To wonder if my 4yo wants too much food?

[BlurryFace]

DS1 is 4 and has recently started demanding lots of food.

Yesterday is a good example.

He had:

Alphabites cereal for breakfast, soup and toast and hot chocolate at playschool for snack (he didn't eat the soup), his packed lunch (half a cheese sandwich, banana, grapes and a fromage frais) then I picked him up and he immediately demanded an apple - fine, I got him one when we were home along with a couple of choccy buttons - and once he ate it he immediately demanded tea. At 3pm!!! Tea was sausages and sweet potato mash and frozen veggies. He didn't eat the frozen veggies but scoffed his sausage and mash and when DS2 didn't touch his mash he climbed over the table to eat it!

He's quite tall for his age and very slim - you see every rib and back muscle IYSWIM, but he's food obsessed - if I go to the kitchen "are you cooking tea? Are there treats? I want I want I want". He will literally polish off breakfast and start asking when I'm making lunch! Piss off, I've not had my coffee yet you little terror!

When I say no I often get floods of tears and I've had to work on his politeness as well - marching into granny's and bellowing "do you have grapes or not?!?!" obvs isn't on.

My only mum friend to ask about this has the opposite problem - a seriously restrictive eater who eats like a bird and is tiny for her age and looks at me like I'm mad when I say DS1 wants to eat all day.

So is he asking for too much food? I feel like he gets loads!

Just a little thought if he's not a big veg person, as my son isn't either. He likes sweet potato mash so mash some carrot through it too and maybe some finely chopped red pepper if you can get away with it. Grate or blend carrots, courgette, whatever into pasta sauces or cottage pies or whatever sauce based foods he'll eat. Always put some plain veg on the plate too but hide what you can! It's better than nothing. My son will eat fruit by the bucket load but I need to be creative when it comes to veg

You should focus on the quality of the food as others have said. He should have as much fruit and vegetables as he likes and more protein. No commercial breakfast foods, they are empty calories and full of sugar. He should have virtually no sugar. Sugar will cause his blood sugars to go up too quickly and then plummet. When they drop he will be ravenous. Give him long lasting carbs, porridge is one of the best for sating sugar dips, Pasta is more satisfying than mash. He is not starving if he leaves the veg. If he is hungry he needs food, but he needs the right food. No processed food or sugar, junk food at all

I agree - not enough, especially the lunch. My DD ate small adult portions at that age, and plenty of filling carbs such as pasta, potatoes as well as protein. I would try to compensate the too-small lunch with a more sustaining breakfast such as eggs or porridge, and a small meal in the afternoon in between lunch and dinner - not just a snack. Eg plate of cold meats,veg sticks, hummus, malt loaf, soup. Or a full cooked meal at 3 and smaller complete meal in evening.

I am amazed that playschool would give hot chocolate as a snack, I would be furious. I dont know what alphabites are but sounds like a commercial cereal. If he wont eat porridge give him egg for breakfast, poached scrambled or boiled. He should be eating some meat now, and plenty of cheese. No chicken nuggets. Mix fish in with his potato

I read that thinking ‘that’s not much food for an active 4 year old’. My very slim (9th centile) just 4 year old DD eats more than that.
Her average diet is a boiled egg and slice of toast for breakfast, followed by a small bowl of fruit (grapes/blueberries etc), a snack at pre school (usually breadsticks, fruit and a glass of milk). She takes a packed lunch to pre school and usually has a bowl of pasta salad, a yoghurt, some chopped carrot and cucumber and a homemade banana muffin), she is starving when she gets home and has some cheese and crackers, then something like sausage and mash, chicken curry and rice, lasagne etc for dinner.
If he’s slim and active, and asking for more food, I’d give him more food.

Crumbs, my 4 and almost 3 year old eat a lot more than that!

I only give them cereal as a 'treat' since it just doesn't fill them up 😬 3 blooming bowls of Cheerios (Ikea plastic kids bowls) and they're still hungry).

Pancakes, boiled eggs, breakfast muffins etc are all good for filling tummies.

