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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

Wtf do kids eat this much?

444 replies

Esmeismyhero · 01/03/2016 16:35

Ds is 5 and 3 months (I don't know if that is relevant)

He goes to school, he does karate one day a week and the weekend he is usually running around out etc. After school he watches his iPad, does homework, runs around the house, plays toys etc.

He is very slim but very tall for his age. Lately he has been eating me out of house and home.

Today for example he ate

A bowl of cherrios
An apple
A school dinner
1/2 punnet of grapes
5 strawberries
2 x chicken dinosaurs
Beans

He is apparently still hungry????

Hasn't he had enough? Or Aibu?

He will have milk before bed and I'll ask dh to give him a carrot if he is still hungry while I'm at work tonight. He likes eating whole carrots on his own, I keep finding the carrot stalks hidden :/

OP posts:
Eggsandketchup · 01/03/2016 20:37

My 11 year old ds eats like the OP's five year old some days. Probably about 50% of the time. About another 20% of the time he eats a little bit more and the rest of the time he eats everything in the house, everything in his sight, everything not nailed down, everything everything everything! He'll eat more than me and dp put together and then some. His appetite varies wildly but I just go with it. There's ALWAYS food available which he can help himself to whenever he likes. If the op's kid has food available (not just carrots) to him all the time, let him regulate his own intake.

My ds is 50th centile for height, and between 25th and 50th centile for weight. He's followed these lines since birth.

SuperFlyHigh · 01/03/2016 20:37

Well then.... When I was a child we had cereal and toast for breakfast, packed lunch (sandwich, fruit, yoghurt and or crisps and bar like club), or school dinners which was plus pudding. When home maybe a snack like fruit, crisps or hot cross bun. Maybe more. Then full dinner (spaghetti bolognese etc) then either pudding or nothing.

It was certainly spread out and fewer or few snacks. If we were out for the day more got consumed eg ice creams etc.

JemimaHighway · 01/03/2016 20:39

Wtf with the threads tonight?!? Is it uni holidays or somdthinh

stressedcoversupervisor · 01/03/2016 20:41

Thinking about DP's DD who is 4, when I last saw her on Saturday she had

Cereal and milk for breakfast
Banana
Bacon sandwich
Banana
Apple
Chicken, rice and veg
Apple

She loves fruit but only apple and bananas. Probably not the best diet but there we go. Think your DS needs carbs with his dinner too. Also chicken breast is probably better than chicken dinosaurs.

Squiff85 · 01/03/2016 20:41

Thats not much I don't think.

My daughter is 5 and in a day would eat -

toast
cereal
fruit

fruit for snack

school dinner &pud

afterschool snack - teacake, cereal bar, fruit, muffin, crisps etc.

Dinner or a tea (2 slice sandwich, tomatoes, cucumber) and pud

And sometimes milk&biscuit before bed!

Hassled · 01/03/2016 20:44

Just wait until you have teenage boys. All I seem to do these days is go to work, come home and place online Sainsbury's orders for yet more food.

TantrumsAndBalloons · 01/03/2016 20:45

When dd was 5 she would have eaten more than that
When ds1 was 5 the only food he ate was chicken nuggets, cheese, strawberries, crackers and cucumber so he would have eaten that
When ds2 was 5 he probably would have eaten about the same as the OPs son but he would have had sliced red peppers, not carrots.

Fancy that. Every 5 year old is different.

You know, there's ways of suggesting stuff to people without telling them they are neglectful and starving their children.

Just for the record- my ds1 who are 6 foods for about 18 months is now 17 and has eaten the following today
Bowl of coco pops
2 slices of toast.
A crumpet
A banana
Some form of McDonald/subway/kfc as they are all within a couple of minutes of college
2 tuna and cheese rolls
A blueberry muffin
A yogurt
Some pineapple
A protein shake
3 pieces of jerk chicken, rice, salad, bread
A pot of jelly.

No doubt he will eat again later.

Funny old world isn't it

lavenderhoney · 01/03/2016 20:47

I missed the spinach and kale smoothie:) I am a keen on this stuff but even I would be er, um:)

dont run away op- maybe he used to be ok with that but now wants more. Get into cooking with him - and let him menu plan for himself. It will take a while but he knows what he wants and needs.

My ex dh whom happens to be a Michelin star chef and fully knowledgeable about nutrition and what people eat etc was amazed and horrified at the cost of feeding growing DC. He thinks they eat tiny portions and actually they eat more than me. Due to cost i eat their leftovers. I'm v slim as well:)

AppleSetsSail · 01/03/2016 20:49

Mine are 10 and 13 now but I remember them being on essentially adult-sized diets by the time they were 5.

needanewjob · 01/03/2016 20:51

My nearly five year old eats way more than this. At breakfast he will have a cereal and either a crumpet or some toast every day and rarely leaves any.

