To ask what your school age child eats?

[Mangomohito]

I'm ordering in terms of the timings of meals, breakfast, lunch, dinner, pudding (every day?). Snacks, what do they have after school.

Are they a healthy weight? Do you tend to have sweet foods in the house?

Please be honest, my 8 year old has always been very sugar obsessed. If he hasn't got access to sugary treats he turns to other foods I try to steer him towards healthier foods.

It might help me to get an insight into others how I could maybe tweak things a bit.

Ds2(9) is on the 9th centile for height & weight. A typical day is:
breakfast: 2 bowls of cereal with milk
breakfast club: toast & orange juice
break: cereal bar
lunch: cooked dinner at school
after-school club: bagel/wrap
tea: pasta, bacon/chicken nuggets & veg/pizza/sausage & chips
evening: cereal with milk
He usually eats several apples a day too.

Typical day for my teens:

Breakfast - Shreddies or similar with milk, an orange, fruit juice, tea, full English breakfast if offered (rarely!)

Lunch: supermarket 'meal deal' of wrap, coconut water, crisps plus fruit, 2 muesli bars

Dinner - Baked salmon or chicken with rice and three veg, apple crumble, custard

Snacks - large home made fruit smoothie with 10% fat Greek yoghurt, full fat latte, unsalted nuts, chocolate, cheese and crackers, sweets, toast with Nutella or jam, fruit, more cereal with milk - yes, all of these things in one day

These are v active teens, one does a daily walking paper round, one plays
sport at a v high level. Their BMIs are all 16.3 - 19.

Very active Dd age 10
Breakfast - coco pops cup of tea piece of toast
Lunch. - small tub of pasta, pesto and 6 pimento olives, yoghurt, handful of grapes, rice cake, 6 raspberries, an apple.
Dinner. - 1 lamb chop and 10 chips, sweet corn with mixed peppers.
Pudding - pingu
Sounds like s lot when you write it down She is quite tall for her age and wears 11 year old size clothes.

Don't really do snacks, but bananas and the occasional packet of crisps (walkers)

DS5

B: toast with butter & marmite, hot choc with full fat milk.
L: school dinner & pudding.
Snacks: He usually has a piece of fruit at school, then a sandwich/crackers with fruit after school.
Dinner: hot dinner like spag Bol & a yoghurt.

Milk before bed.

both very active kids, ds2 is on a restricted diet due to multiple allergies.

Todays they've had...

BF - shreddies, or wheatbix, slice of wholemeal toast, and loaded dairy free fruit and veg smoothie.

L - chicken strips, homemade hummus with carrot sticks, homemade quinoa and oat bar slice, handful of blueberries.

D - fish pie with broccoli and kale

Supper, ds1 is having a yogurt and a banana] and ds2 (allergies) is having dairy free banana bread and a dairy free loaded smoothie (he has this every night)

Tomorrow they are having the same, except for main meals, we are having king prawn and Turkey stir-fry.

I have two DCs (7 and 4)

Breakfast- one bowl of cereal usually shreddies,or wetabix with semi-skimmed milk with orange juice or water.

School break- grapes or Apple slices

Lunch at school - chicken or ham sandwich (eldest has two slice of bread , youngest has one piece folded over), yoghurt, grapes , carrot sticks and water.

Lunch at home - soup and a couple of crackers , or chicken wraps with lettuce and tomato and mini chedders with water.

Dinner- can be lots of different things, spaghetti Bolognese , chicken and leek pie , mash and peas. Meatballs and pasta. Tuna pasta, curry and rice. All usually served with peas and sweetcorn or mixed veg.
Pudding is usually ice cream or a chocolate biscuit.

We don't really do snacks but if they want something they can have a piece of fruit .

We also usually have takeaway once a month.

Both DCs are a healthy weight and we try to keep them active. Youngest is very active anyway in general. Eldest is harder to keep active but we make sure she at least comes on a walk with us for half an hour everyday.

God it's so tough. That book I linked to above does have a piece on managing children who overeat. But I don't think you will be comfortable with it. As I recall, she was v big on people finding their own appetite balance.

