9 year old DD - just plain greedy!

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Sorry... posting here for traffic

DD has always had a big appetite... but recently she has become unbearable, always eating, throwing tantrums etc.

She’s always been on the ‘fuller’ side of healthy, but recently I’ve been noticing she’s looking quite overweight. I decided to step back and track what she ate yesterday:
2 slices of toast with generous amount of Nutella, a banana and small bowl of shreddies.

2 hours later was rolling about on the floor claiming she was ‘starving’ I gave her an apple. Checked up on her a minute later to see her munching on digestive biscuits from the cupboard!

For lunch she insisted on making herself TWO wraps with lots of ham and cheese inside, a bag of salt and vinegar crisps. Said she was still hungry, I offered her carrot and houmous which she reluctantly accepted.

Mid afternoon... caught her raiding the fridge, getting herself a large chunk of cadbury, and a yoghurt.

Dinner was new potatoes, steamed fish and lots of veg. She ate all of it, demanding more which I gave her, and then proceeded to make herself another bowl of shreddies afterwards.

8pm, screaming she’s hungry, that we’re starving her (!!) she had a tall glass of orange juice and a marmite crumpet.

If you ask me, that’s ridiculous! I try to make her only eat healthy snacks etc, but frankly I sometimes need an easy life. Both DH and I are fit, healthy weight. For some comparison, I, 33 years old ate:

Scrambled egg on toast breakfast.

Apple mid morning.

Salad with falafel & quinoa lunch. Cappuccino.

Greek yoghurt & honey mid afternoon

Same dinner

Chunk of cadbury (less than DD) around 9pm.

Her brother, 11, also has a good appetite, eats less than her.

What do I do ?!

Definitely agree with limiting the sugary snacks. It does sound as if the lack of protein is a problem.

I'd suggest giving her something high in protein and fibre for breakfast, such as scrambled eggs on toast with maybe some fruit.

Also, just an apple by itself really isn't the best snack. Carbs should always be paired with protein, otherwise your blood sugar will spike and then drop - leaving you feeling hungry again.

Toss out and don't replace the sugary treats. Keep the fridge full of snacks such as hummus, fresh fruit, sugar-free peanut butter and other nut butters (best is to buy "natural" peanut butter and nut butter; it does tend to separate but I find this is minimized if you turn the jar upside down in the fridge), and sugar-free low-fat yoghurt.

Limit the amount of juice and other sugary drinks she is allowed to have. (Even 100% juice has a TON of sugar in it. Juice is only recommended as a treat for children - they shouldn't be having it every day.)

Also drinks. Juice is literally the most pointless drink ever. Calorific, sugary and terrible for teeth.

Cut bread into a favourite shape - use cookie cutter. Soak bread shape in beaten egg. Fry. Serve with ketchup. My dd loves this breakfast and she's a really fussy eater. To be honest, I started with cookie cutter shapes, I just do triangles now.

Juice isn't 'pointless' - it's delicious! It's so powerful faced to insist that nutritional value is all that matters!

Po-faced obviously

Tot, you think juice is delicious, I personally don't. I think that it can become habitual and some people become addicted to the massive sugar it contains.

We are all different but please, stop using words like 'po-faced' when people give their differing opinions. I have a 'Wotsits' addiction, I can't have them in the house. My house is full of chocolate; I don't like the stuff and it can stay untouched forever as far as I'm concerned.

Nutritional value is important - hit the macros first and then worry about the treats that you want to eat. That's the regime I follow but you (and anyone else) can do what they like.

Is that 'po-faced'?

Your daughter is 9 years old - you need to be guiding her.

Why are sugar laden foods such as digestive biscuits, chocolate, Nutella and orange juice in the house ? The same with crisps ?

Why are you buying these foods ?

My 10 year old is slim but would eat that much! She gets away with it as she needs calories, but I am shocked at how much she can eat in a day! Maybe it's an age thing?

If you want food for a certain occasion, can you not keep it in your car or wardrobe or someplace he can't get to @iliveinazoo?

So if you want Nutella for pancake day, don't bring it into the house until you need it. if you want biscuits for the weekend, keep them out of sight/reach until they're allowed them. Your son clearly can't be trusted around food so why keep putting it within his reach and therefore allowing him to be able to steal it?

Children shouldn't just be allowed to go into the kitchen and eat whatever they want. What happened to "no, or you won't be hungry for dinner" or "no, if you're still hungry, have some fruit". Letting kids have toast then cereal, or dinner then cereal/toast, is just like allowing them to have two meals in a row!

Sorry, I didn’t phrase that very well. If you’re slim/a healthy weight juice can firm part of a healthy diet. I just meant for children (and adults) who are struggling to regulate their food intake or weight it’s a pointless drink because it’s so calorific and sugary for something that isn’t filling.

Don't necessarily judge her food consumption by what you eat - a major cause of my weight gain in adulthood has been that I failed to realise I should cut down my portions once I stopped growing.

