To think it isn't normal to eat like this?

[2MumsAreBetterThan1]

Had a relative over for tea today aalong with her 9 year old daughter.

Served quite a large tea for a child as overcooked so at 6pm she ate (the 9 year old) a whole chicken breast, 6 boiled potatoes,.2 Yorkshire puddings and a large scoop each of cabbage, green beans, carrots and peas. She ate it all along with 2 slices of bread.

At 6.40 gave her pudding, just her as adults were too full to eat it , she ate all that and asked for more. Her plate was repeatedly filled with cheesecake until she had polished off a full cake designed to serve 6 .

By 7.30 she was complaining of hunger so her mum gave her a full pack of crackers (the big pack of Jacobs ones) all of which she ate.

At 8.15ish the adults were having a drink so got some nibbles out. doritoes, dips, mixed nuts, crisps and some cheese and crackers. She helped herself to these as well .

They left at 9pm by which point she was again complaining of hunger and her mum said I'll make you toast when we get in.

Needless to say she is overweight, now my daughter is a faddy eater so hard to compare but surely that's an excessive amount of food for a child?

No health issues, mum said she's always loved her food. Seemed to me like she was eating out of boredom a few times.

That's an incredible amount. I eat a fraction of one helping of that, and I'm a seasoned adult. I know growing kids need a lot, but Jaysus, that takes the actual biscuit...

How strange. I am just amazed that she could eat all that without throwing up. I'm on the greedy side myself , but I'd struggle to polish off a whole cheesecake, and if I did, I suspect I'd feel far too sick to eat anything else afterwards.

It doesn't sound like a normal way of eating for a child at all, and I would venture to suggest that both the mother and the child have a problem. Could you very gently suggest to the mother that she asks her GP about her dd's insatiable appetite?

I would have been sick if I ate a whole cheese cake after dinner. That is far too much for a nine year old.

It is weird to offer a child an entire cheesecake...

It is also unusual and a bit sad to let a child drink a whole bog bottle of pop.

Shame, as she could be really healthy if she just ate the normal lovely dinner you gave her.

Its normal in my house or would be if i let it. My dd would eat and eat and eat. Shes 8 and a skinny little thing.

I'm a bit that you say she ate a whole packet of Jacob's . You sure? Any exaggeration afoot here? I'm surprised she didn't quaff the the parents were drinking too.

My stick thin 12yo probably could put that away tbh, though he doesn't often get the opportunity. But he doesn't eat like that every day and he is growing very fast. I suspect he needs more food now than he will ever need later in life, certainly a lot more than his father or me. 9 seems quite early for that kind of growth spurt.

Prader-willi syndrome perhaps? The mum should be trying to curb that. A whole cheesecake?

The dinner sounds ok - it's about what my 10yo DS1 eats. He's not overweight though, according to the NHS calculator thingy. He does a lot of exercise.

I would not have let my DS1 (or any of my DC's) drink 2l of fizzy pop though. Maybe a 330ml can, once in a while, but not everyday, and not 2l. And eating the entirety of a 6 serving cheesecake! While I have no doubts that he could polish that off, even after that dinner, there's no way he would be allowed to! One serving is sufficient.

I would hazard a guess that it isn't an essentially balanced dinner that is making her overweight, but the 2l bottles of fizzy pop and eating entire cheesecakes.

It doesn't hurt a child to be told 'no' if they are asking for excessive amounts of food, or to tell them (as I would) that there is an apple in the fruit bowl, and of they are that hungry, feel free to have that!

I think this girl's mum needs to set some boundaries over food, and start redirecting her to a piece of fruit if she is still hungry after a reasonable amount of dinner, and a sensible serving of pudding, or even to say no to her.

She can eat like that because she ha either a medical condition, or has been over fed from birth.

You should not have allowed the eating of the whole chessecake, tbh.

You might not have any control over what her mother does with her, but you must know that a child shouldn't have ate a cake ment for six people.

