Can I have your ideas for how I fill up DS (10)?

[MadameSzyszkoBohusz]

Feeling very guilty as he told DH last night, while I was out, that he’s always still hungry after dinner!

He’s had the same sized portions as me, DH and DD (13) for a while now, so it hadn’t occurred to me it might not be filling him up! Last night we had a tuna steak each, topped with some pesto and a few prawns, and served with green beans, half a corn cob and some new potatoes crushed with garlic and olive oil. He had a bowl of fruit (strawberries, grapes and bananas) afterwards.

This seems like plenty to me, but I am aware from reading on here that older kids can be bottomless pits for food. I try to make healthy meals with plenty of veg, and a balance of meat, fish and vegetarian food (the night before last was a chickpea curry, before that was chilli con carne).

He’s quite tall (5’1) and slim bordering on skinny. I’m thinking last night I could have done him more potatoes (think we had about 4 each), and put some yoghurt on his fruit. He usually has a snack after school (at the moment he likes potato waffles, sometimes it’s hummus and breadsticks), and is allowed chocolate or sweets after dinner 3 times a week.

Do I increase his portion sizes overall or just allow him more snacks? He’s allowed free access to milk and to the fruit bowl but is expected to ask if he wants anything else - but would almost always be allowed, as long as he wasn’t having too much junk food, or wanting to eat to delay his bedtime (he has form for this!)

I don’t think I’m controlling with food, but it is important to me that the family eats healthily.

I really don’t have much context for this, I’m an only child to a single mum so have never lived with a growing boy before! Hate to think I’m under feeding him. 😕

I have a DC who is on ADHD medication and has sensory issues with food so he eats terribly little. He's 5 ft 1 and weighs 5 stone and is under a dietician before anyone starts telling me how shit I am at feeding him. However, about an hour before bed I make him a full fat milk hot chocolate and give him 4-5 rich tea biscuits. It keeps his tummy filled until morning. If he ate toast I would give perhaps a supper of cheese on toast if I could.

I know I will probably get slammed about how unhealthy blah blah, but the OP is giving a load of vegetables and fruits- none of which have alot of calories - so I am sure some carb filled cals won't hurt. It's also worth sometimes looking at how people ate in Days of Yore and a pre-bed supper or tea and biscuit was not uncommon.

Cereal, toast, noodles as snacks. And definitely extra bread alongside his dinner.

Peanut butter (the no added salt and sugar type) has been our absolute saviour with 2 starving boys. On crackers, on toast, with apple slices, with carrot sticks - it's just so filling and calorific.

As regards evening meals if he's still hungry after dinner though - more potatoes (or whatever carb) and veg will fill him up. I would say my dcs started to eat a larger portion of dinner than me at about that age. At 15, ds2 eats a larger portion than his dad, and will still be 'starving' and make toast 2 hours later. Sorry...your food shopping bills are about to go up!

Four potatoes seems like a tiny portion! But I love my carbs. If I was serving new potatoes to my two DC (15 and 12) they'd easily have double that, if not more 😬. We are a tall, skinny family and both DC have massive appetites. Both have been eating bigger portions than me for a few years now - I assume they both need more calories than me (47, probably in peri menopause).

If either are still hungry after dinner they can have cereal/toast/crumpets.

My DS is 18 now and 6'4 (not the mn 6'4, actually 6'4 with size 14 feet!) and has had plenty of growth spurts to get there. If I fed him your tuna meal aged 10 he would have eaten his own arm an hour later.
Whilst eating healthy is obviously a priority if you are going to feed him meals like that you will probably have to include plenty of snacks - weetabix and whole milk, toast, cheese and crackers etc are all filling.
My son has calmed down a lot with his eating now but as he has a manual job he still costs an absolute fortune to feed so be prepared!

Bread and butter
extra veg/potatoes/pasta
pudding - something like bought ginger cake and custard is fairly cheap or rice pudding or banana and custard or Greek yoghurt and crushed nuts on the fruit, even Greek yoghurt with berries, a crushed meringue and some lemon curd or honey

I think the reason for the small amount of potatoes is that there was other stuff as well - the pesto is homemade and laden with pine nuts, cheese and olive oil, so fairly calorie rich. And I gave him more of the crushed potatoes than I had, so he would have had more - I just prepared 16 in total.

But I hear you, I will up his carbs!

I’ve just checked his height and weight, and he’s within the healthy range, albeit towards the lower end, so I don’t think he needs more sugary stuff, just more substantial portions and filling snacks.

Yep he needs snackage! Teen boys are bottomless pits. I used to do a lot of home made filing things like flapjacks too.

A baguette, cut into slices and serve it with dinner. If he needs more food he can fill himself up. Teens used to to get through half a baguette each some days and finish all their dinner and we're still very skinny (underweight until puberty hit them properly).

Feeding growing teens gets expensive! There is nothing wrong with bread and extra carbs to get the calories in on top of the delicious and nutritious food you are cooking for him.

I also second free access to boiled eggs! Yogurt was also a hit. I used to get the 1 litre tub of full fat greek yogurt.