I do think you are possibly being over controlling. I'd forget about trying to control what happens outside the home for example. At parties I'd remind him the food is for sharing and for that reason he should not eat all the jam tarts! I think I'd also try to give him more control by buying the treats for the week and letting him eat the lot if he wants. When it's gone then, It's gone. This is tough on everyone else. But in the end he has to start learning to self regulate it and you have to start somewhere.

Some outside guidance would be useful I'd say as it is a v tricky issue.

My 5yo has...
Breakfast: porridge in the week
or cereal and crumpets/croissants at the weekend.
Lunch: at school roast dinner/pizza/pasta and then pudding is usually cake based. At the weekend we have beans on toast/soup/sandwiches with veg sticks and fruit.
Dinner: something like spag bol or cottage pie. Last night we had vegetable rosti, poached eggs and vegetables. Puddings during the week are fruit or yogurt and at the weekends ice cream/jelly/cake/cheesecake.
Snacks: after school these tend to be protein based or she'd be non stop earing, so boiled egg or peanut butter on crackers/apple or chunks of cheese and cucumber. At the weekends snacks are usually fruit.

I suppose in general she doesn't have much sugar at home but then that allows for the influx at her grandparents and also if we're out and about at the weekends. Drinks are milk and water although sometimes she likes flavoured milk but this might be once a fortnight.

8 yr old.

2.5 weetbisks. (smallish) with whole milk.
apple snack
packed lunch: the middle part of two slices of bread cheese sandwich, fruit cucmber
snack: bananas (up to three) jacket potato
tea: varies: mosly a large bowl of veg, with some carbs. (rice/pasta, potato)
pudding: occasionally. mostly fruit. sometimes christmas biscuit. (ie the box we buy at christmas and the last few usually get chucked for being out of date)

7yo. V active. V slim
Breakfast - bowl of cereal
Lunch - school dinner
Snack -toast/carrot
After school - sandwich, choc bar
No main meal as had meal at lunch

My DS is almost 5. A typical day:

Breakfast: porridge, boiled egg or cereal (nothing sugary)

Snack: fruit

lunch: sandwich or pasta, cucumber and carrot or tomatoes

Afternoon snack: cereal bar, dried fruit or fruit

Dinner: Main meal with veg

'Supper': rice cakes + fruit + yoghurt usually

On a normal school day no sweets, cakes or biscuits (school doesn't allow them and we don't eat them daily at home)

Primary age DS.

Breakfast - breakfast club in the week so toast, fruit, fruit juice usually. Weekends he usually has porridge.

Break time snack of fruit.

Lunch - school dinner. Weekends he will have a pack lunch at theatre school or a light lunch at home, scrambled egg on toast etc. He doesn't really like school puddings. Fruit plus malt loaf/biscuit in his pack up.

Snack at after school club - toast/soup/cheese and crackers/cereal etc.

Dinner - home made cooked dinner. Yoghurt or mousse for pudding.

He doesn't snack much in the house, has free access to fruit bowl but I don't buy much in the way if biscuits etc as I'm diabetic. He likes a bit of cheese or a peperami sometimes.

I have no idea what the high schooler eats half the time, I just too up the meal card!

They are pretty active and often do 6 hours of dance/musical theatre on a weekend.

My son (6)
Breakfast - either rice crispies or a munch bunch yoghurt and a banana. Will eat toast at his dads - but doesn’t like my toast 🙄 exact same bread and butter used FFS. He usually tries to skip breakfast tho.

Lunch - ham sandwiches ALWAYS! He takes packed lunch in school so I pack these along with a Frube and a packet of mini cookies.

Dinner - meat is either chicken burgers ( the birds eye ones ) gammon ( have to call it ham or he won’t eat it) or sausages. For carbs the “fries to go” will not eat oven chips etc. Or Sainsbury’s ready made mash (hates my mash!

And that’s about it. He doesn’t like sweeties or chocolate/ crisps won’t even try them. I usually put some veg in a ramekin pot along with his dinner. He tried a carrot once lol. But I still keep trying will little amounts as it usually goes to waste.

I used to get really stressed and upset about his eating habits. I try to set such a good example and always eat a variety of meals myself. But honestly after year of this.... as long as he’s eating something I’m happy.