It sometimes starts with giving a bottle as a baby, rather than comforting in other ways, then continues, children don't need attention when they are being fed crap and giving food is an easy way of kidding yourself that you are lavishing love on a child.

My parents over fed me, because of that i have the ability to eat ridiculous amounts of food, it stays with you, through life.

It took me years to train my body not to need as much food, whilst i was living at home, i used to have to hide food that i was expected to eat.

If it is medical, then it doesn't matter if she is overweight or not, she should still be seen by a doctor.

Even if a child is skinny, they need to learn to control their appetite, because they will eventually start to put on weight, or do their heart damage, unless they are filling up on veg.

Why was she allowed to eat a cheesecake designed for six? It's selfish for a start. And why bread with that meal? And why doritos two hours later? Too much food. Too much of everything. Not that I actually believe you but hey ho.

It's not Prader-Willi. I have a friend whose DC has that. Unless her mother has to deal with a child who will rip cupboard doors off their hinges because the food has been locked away, steal from lunchboxes on a rack at school, and eat from bins because they are still not sated, then it is unlikely to be Prader-Willi. Please don't try to diagnose via Internet!

It just sounds like an overindulged child who isn't told no or redirected to something healthier than 6 servings of pudding and 2l of fizzy.

Prader-Willi affects cognitive function, too, i think, it's not just about food, there are other distinctive symptoms.

Dare I say it, could she be bulemic? In any sense of the word (including non-purging sort).

Reading this is making me crave cheesecake, darnit.

It was a suggestion not a diagnosis. Believe me I know all about Prader-Willi. Equally you are dismissing over the internet, cowthy. You don't know what the situation is.

I was like that as a child and was rather chubby. I am now grown up and a size 8!

That's right Lijkk, it does to a certain extent. It doesn't have to be as extreme as ripping off cupboards either although agreed, that is the general manifestation.

Jerseys Christ

You were the adult serving up. You should have said no, not kept giving her ridiculous amounts of food then posting about her.

She is 9. If you were concerned you wouldn't have served up a cheesecake for 6 - omg are you actually kidding me? What were you thinking?! - and spoke. To her mother

I thought that Kayano but I believe the mother was serving.

Sorry, sounds crazy to me!! If the kid is overweight then all the thyroid excuses, puberty, growth spurt, etc are rubbish- she is simply used to overeating and greedy, obviously parents fault!

Limited, I think nine is old enough to know you shouldn't be demanding (whining for) more and more food from a host. Therefore by giving in to the demands and dishing out a whole cheesecake, the OP was encouraging bad manners. I sure as hell wouldn't tolerate even my two year old wanting more and more pudding when she's eaten a big meal and one portion of cake already. Just because she's maybe too young to know better, doesn't mean I'd let her get away with it. Even less so with a 9 year old.

But Maybe in your house you think it's ok for a child to get whatever he or she wants without ending up with a greedy attitude

It also encouraged the child's parents to be rude/inconsiderate, when they allowed their daughter to consume a desert intended for six.

What downton said.

My 3 have all got good appetites but there's no way I would allow them to eat a whole cheesecake. That's just greedy and rude.

At 9 the child won't know that it is wrong to do that, if all of the adults around her are keeping quite.

Children learn from adults.

Likewise the parents can stay in denial, if they are not challenged.

That's what I mean about adults encouraging poor behaviour. If the mother who kept dishing out the cheesecake had sat and eaten it all herself, we'd all be saying she was greedy and rude. But in this case she wasn't only rude, but taught her child that this was acceptable and not one of the other adults in the room disagreed. It would have been easy to whisk the rest of the cake away with a light hearted comment about saving some for everyone else.

That's what I mean about adults encouraging poor behaviour. If the mother who kept dishing out the cheesecake had sat and eaten it all herself, we'd all be saying she was greedy and rude. But in this case she wasn't only rude, but taught her child that this was acceptable and not one of the other adults in the room disagreed. It would have been easy to whisk the rest of the cake away with a light hearted comment about saving some for everyone else.