DD hungry

[Bluefargo]

Hi there - my DD is complaining of being hungry in the evenings. She is 5 years old and tall, average weight for her height but not skinny (has a bit of a tummy but nothing to worry about)

Anyhow - she eats well but always asks for more food after dinner or complains of being hungry. Following is a typical day maybe you could advise if this seems enough or am I not giving her enough?

Breakfast
1 or 2 Weetabix with milk

Snack
Cheese stick
Petit filous
Piece of fruit

Lunch
Wholemeal sandwich with ham or cheese or plain butter/jam
Piece of fruit

3pm Snack - will sometimes have crackers with butter or a banana. Sometimes a digestive biscuit with a glass of milk

5pm Dinner (about 1/3 of an adult portion) - typically something like
Egg fried rice
Or roast chicken, broccoli and mash
Or beans on toast

Dessert if we are having it might be berries or watermelon, ice cream the odd time

Dinner is usually eaten and by 6:30 she is starving again and asking for toast with butter. We don't give her this and give fruit only after this stage but she could easily eat a banana, apple and tangerine at this stage.

Seems like a massive quantity of food for a child who is not very active other than playing / walking 15 mins to and from school. She's not doing any sports yet.

There's also very little protein until dinner time

Really? I'd have thought that milk with breakfast, cheese and yogurt for a morning snack, ham or cheese in a sandwich and a glady if milk in the afternoon would count as reasonable portions of protein. How much should she be having?!

The amount seems fine quite a lot actually with the snacks.

But it's all bready and sugar

None of that will really fill her up.

Would she eat things like eggs and nuts and seeds? Ditch the cheese stick for actual cheese. Despite claiming to he cheese it's processed nore than regukar cheese and isn't as filling.

As everyone else said, more protein and fat, less carbs and sugar. Amount of food seems fine, just switch up the type a bit.

You aren't feeding her very well- weetabix, bread, bread, sugar, sugar. You need to feed her more complex food and better portion sizes. Why wouldn't you feed your hungry child?

It sounds as though your DD is grazing through the day - meals look on the lighter side and snacks look quite substantial - not that there's anything wrong with that. I'm a grazer too :)

My DC often ask for more food after dinner, but I tend to only offer something nutritious like fruit, raw veg or nuts - they usually decline as they're not genuinely hungry, just fishing for more pudding!

Typical school day for them would be:

Breakfast (7am):
Full fat live natural yogurt with a handful of cereal and / or fruit.
Slice of toast with marmite or peanut butter.

Lunch (12.30pm)
Cheese sandwich.
Cucumber sticks.
Apple.
Cereal bar, crisps or nuts.

(They often eat part of their lunch as a snack, either mid-morning at school or when they get home.)

Tea (5.30pm):
Felafels.
New potatoes.
Humous.
Pepper and carrots sticks.
Fruit and a bit of chocolate, cake or sweets (whatever we have around).

They snack a bit more at the weekends - usually a croissant or piece of toast and jam for '3rd breakfast' and biscuits, cake, ice cream etc if we go out or have visitors.

I don't agree with some posters that a meal has to be 'meat, potatoes and veg' to be a proper balanced meal - but you could try more variety with protein and carbs. If you think she's genuinely hungry after dinner, try something nutritious and not too sugary - seedy toast with butter, full fat yogurt with a bit of banana, etc.

Both my kids are average shape and size - DD is skinnier than DS, but she's also naturally more active - she likes to leap about and he likes to lounge :)

"not that there's anything wrong with that."

Well it's clearly wrong for the DD, or else she wouldn't be complaining that she was hungry all the time.

Proper dinner doesn't need to be meat and two veg, but most of us prefer not to eat dry, plain food all day, every day either.

It just seems very unsurprising to me that the kid wants something more than yet another cracker or satsuma. Food satiety is about more than just calories or proportions of food groups.

My 18 month old eats more than that in a day! She is 98 centile for weight and height so she is a big toddler but that doesn't seem that much for a very active 5 year old to me.

