To ask what your 3 yo eats a day?

[SleepingStandingUp]

Yeah I know it varies from kid to kid etc but I have absolutely no perspective on what a "healthy, normal" 3 yo eats.

We're weaning ours off special milk slowly for various medical reasons so he's eating more actual food bit I don't actually know how much he should be eating iyswim

The eat if he's hungry thing doesn't work either so no just feed him til he stops

Mine's just turned four, but a typical day for him would be ...

Breakfast: muesli or porridge with some fresh fruit.
Lunch: cheese and ham sandwich with cherry toms, cucumber, an apple or some grapes
Snack: half a scotch pancake with peanut butter
Dinner: chilli with rice, he had apple crumble and cream last night and he'd normally have a small pudding (often just fruit or plain yoghurt)

My 3.5 year old goes through phases of sometimes eating loads and sometimes barely eating anything. She's a snacker though and tends to front load food, so eats loads in the morning and isn't really interested by tea time.

An average day looks like:
B - one weetabix with honey (mostly doesn't finish it) and then asks for yoghurt & fruits or brioche.
S - Fruit, milk, sometimes babybel, sometimes raisins, sometimes oat bars
L - favourite is a ham sandwich with cherry tomatoes, cucumber, olives and salad cream. Followed by yoghurt / jelly / fruit / rice pudding or similar. Scrambled egg or dippy egg also goes down well.
S - more various snacks
D - usual family meals. Usually mostly rejected! We have recently had: homemade fish pie with veg, homemade pizzas & crudites, spag bol, then quick after school things like fish fingers, pasta bake etc. Followed by yoghurt / jelly / fruit / rice pudding / ice lolly / mini chocolates etc.

Sometimes a "hot chocolate" before bed - just a cup of warm milk with a teaspoon of hot chocolate powder in it.

Mine is 3.2. A typical day is:

Breakfast: slice of toast, bowl of Greek yoghurt with fruit
Snack: apple, biscuit
Lunch: cheese sandwich, chopped cucumber and carrot, couple of breadsticks
Snack: some ritz crackers, grapes
Dinner: roast chicken, mashed potato, gravy and some carrot and broccoli if I can persuade her to eat it.

Today ds has had
Breakfast-pancakes with melon and mango cup of apple juice
Snack-will have been some kind of toast or fruit (at preschool)
Lunch-cod,potato and spinach korma with brown rice and chapati (preschool lunch the app tells me he had two helpings)
Snack when I pick him up will be a chocolate biscuit bar
Dinner- is Irish stew with red cabbage and stewed apple and blackberries with ice cream.
They usually have a Biscuit or some other kind of not particularly healthy snack at some point over the evening too.

Porridge with honey and a cup of milk
bit of fruit

He generally likes a second (and third!) breakfast if he can get away with it - so another AM snack of toast/crackers/more fruit at 9.30/10

Lunch: 1/3 tin of beans and 1, maybe 2 slices of wholemeal toast; or 1/4 of a quiche; or a sandwich/toastie and crudités etc (I often do a big plate of cherry tomatoes/cucumber/peppers and put it in the middle of the table while finishing off lunch so they start on the veg while waiting for their actual lunch) followed by fruit

We only do afternoon snack if dinner is likely to be later than normal or eg if we are out on a hot afternoon and an ice cream would be a nice treat.

Dinner: cereal bowl full of pasta or equivalent of eg sausage and mash/shepherd pie/casserole with 2 types of veg (fairly boring like peas/sweetcorn/carrots)/fish pie/fish fingers/steamed salmon/chicken and pitta. Lamb has been a surprise recent hit as long as thinly sliced and served mediterrean style with hummus, pitta and couscous. Pizza, egg fried rice. Followed by more fruit (we get through a lot of fruit!) Yoghurt or pudding at the weekend occasionally.

Banana and cup of milk at bed time if wanted.

Ooh my 3 year old loves lamb! I didn’t expect her to but it’s her favourite meat.