My mother dealt with it by allowing free access to bread, butter and water between meals.

At this age I ate like a horse. I mean I would eat adult portions of food for tea and finish off everyone's left overs. Was a standing joke that I could not be filled. I was around a size 10/12 at aged 12/13. I had a growth spurt , evened out and have never been bigger than a size 8 since. I really wouldn't worry about it

Adaline that's what I've learnt, I just can't have it in the house.

I just wish that he wouldn't do it.

Sometimes you forget yourself and leave some biscuits in the cupboard then next thing they're all gone.

It gets me down and then you get looks like you're being controlling because I don't want him making several rounds of toast before his tea.

Yet the way I see it it's fine to be hungry and wait for your tea, it's a good thing, it means you eat proper food and enjoy it.

Growth spurt and/or bored.

Your attitude towards this is horrible, as are the words you use to describe your daughter’s actions. You remind me of my mum, who was incredibly judgemental and made me feel disgusting for being hungry. She policed my food for years, so I stole snacks from the kitchen. And then I took my pocket money or stole loose change that I found around the house to buy sweets from the newsagents.

Then I got a weekend job and spent every penny on junk. THEN I got a full time job and my binges were daily.

I am 28 and I still have Binge Eating Disorder. I’m awaiting a CBT referral because I’m the heaviest I’ve ever been, having starved and restricted myself down to a size 12, then binged my way up to a size 20 every other year since I was 18. I can’t live like this anymore, and I wouldn’t wish it on anyone.

If you don’t have junk food they can’t eat junk food!!! And if they then sit eating ‘slice after slice of bread’ then maybe they’re seriousky hungry and maybe there’s a reason!

My bro (skinny and tall) ate like a monster at 12-13 then grew about 5 inches over 3-6 months. He’s still skinny and tall.

If you want to have secret sweets do what my mum did- but the single most boring adult cereal you can find (the type no self respecting child would look twice at) empty half the contents out and then stash your adult treats underneath!

She is eating a lot. But not really things that will sustain her.

My dd (8) was a glutton a few months back. Nothing would fi her, she'd have a dinner, toast, fruit, cheese, yogurt and 4 big rice cakes... and still groan that she was half starved. Then she grew about 4 inches and since then has calmed down
If your dd is really hungry, she would eat boring, less sugary food (hence why my dd stuffed piles of plain rice cakes). Offer her half a ham salad sandwich or something?

I'm not with the sugar police, as I think denying sweet food causes problems in itself. I tend to limit treats to one chocolate type thing (kit Kat/ cookie) a day.

Some really stupid comments on here about why op is buying certain foods - duh maybe other people live in the house and don’t want to eat salad eternally

It could be growth spurts & typical early puberty puppy fat, as others have already suggested. They all put in weight & become more rounded at the edges at this sort of age, even the skinny ones.

That does sound like a lot of food to me too, but mine eats like a gnat & I'm not a big eater either, so I might not be the best judge. If it's constantly like this, then I could see why it might be a worry, especially with her behaviour around food. It is a bit of a tight rope to walk though as you don't want an eating disorder. She might just be a different frame to you.

Things like thyroid disorders, diabetes, worms, Heliobacter Pylori infection, SIBO, Insomnia, spring to mind with the hunger, so I'd suggest talking to her GP & asking about tests.

I'd also suggest looking into "Inulin" it's a prebiotic that helps heal the colon, balances blood sugars, cholesterol, appetite etc & aids sleep. It's really easy to take as it dissolves like sugar & no real taste, just a very slight sweetness

Good luck

Stupid is right, smack, who mentioned salad? Why put a child struggling to regulate sugar, in harms way?

Cappuccino at nine years of age is a bit young. She needs more protein, pulses and vegetables and ness of sugar and carbs. Water for thirst and phantom hunger.

* If* i started my day with 2 slices of toast, a load of nutella, a banana AND shreddies my blood sugars would be all over the place!

This. That is a shit load of sugar. Cereal is just sugar. Banana is high in sugar. Toast (White? Brown) is carbs = more sugar. And then she's put Nutella on it too.

Sorry OP just worked out the you had the Cappuccino. Cut down her carbs and sugar for 8 weeks and see if it makes a difference to her weight, hunger and attitude.

I'm very, very insulin resistant and carbs and sugar send me into a spiral of false hunger cravings. My body just does not tolerate them very well. When I eat more protein and vegetables I never crave food in the same way. She may be similar.

If this has no effect, look for another option and try similar. We are all so different it's hard to pinpoint why.

When I had a look at the list of foods that you and your daughter ate during the day. I noticed that you had lots of protein (which keeps you feeling full) and your daughter didn’t.
I’m no dietitian, however, would suggest you give your daughter a healthy size amount of protein with every meal, don’t keep junk (biscuits, Cadbury) in the house and don’t give her juice as it’s full of natural sugars which are full of calories.
Get her to drink water or chilled herbal tea.
Good luck OP