My children are grazers too, apparently it's healthier as it keeps sugars stable rather than up and down. But that isn't a huge amount of food as even without sports kids are constantly on the move playing and growing. My children's diets are a work in progress as they are quite picky but because of this I do focus on what I am feeding them more. We have a big breakfast - usually scrambled eggs, beans and toast and then fruit and yoghurt, sometimes a croissant or pancakes for a treat.
Snacks are fruit and crackers with cheese, nuts, I have a ready supply of carrot and cucumber sticks with hummus which they are always welcome to, they like avacado and tomatoes too - I allow them to snack on these at will as they graze all day it feels... Dinner time they eat a decent amount and I make sure there is always fresh veg, a protein and a carb in the meal. Dessert varies but frozen yoghurt, fruit are always popular, and then they all have a bowl of porridge before bed. They are all slim kids, food is never restricted if it's the right type of food.

Can't you just up her portion size at dinner? It's clearly not enough. And a bigger lunch too. Some snacks like a boiled egg, veg sticks etc might be more filling than the constant fruit.

Lunch is no way enough. There’s not enough protein. Egg fried rice won’t fill her up long term due to the peak and throughs of the carb release. Far too much carbs and bread and fruit.

Is 1/3rd of an adult portion for dinner enough? I wouldn't think so.
My daughter is 15 months and eats about as much as I do at mealtimes

My DD has just turned 8 and is as skinny as a greyhound and for packed lunch she eats

A sandwich - cheese or ham, 2 slices of bread not a half sandwich
A yoghurt
Cucumber sticks
A carton of smoothie
A banana
Another portion of fruit (strawberries, or nectarine etc)
A treat such as 2 x biscuits, slice of malt loaf or a granola bar

Your DD needs protein at lunch too, and maybe add nuts to her snacks at home to fill her up

I agree that lunch isn't enough. And fruit is (except banana) not filling so she needs more for dessert.

But offer her more dinner when she finishes her portion, if she's hungry she'll go for it.

And there's nothing wrong with toast or cereal for supper if they're still hungry.

As long as you're avoiding sweets and chocolate (and fruit!) that's fine.

If you can, then increase protein portions so that lunch always involves protein (rather than or in addition to jam/butter)- try things like tuna mayo, fish finger sandwiches, peanut butter (if she's not allergic) and make sure dinner involves plenty of protein too.

Breakfast she could have a yoghurt alongside her weetabix or she could have the yoghurt when hungry in the evening.

Okay, MNs: hands up - who spends more time thinking about protein than a) sex b) their own parents and c) their actual children?

Okay, MNs: hands up - who spends more time thinking about protein than a) sex b) their own parents and c) their actual children?

Me! 🙋

Disclaimer: Sex is a thing of the recent past, my parents are either dead or am NC and I don't have kids. Plus protein = food and food = life 😍

The Average Mumsnet Child:
mid Morning Snack
12 ham sandwiches - with butter, 15 apples, 32 bananas, 5 boiled eggs and 3 gallons of water
Treats
Half a haribo

Tall

Skinny

Why are MN kids all TALL AND SKINNY?

I think give her the toast if she wants it, my 5 year old dd has weeks were she is super hungry and weeks when she eats an average amount!
Typical day would be

Breakfast- bowl of cereal
Banana

Small break and big break in school-

Chopped up berries
Sandwich with ham or cheese
Crackers
Raisins
Yogurt
She gets milk in school too. It's all she has time to eat so hungry when she gets home

I try to give her dinner about 2.30pm

5.30pm- spaghetti hoops /toast
Small bowl pasta
Cheese toasty/ cucumber
Not all at once!

She then will have fruit/ yogurt and generally ask for something else before bed.

She plays sport and has activities nearly every day so burns a lot of energy!

I'd probably try increasing the size of her evening meal and something a bit more substantial. Fruit is good but it isn't filling. Could you try a more filling type of pudding? a fruit crumble or jam roly poly or something?

Lunch is very lite!

These threads always astonish me with the amount of fruit, seeds and nuts people apparently consume daily and foist upon their children.

Yes there’s another similar thread about underfeeding children.

I wonder where all the fishfingers and oven chips mums are because they are not on here.

Both of mine eat more than that. They are two and four. Both slim.

racecar are they tall as well?