I should say that DS2 (just three) is definitely what you would call a "good eater" so he would probably be at the upper end of the volume scale, despite being bang on 50% centile for weight and height and requiring me to take the waist in on all his new trousers. I do find now that I need at least 2.5 hours between a snack and a meal otherwise he won't eat a good amount so I would consider tweaking the timings of milk particularly the afternoon milk

Also when will he be going to school and will he be in mainstream? As that is something you may need to work towards managing - some schools are not amazingly flexible... Lots of time obviously so not intended to panic you, just worth thinking about moving to something that will fit into the school day so that you don't have to change it again.

Re milk times, we leave for school at 12 so he gets fed before we leave then milk on, normally finishing mid route.

I pick up at 3.15 and he's normally hungry so he gets a snack and then milk once we're home (4 is) and family dinner is 6.30 ish so try and give him time to eat before turning milk on but he goes bed at 7 so it's pretty tight.
The alt is getting a feed in overnight and that's crappy for us all.
If any milk fed gets missed or dropped it tends to be that 4 pm one (didn't have it today as we got home late and he'd had a big snack)

He is in half days atm abd will go full time Sept 2020. Impossible to predict what his eating will be like by then as a year ago he didn't even drink water. Ideally if he's still tube fed (could be totally off by then) he'd have milk before and after and not at all during school hours so he'd need to eat enough orally at break times and lunch time and then we'd top him up with milk. I'd love him to be tube free or down to one feed in a years time!

Slightly worried of writing what he had today.

Bfast: Two tablespoons of chocolate cereal, dry. Special milk

Lunch: Two small circles of ham. Special milk

Snack: packet of Tyrells crisps (whole packet!) and 2/3 of my small vegan chocolate cake (seemingly ravenous but no where for proper food and he LOVES strong flavoured crisps)

Dinner: 2/3 slice of cheese on toast, but he pulled the cheese and soft bread off the toasted side and left the hard bit. Special milk

He has a poorly throat and tonsils so I'm even more lenient that usual.

He does have plenty of water and a multivitamin

Today DD 3.4 ate:

At home:
Couple of tablespoon Greek yogurt and honey
Half an apple
Small amount of apple juice cut with water

At nursery:
One weetabix for (2nd) breakfast
(4?) Chicken nuggets, tablespoon each of peas and corn followed by a few pieces of melon for lunch
(5?) Mini bread sticks and a satusma for snack

Babybel before swimming

1 sausage, half a chicken thigh, tablespoon each of peas and baked beans, and sweet potato mash for supper. Went back for some more mash and baked beans.
Piece of chocolate

Hummus, avocado and quinoa. Obvs!

A little Gorgonzola and figs too.

Do you know if there are specific issues with texture? Taste? Volume?

Breakfast seems light - would he eat more protein then? And if he likes strong flavoured crisps could you replicate the flavour and/or the crunch with more nutritious alternatives? Would he like to help himself to little bits through the day, like a bento or snack box? Will he idly eat while colouring or playing?

I am raising a pig or 2 ;) But dad is skinny and eats LOADS.

Breakfast:
2yo bowl of yoghurt (or 2, 3-6 tablespoons), 2/3 slices of toast with jam (no crusts)
4yo 4 slices of toast with jam (no crusts)

Snack:
2yo small bowl of fruit
4yo grapes/blue berries plus a banana

Lunch:
2yo 1 cheese sandwich, some fruit or veg
4yo 2-3 cream cheese sandwhich, bowl of cherry tomatoes, cucumber slices

Snack:
2yo some fruit after nap/rice cracker with humus
4yo banana and/or rice crackers (he'd like 3) with cream cheese or nothing

Dinner:
2yo nothing or a small plate of dinner (or everything in a growth spurt), fruit
4yo upto 3 kid's plates of dinner, some fruit...

Normal weight and height, I hasten to add. And the 2yo drinks milk mostly as well.

Yeah the dry food is because he's weird about wet food bar baked beans and then he rescues them individually, wouldn't eat a spoonful with sauce.

Breakfast there's normally spare in bowl and he'll munch. He'll also go into kitchen and point or sign more.
Sometimes he'll have a few bites of apple.

Sometimes he has crackers, ham and cheese for breakfast but then lunch is quite samey and quantities aren't vastly different.

