Bottomless pit children rant

[Joeydoesntsharefood25]

This is lighthearted before anyone thinks I am really moaning.

My boys are 7 and nearly 5. They never stop being hungry. Both are tall for their age but skinny and very robust. Today they both had a huge bowl of porridge with fruit, nut butter and flaxseed in it, a mid-morning snack cheese, nuts and an apple, then a substantial lunch of homemade lentil and bean soup and 2 slices of toast, fruit. Then we went to soft play where they had a small chocolate bar and a drink. Then at home they had some oatcakes and another apple, then they've just had dinner of 3 fish fingers, a huge pile of new potatoes, peas and green beans and then a bowl of grewk yoghurt and banana. And my nearly 5 year old is still hungry!!!! He eats more than me, God help me when they are teenagers!!

Isn't that really few calories though?

Agree it’s a great diet and sounds like loads to me, but not enough protein in there. As they grow into teenagers they will want protein (especially if they get into the gym) and eggs won’t be enough.

I would start introducing chicken, and more fats not just from dairy (avocado, oli etc).
my teenage nephew basically lives off chicken, steak, avocado and eggs.

He’s very into smoothies.

You could switch to full fat yogurt which would be more filling & less sugar

An apple is not filling. What about some crumpets or something for a snack? My son, 7 eats me out of house and home. He has a thing for cheese at the moment and randomly peppers. He does eat crap too like crisp and naughty naughty sasuage rolls for lunch sometimes. He's a skinny sod. I'm not too strict on diet he just has to eat some fruit and veg and do some exercise.

This wont go well but some children can actually be greedy. I don’t buy into the ‘my child can eat as much as they want whenever they want’.

There’s no problem in saying no, you’ve had plenty of food. They won’t starve.

How about adding cheese to the toast at lunchtime and swapping the peas to baked beans at dinner? Maybe fish fingers to actual fish too?
I don’t think oatcakes are filling.

My youngest just came in and asked for a 'flat egg sandwich' (fried egg in a bap!). I honestly am not concerned about protein. They have plenty of full fat dairy, eggs, pulses, quorn, tofu, nuts, fish etc. If they want to eat meat when they are old enough to cook then fair enough. I think that my youngest is having a growth spurt at the moment as he is particularly relentless at the moment.

They actually did have cheese on toast!

I have 5 sons, all grown up now but yes as teenagers they really did eat me out of house and home!! I used to buy TONS of tortilla wraps, wholemeal rolls, eggs, cheese, cold meats, hummus, spinach, cereal and gallons of milk! Dinners were enormous lasagnas, cottage pies, casseroles, curries, stir fries & fish pies with a pile of bread and butter on the table at every meal too 😂

Those pesky little gannets!

Could it be boredom eating?

When are they back at school?

Children really sometimes don’t know the difference between hunger and thirst. Give them big glasses of water.

Tbh a quarter of a bag of new potatoes and 3 fish fingers isn't really substantial dinner, it's under 400kcal, So I'm not surprised their hungry. Especially if they've been very active today

Are they feeling satisfied by the food? I find that if I'm not satisfied by my dinner I keep wanting to snack and snack and snack.

That all sounds delicious. I cook similar things to that now but I'll have to double up quantity I think. I made a Mexican bean pie with cheesy mash yesterday which was a hit

lol so many people obsessed with protein and believing a meal isn’t a meal without MEAT wah wah

You sure they’re not just eating out of boredom, OP? @Joeydoesntsharefood25

People are stupid though, really. There is an obsession with getting more protein when actually, in the UK, the majority of people get more protein than they need and they actually need to increase their vegetable intake, by quite a lot… and fibre. We are very very low on the fibre intake.

If they're particularly relentless atm it's always worth checking they don't have worms.

I have a 26 and 16 year old - boys.
I think there should be some sort of government subsidy! A great day is when they’re out and they don’t need dinner. When DS2 has flown I think I’ll just eat soup and omelettes for ever more.

Hmm I better have a look at how I would know that. I haven't noticed a change in their bowels.

In my experience teenage boys eat about double a normal adult portion as standard.

sometimes less and occasionally much more.

There probably is an element of this now we are at the end of the xmas holidays. They are both utterly starving and miserable when I collect them from school because school dinners must not be big enough even though they have a big breakfast and have access to fruit at school. My youngest who has coeliacs lost a lot of weight before he was diagnosed and stopped growing for several months but he has now caught up and is the tallest in his class by a few inches. Hes the same height as most of the 7 year old in his brothers class. Their dad is over 6ft so I anticipate they will both be giants.

Oh god!

My eldest could grow 1cm in a week during a teen growth spurt. He used to get slightly plump round the middle and then stretch.

That isn’t many fishfingers. My 2y DD eats 3 fishfingers and 5y DD eats 6