes, teens need to eat, and eat, and eat, and they need nutritious carbs and protein and plenty of them. And no, they don't get to eat all the treat food in the house, or steal their siblings' birthday chocolate.

You have had some good advice on this thread OP and I would absolutely agree with upping the nutritious calorie-dense food options available to him - pasta, eggs, rice, bread etc - he clearly needs the food and so good, wholesome food needs to be available for him.

But - I think he also needs to understand that he's being a selfish little git gobbling up all the treat stuff and there should be sanctions for depriving his siblings. I would be sitting him down and explaining that every time he acts inconsiderately there will be consequences - personally I'd be deducting money from his allowance to pay for the ice creams he's eaten, for example.

It's not just about teens being hungry. He sounds selfish and inconsiderate and yes, of course that's also par for the course for teens, but sometimes you've just got to call them on it and be brutally honest and tell them it's unacceptable.

Is he sporty? Sounds like a lot of the runners and gym-goers I know, they're bottomless pits because they burn so many calories and eat absolute tons.

Just buy those cheap ice pop sticks you get in b&ms to stick in the freezer if he likes ice pops and give him clear guidelines on what he can and can’t help himself to.

My 15yo SS can easy go through 2 loaves of bread, a box of cereal, 6 pints of milk and a block of butter in a weekend 😂 he won’t eat eggs or anything like that as he’s dead picky - that’s on top of 3 massive meals and other snacks, bottomless legs 😂

Toast, noodles, ice blocks, biscuits
Do you not see why?
He has been wormed lately too?
He is graviting to sweet easy quick snacks not substantial meals or food.
Fruit, vegies, oat bars, mignt be more filling.
Im no dietican but thats typical of a boy even half his age.

Eggs are good .but maybe a little binding ? Some peanut butter and wholemeal bread ,bananas ,or flapjacks (home made are quite quick and easy) Boys are absolute hoovers ! Just always hungry!

I'd be so annoyed with him, it is so selfish and lazy to be eating the treats and fruit meant for everyone without a care in the world about leaving any for the others, it's a horrible attitude, and him saying he's hungry is not an excuse for that, if he's hungry outside of his hefty meals there should be plenty of things that he can make or help himself to without going straight for all the good stuff before anyone else gets a chance.

The problem is he obviously doesn't want to make anything, he just wants to open a door and eat whatever he sees, and he seems to think he's entitled to do that and eat all of it in one go.

You could try packaging the premium stuff up in sandwich bags and writing a name on each package, once it's gone it's gone, or put boxes in the fridge/freezer & cupboards with peoples names on, it may make him think twice if he realises he's actually stealing from his brothers when he does that. There should definitely be consequences for if he eats anyone else's food though, that's not on at all and shows a real lack of consideration for his family.

It Is greedy to scoff other people's treats and hide the evidence in your room. That's not acceptable if he is hungry he needs to make food. Pasta with pesto and cheese is a good shout, cubes of cheese? Scones, you can make them on the cheap, flapjacks wraps too.

I've got 3 kids, middle one is a teen now (eldest is just about to stop being one in a few months!) and 3rd almost is. So the amount of food is just absurd, especially if eldest is home. Even teen girls can eat quite a lot.

I absolutely laid down the law about being fair with treat foods. No eating all the ice cream or biscuits. I've been known to use boxes for them to end the fighting. But they still need loads of food and I don't think anyone is going into the fridge for a hard boiled egg just out of boredom or greed. I make sure there's several sources of protein: cold chicken, peanut butter, hummus, cheese, hardboiled eggs (not all at once), some carbs: bread, tortillas or pittas, something sweet but not necessarily hugely sugary (homemade cake or biscuits or muffins), and a selection of fruit & veg. Luckily I like to bake. There's often leftover something or other in there that can be heated up and I do have things like jarred pasta sauce handy.

I also made sure that by 16 oldest had several basic things she could make like omelettes, cheese on toast, pasta. I always figured that if she was willing to go to the effort to make pasta or an omelette and toast she must actually be hungry. Working on the 15yo now.

Fair share? A 14 year old needs a lot more than either a younger child or a grown adult. His fair share is likely to be a far larger proportion of the total food available than 1/5 or whatever fraction of household.

@GlitteryFarts get used to it. Given the number of boys you have, this will be your future for probably at least another decade until the youngest has finished growing, developing and filling out. My 19 year old has slowed right down on how much he eats, his 14 year old brother has replaced him. Pasta, cereal, toast, eggs, chicken, yogurt, gone in seconds. Food that would last me a week, they demolish in a couple of days.

I've got one of those. It's like trying to feed a waste truck so I sympathise, but he needs the food. 😂

Replace white bread, pasta & couscous with wholemeal. Switch to brown rice. Keep increasing portion sizes. I buy blocks of cheddar, cut into portions, punnets of cherry tomatoes and wholemeal rolls.

Mine's grown 5" in ten months. When I hug him now, I have to look up. And I'm not short.