DixieNormas · 01/03/2016 20:51

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

OliviaDunham · 01/03/2016 20:51

Apple adult size portions at age 5? Me and DS1 who is 12 have similar size meals (though he often clears his plate and looks for more while I don't finish mine), there's no way my 6 year old would eat that size meal!

PurpleHairAndPearls · 01/03/2016 20:53

Goodness some of these replies make it pretty obvious why so many of us are fatter these days. It's amazing how many people on MN who have DC who eat shitloads yet they're all skinny/like string/waif likeWink Some of the amounts mentioned here are so OTT for children to be eating, particularly with all the snacking.

Before anyone gets the hump, I have DC - and some are teens and get the coco pops thing particularly late at night Grin and they have their moments but they eat less than some of the under 10s mentioned on this thread. I wonder how some of these DC will regulate their own eating when they grow up.

Without knowing what the OP's DC had for a school dinner, it's difficult to assess but I don't think it's anywhere near as unreasonable as some people on here seem to think.

DixieNormas · 01/03/2016 20:53

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

madmomma · 01/03/2016 20:54

Hey fair play to her dixie!!

FunnysInLaJardin · 01/03/2016 20:55

just for comparison DS2 aged 6 ate today

two slices of toast (although I suspect his brother helped him)
A ham wrap
a Frube
a bag of mini cheddars
a mini roll
two wafer biscuits
half a large pizza.

Thats about normal tbh. He didn't eat his apple or baked beans.

Doesn't sounds vastly different to the OP except that it doesn't seem a lot to me. Just a normal amount.

xenapants · 01/03/2016 21:00

What's more worrying about this post is that at 5 the child is already hiding evidence of having eaten things that he's not supposed to have (carrots, FFS!) Somehow, hes getting the message that he is eating too much and shouldn't be having his extra carrots (!!!!), which is clearly ridiculous since he's obviously hungry and not being fed sufficiently. This poor child is going to end up with an eating disorder.

I can't bear mothers who think that eating like a bird is some kind of virtue and force that sick attitude onto their children.

Gileswithachainsaw · 01/03/2016 21:00

tbing is if you break it down

its breakfast

snack

dinner with a pudding

snack

snack

dinner

now that a pretty regular eating patter amd quantity of food.

the issue is the lack of fat and protein amd anything substantial but the frequency and portion size is fine.

if the turkey dinosaurs are the same size as what I'm. thinking then 2 is about sufficient. my Dds only have say 3 fish fingers. dd1 about half a chicken breast or 1/3rd of a big one. Dd2 probably has around 1/3rd or 1/4 depending on size.

kids are meant to be slim and eat child size portions. I'd say alot of the kids on here eat too much rather than ops eat to little . oh my bad - starved Hmm

DixieNormas · 01/03/2016 21:01

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

notgoingabroad · 01/03/2016 21:04

I agree breakfast and lunch and snacks are OK Giles but not the dinner.

SatsGrrrr · 01/03/2016 21:05

Lately he has been eating me out of house and home You mean he eats less than this usually?

cornishglos · 01/03/2016 21:11

Well I feel better as I constantly worry about my 2yo not eating.

I worry. Today was average and he had

Small bowl of shreddies
Piece of toast with peanut butter
2 satsumas
Half a smoked mackerel
Small piece of flapjack
A biscuit
Half a packet of carrot puff crisp things
A few spoonfuls of beans and cheese
3 sweet potato chips
Milk

ElderlyKoreanLady · 01/03/2016 21:14

I'm surprised it didn't take longer for someone to come along and insinuate that other posters' children are secretly fat.

nephrofox · 01/03/2016 21:14

I don't think it's an abnormally small amount, but the issue is he isn't full. Ergo, he needs more food (today, not necessarily every day). Agree with the suggestions of less fruit and more carbs / protein. Eg a ham & cheese sandwich for breakfast instead of cheerios.

Jumping on the bandwagon, for comparison my 3 yo yesterday ate

B: 2 bowls of cheerios. Banana (after I refused him a 3rd bowl of cereal)

Lunch:
1/4 cheese sandwich
2 bites of ham
Carrot sticks (probably half a carrot)
Yoghurt
Shortbread biscuit

Snack: 2 fig rolls and an apple

Dinner: fish pie with peas

Weetabix before bed

Gileswithachainsaw · 01/03/2016 21:18

dinner kind of depends on what the schopl meal was.

I mean we are used to alot if double carbing on meals in that two items on a plate looks like it's not enough.think lasagne garlic bread and salad, burger chips and beans, toast and hash browns with a fry up.

without knowing the kids usual appetite it's hard to say.

between beans a ton of fruit and cheerios and teh processed chicken and stodgy puddings at school it's probably caused more of a sugar crash/craving/crash/ craving rather than being actually hungry.

if my kids have a main meal for lunch they only have toast and peanut butter for tea.

if what they are eating is more substantial then actually the portions are usually smaller and they eat less. so a few swaps and he could well be a shorter list of food. it's just better food