My ds (8), has a really sweet tooth and a general love of food. I'd say he can eat way more than I could at his age. He is genuinely a healthy weight.
I'm conscious of weight because I know he'd eat an unlimited amount of crisps/chocolate etc if allowed. I don't deny any foods but I try to keep track in my mind what junk food he's had.
When he was younger 3-4 years old my mum would look after him and I realised she was literally plying him with food. She'd give him a roast dinner or chips and beans and bread, then a cheese sandwich, then she'd have a large corner type yoghurt, a cornetto, a slice of cake, all in the space of a couple of hours, he'd come home with stomach ache.
If we stopped by briefly she'd make him cheese on toast even if we'd eaten.
After much discussion she reluctantly stopped. Now it's my in laws that doing it, example he was with them he had a packet of crisps, a Belgian bun, a crunchie bar and a chocolate muffin.
I went to my sisters and he'd had a jam tart and I was in the kitchen she'd given him a large bag of popcorn.
We visited a friend and he was given two buttons yoghurt deserts, crisps, an ice cream and a meal that would have fed two.
Just for context my idea of a normal days diet would be something like porridge, snack of a banana, lunch a sandwich/eggs on toast, apple and maybe some crisps then evening meal of spag bol/roast dinner/chicken potato and salad maybe a pudding like a yoghurt or fruit.
Everyone thinks it's a big joke and laughs that he loves sweets or where does he put it.
Surely it's not normal for friends and family to ply children with all that? It's got where I can't test him myself to an ice cream at the park if we are visiting anyone.
It's really hard to be assertive especially when people just hand him cakes without even checking with me first.