Get cheap supplies for him

• spaghetti hoops 16p from Tesco and he can eat those on toast
• 25p noodles
• savoury rice 28p packet etc.
• egg sandwich
• cheese toastie

All cheap snacks for a teen

OP, the other thing to note, and prepare for, is that in 5 years time, you will have THREE of them, all doing the same thing. Your food bill will double, at least.

You need to budget for that!

Agree the volume of food thing is separate from stealing siblings' sweets. 6' by 14 is a lot of growing and that takes huge numbers of calories, but most of them manage it without stealing.

I literally make an extra portion of rice with dinner for my DS's seconds, and he snacks a lot on cream crackers, breadsticks, boiled eggs. A good tip is try to make snacks cover more than one food group so if he's eating carbs, add a protein and ideally veg too. As a PP mentioned, potatoes are one of the most satiating foods. I think watermelon and ice lollies are just poor choices if he is genuinely hungry. At this stage of life he needs the calories. Giving him low calorie foods just makes him more expensive to feed!

My DS entered the eat everything in sight stage at 13.5 when he shot up overnight. He’s 6’1 and has always been super skinny but is finally starting to put on a bit of muscle now at 16.5.

I would let go of the idea that he can’t possibly be hungry. And stop calling him greedy, it’s really shaming language which will only make him eat in secret. You can’t understand it because you haven’t experienced it but he is genuinely hungry. It’s fair enough to have limits on treat food and consequences if he eats his siblings’ share but shaming him over watermelon is a bit OTT. I guarantee by the time your youngest is this age you won’t be accusing them of faking hunger because you’ll realise it’s normal.

I cook extra serves every dinner time so there is always something for him to put in the microwave when he gets home from school- curry, pasta, rice etc. Or I’ll make a big pot of chilli mince or Mexican chicken which he then uses to make nachos, quesadillas or wraps during the week. DS eats 4 meals a day plus a couple of snacks and has sport or training 5 days a week.

Also I think your perceptions are affected by his position in the family. My son is my youngest whereas his friends tend to be oldest in their families and I think our "default settings" are different. A 14 year old with a 22 year old brother will probably have more food put on his plate by default than a 14 year old with a six year old brother. Your sense of proportion is affected, like Y7s seem really grown up when your eldest hits that age, but really teeny when your eldest is already at college.

He needs:

Peanut butter sandwiches
Bananas
Porridge with full fat milk
Old fashioned puddings and custard
Pie, mash, veg type meals
Pasta bake with cheese sauce and baked potatoes

I agree with the others. I have 3 boys. My eldest is nearly 16, almost 6 ft, slim but muscular, and swims 6 nights a week plus does athletics as well. I also have a 13 year old who hasn’t had the big growth spurt yet but also swims. I joke that all I hear is “I’m hungry”. The eldest eats 5 weetabix for breakfast, and has a huge bowl of cereal before bed. He regularly goes to get toast within an hour of eating lots of dinner. But given his build I assume he needs it. The middle one isn’t quite as bad yet, but heading towards it!

The eating treats belonging to the others isn’t ok though, so I think you need to get more of things that he can have, and make clear what he is allowed from the treats, and that stuff belonging to his brothers is off limits

The problem is he obviously doesn't want to make anything, he just wants to open a door and eat whatever he sees, and he seems to think he's entitled to do that and eat all of it in one go

Do you have teens? They all do this. Haven’t you seen the meme ‘Thetes nothing to eat in this house only ingredients’

He's clearly hungry. He needs much bigger meals. But you know that.

Teach him to cook himself a bowl of pasta with a couple of spoons of pesto (99p a jar from Lidl) or handful of grated cheese (£2.99 for 500g) and a little spread melted. Simple but very filling. Buy the 25p a packet pasta!

I have teens (girls) and they don’t do this.
just because they do doesn’t mean they should. Or that they shouldn’t be taught and encouraged to NOT do it.
I hate this normalisation of selfish, thoughtless behaviour.
If he needs more food. Fine. Have can have more actual food. Not just £50 worth of expensive snacks and treats that were bought for the whole family.

Why is everyone so hung up on the word “greedy”? So are we saying that a child who eats constantly, huge meals and mountains in between is not greedy - if they happen to be skinny? So would an obese child eating the same amount be considered greedy?

The definition of greedy is “having an excessive desire or appetite for food”.

It's not excessive though if he's skinny and just maintaining his weight.

Selfish, yeah, but not greedy.

But it isn't excessive appetite if you are 14 and growing like a weed. I was sceptical of threads on here when my children were little and had bird like appetites, thought these perma-hungry teens were greedy. And then mine hit their growth spurts. And I couldn't keep up with the sheer quantity of food they need whole doing sport 4-5 days a week, as well as growing.

They don't all do this at all, yes they will eat a lot, and eat whatever they see and go the easiest route possible.. obviously. But not all teens would pile into food that isn't theirs after they've been told not to, and see their siblings go without because they are too lazy and selfish to make something else.

I'd be disgusted with any child of mine that would purposely eat their three younger siblings share of the nice stuff before they've had a chance to have any of it and leave them with nothing to eat because they can't be arsed to make noodles or toast, I will never tolerate any of my kids being that selfish.