I'm still doing morning and afternoon tea - cheese and crackers, fruit, pancakes, eggs, popcorn...

I generally do a cold lunch - sandwiches (2 slice of bread sandwich), pitta/hummus/cheese/veg stick tapas type plate, Spanish omelette, quiche etc

Dinner is always hot, but the portions seem big these days. 3 fish fingers, a mound of pasta, 4 of those mini tortilla boats loaded up with rice on the side...

Similarly, my girls are both slim and constantly on the go

Today my 4 year old had.....
Hot chocolate
Cheese on toast
Banana
Apple
Tomato soup
Toast with butter
Roast lamb
Potato
1 piece cake

My very picky and tiny 2 year old eats about that (on a good day). My very tall and slim 4 year old eats much more.

Less sugar, more protein and more cheese!

I don't think you should worry about him eating too much, my DS is also four and yesterday he had

Breakfast - porridge, banana and a yoghurt.
Snack - brioche roll
Lunch - chicken broth with 2 slices of whole meal bread
Snack - cut up apple and strawberries
Tea - two homemade fish cakes, potato wedges and peas.
Supper - babybel and a couple of crackers

After I've made a meal, he will often request seconds, or ask me to make the tea now, or tell me to make it faster! I follow his lead really, he is tall for his age and also quite slim and they grow so rapidly it must increase their appetite quite a lot, I figure if he's asking for it he's hungry. He also goes through phases of eating much less, between growth spurts maybe so it all evens out in the end.

Oh my 5 year old would eat all day if he could! He easily demolishes an adult size portion of chicken, mash and veg. He's very tall for his age and there isn't an ounce of fat on him. Is he drinking enough? My DS is always hungrier when he hasn't drank enough. Whenever he's asking for food I let him have a snack, there's always fruit for him to have and I always get him to have a drink too.

Also, as pp have said, I pack him full of protein!

It doesn't seem like much to me, but my skinny minnies eat constantly. They're 6 and 3. Yesterday for example:

Cereal, a slice of toast and an apple for breakfast.

Banana and rich tea biscuits (3) for snack.

Meatballs (6 each) in 5 veg sauce and pasta for lunch.

Chips, ham and cheese for snack.

Chicken, new potatoes and veg for dinner.

More apples and toast.

More chicken.

I run out of ideas for things to give them. My whole day revolves around cooking and clearing up food! Usually only as bad as this for around 2 weeks though, then they'll shoot up 2 inches and reduce back to about 2 thirds of the above for however long.

My two year old ds eats a lot, much more than dd who is 9. Dd is normal weight and ds is whippet thin. I would give him boiled eggs or porridge instead of cereal as my ds is never satisfied after cereal.

It does sound like very little food. My petite 3.5 year old typically has:

Two cups of dry cereal - Cheerios, cornflakes, mini weetabix (I'd prefer her to have eggs or porridge like me but she refuses all alternatives)
Fruit
Mid- morning snack - an organix bar or whatever is on offer at toddler group
Lunch - she won't eat sandwiches so usually a plate of a selection of cooked salmon or chicken, ham, cheese, toms, cucumber carrots and around three crackers
Fruit
Sometimes a breadstick or other small snack in the afternoon
Dinner - tonight it's steak, mashed potato and veg. She's also asked for animal pasta as she saw it in the cupboard. Other dinners always have a protein element
Sometimes more fruit for dessert. Occasionally a cake or biscuit if we've made some
Evening snack - two of organix bar, raisins, cheddars, breadstick, toddler biscuit

She's a little and often eater (like me) so her meals aren't huge but the overall quantity is more than you describe, OP. She's fairly tall and on about the 20th centile for weight.