Crisps wise, we were in Starbucks. He knows where the yellow crisps live🙈🙈 and wouldn't normally eat them all in one go but he'd scoffed them pretty quick!!

Not really sure how to replicate the crisps, he will eat nuts and similar.

Today my DS 3.5yrs ate:

1 weetabix and banana- all

Snack at nursery?

Hungry hippo- all

Ham sandwich, innocent smoothie and yoghurt- all

Half pack of chewits
Tube of smarties
Pack of Pom bears

One slice of pizza- 3/4

Numerous cups of weak diluting juice.

Just realised how many sweeties he's had today!!!

B: cinnamon bagel with butter and cheese, strawberries and grapes

S: rice cake, digestive biscuit, cucumber, grapes

L: 1/2 tuna sandwich (wholemeal bread) raw carrot, yoghurt

S: banana

D: quorn and veg (mushrooms, tomato, carrots, onion, garlic) homemade bolognaise with basmati rice, satsuma, cornetto ice cream

Drinks: milk and pure pineapple juice diluted with water

The yellow Tyrell’s crisps were DD1’s favourite from about 18 months old . Even worse, the reason she liked them is because she used to have them in the pub! Obviously at that age she didn’t have a whole packet but she used to ask for ‘pub crisps’!

SoyDora wannabe middle class kid here, they're coffee shop crisps hahaha

My 2 year old currently lives on shreddies and spaghetti Did anyone find the eating habits improved once they hit 3? I live in hope haha

My dd is 3 yrs 11 months and eats

Breakfast:

Cereal bar as soon as her eyes open

Pancakes and fruit (4 strawberrys and a hand full of raspberries)

Snack-

1/2 banan, 1/2 pear glass of milk (nursery)

Lunch

3/4 of a large carrot and cheese bagel
2 mini peppers chopped up, 4 cherry toms halved and a mini cucumber
1/2 satsuma
Sugar free jelly

Snack

Alice of melon and grapes - glass of milk

Dinner

3 Meatballs and a decent handful of pasta with veggie sauce

That's an at nursery day.

At home at the weekends:

Breakfast

Cereal bar as soon as her eyes open

Croissants (3 mini) fruit and yoghurt

Snack - packet of French fries

Lunch - home made soup with bread then fruit for dessert

Snack - cheese, crackers salad

Dinner - fish chips and peas

I popped in to pinch some ideas but now feel like my just 2 year old is a gannet! He eats:
Wake up: 7oz Milk - Nutramigen. He’s allergic to dairy.
B: piece of toast with jam, fruit, breakfast bar
S: childrens bowl of strawberries / pear / apple and homemade cake, biscuit etc
L: 2 x soft boiled egg and toast or beans on toast or sandwich, crisps & apple or cous cous
S: more fruit and something sweet, an orange juice lolly if it’s hot, or dairy free biscuit
D: pasta bolognaise or shepherds pie or sausage, waffles & peas or mini roast, then more fruit (I usually have to have apples, pears, bananas, oranges, strawberries, blueberries and grapes in but sometimes add melon or mango as a treat. I think he eats so much fruit because he can’t have chocolate, yoghurt etc. Him not getting enough calcium terrifies me ☹️)
Bedtime: 7oz milk

If he’s doing high energy activities then we have those pressed fruit sweets and coconut milk swirls as a sugar burst. He also has the odd sorbet as he can’t have ice cream.

Drinks wise he has a multivitamin juice at breakfast and then water in the day, with juice boxes as a treat if we are out and very active.

I feel like that’s a lot but he’s not fat at all.

What are coconut milk swirls please?

Hes not a gannet

Breakfast
Water
Porridge
Fruit

lunch
Homemade tomato soup with bread
Yougert for pud

Dinner
Home made roti
Coleslaw
Rice
And curry mutton carbbien style

Water to drink

Then Small cake for pudding

Oh and if they don’t eat they don’t get pudding or anything else

Oh people have put snacks it will

Be rice cakes fruit or a bit of cheese but she’s not really a snack person so only on request do I give them