my little boy is a grazer so am I he's 4. I had a thread the other day about him being underweight it turned out he's not but plenty of people said their 3 year old eat more than he does so I think what they eat varies a lot. He asks for food quiet alot and doesnt eat huge amounts at a time. I give him food whenever he asks and he stops when he says he's full. Today he had half a large Apple with a handful of dry bran flakes then a slice of toast I gave 2 but he left 1. He had a snack about a hour later of scotch pancake and blueberries and a babybell. Lunch he had one slice of seedy toast with a boiled egg but he only ate the egg white, he had some ham with ir as we had just been to tbe butchers and a yoghurt for afterwards. He had another half a Apple and some blueberries this afternoon then for tea we are having sausage with potato and butternut squash mash with broccoli, carrots, Kale and sugarsnap peas and a yorkshire. He will probably eat 2 sausages. He usually has seedy crackers for supper and a large cup of warm milk. I would just keep letting him eat when he wants but maybe try a more filling breakfast and larger lunch snacks like a banana are more filling if he loves fruit.

I don't think a boiled egg is a treat, Winona (by all means paint me as a maniac instilling anorexia though) but everyone is saying "he needs more protein" "his packed lunch is too small" so by filling up his treat "slot" in his lunchbag with an egg or some cold meat then that would help - and to him boiled eggs are amazing. Christ.

puddleduckmummy, come to think of it he has recently started to drink much less than he used to. He used to drink loads and loads and pee constantly. I guess he was previously filling up with water and that's why the sudden increase in appetite?

Anyway, DS1 is currently cross because having just eaten two bits of fruit loaf with butter for a snack he isn't allowed a cereal bar before his tea which is in 15-20 minutes and instead has to wait until afterwards to see if he is still hungry.

I give my almost 5yr old Dd plain yogurt and granola for breakfast as it fills her up more than cereal and milk,
On a school day she has fruit as a mid morning snack, and then a cooked lunch at school, after school usually a snack of fruit or yogurt. And then probably another cooked dinner for tea, I try to cook from scratch as much as possible, and make sure that they get plenty of slow carbs such as pasta/rice/ potatoes. As well as lots of veg diced up small in the sauce etc.
Also instead of sandwiches I often do crackers and cheese.

I think you need to measure his weight and height as judging by eye isn’t the best way. A lot of kids are overweight so you can’t compare and a kids would have to be considerably overweight for you to be unable to see the muscles/ribs in their back. It’s not an arse that tends to have much of a fat covering!
If he is underweight then I would be looking to increase what he eats (but work on his manners!). If he’s a healthy weight then stay as you are. Only if he was overweight would I think about restricting his food intake.

😭 Oh God! It’s not an AREA that tends to have much of a fat covering.

Yes, I suppose you're right Porkflute. I'm dreadfully lazy about that sort of thing, last time he was weighed and measured was his 3 and a half check, where he was 98th centile height and weight and eating like a bird.

My 4yo is 75th for height and 25th for weight.

Today he has had
Two weetabix with honey and milk
An apple for snack
Pasta with tomato and vegetables for lunch - asked for seconds so got another scoop. He had some grated cheese on top.
A carrot for snack
Chicken curry with rice and hidden veg.
Two fromage frais yogurts.

He asks for food a lot. I try to give him healthy options and choices. Sometimes he has biscuits etc but not often.

We walked for about two hours this morning on a quest for milk. He's also run around other his sister all afternoon.

Maybe try getting him to drink more. My DS will have a snack then say he's still hungry but he hasn't drank his drink so I tell him he isn't having anything else until he's drank that. Most of the time that will keep him going to the next meal. Not always but it's nice when it does!

When I was four I would eat everything. Was know to family as 'bottomless pit'...

My seven year old is absolutely ganet. Always has been and I guess always will be. She is stick thin. If I gave her that at four she would be behaving similarly...

Feed him more, definitely. More protein, and bigger meals if you don’t want constant snacking. My youngest DC is 22 months and he eats more than that.

Today was a fairly typical day for him-

Breakfast- Big bowl of porridge, a banana, some blueberries, slice of toast with peanut butter.

Lunch- Tuna mayo and salad sandwich with sweet corn, lettuce, red pepper. Half a bag of crisps, Babybel.

Dinner- Lentil&mushroom cottage pie, yoghurt and a chocolate orange rice cake for pudding. Cup of milk.