is 15yo dd eating too much?

[nuttyveg]

i've posted on teenagers, but i haven't gotten many responses, so i thought i'd post here for traffic.
15yo dd has been eating more recently and i don't know if it's too much or not, she's a healthy weight, not like a beanpole but not fat.
today she's had
2 slices of vegan cheese on seedy toast and a milky coffee made with oat milk and stevia for breakfast
about 5 wedges, 4 mini falafels, 3 oreos and a small handful of salt and vinegar crisps for lunch
4 more oreos as a snack
and will be having chickpea and roasted vegetable soup for dinner with a slice or two of seedy bread
and homemade apple cake with custard for pudding
and she usually has a bowl of cereal with oat milk before bed, so i imagine she will tonight too.
thank you for any responses

Sounds fine.

Her actual lunch and dinner both seem really small. Soup and bread for one meal is fine but then I'd expect the other meal to be more substantial.

If my child ate like that I would be worried they are on the edge of disordered eating.

It's very controlled in terms of substitutes, you know the exact amount she has eaten, you are worried she is eating too much despite her being a healthy weight. The lunch was a collection of small things, dinner was a soup and bread, both out of context of a 'normal' lunch and dinner, vegan or not.

She will pick up on your concerns because it is impossible to hide things like that. She will be aware of you watching her when she goes to the food cupboard and that sounds like it's influencing her choices.

they have animal products in them.

They don't.

Strict vegans would not consume them.

I have never come across a vegan who would refuse to eat Oreos or anything else for that matter simply because they may have touched milk at some point.

And there is no such thing as a 'strict vegan'. A vegan is just a vegan.

I don't know whether it's too much or too little in terms of quantity, but that's one seriously disordered eating pattern. I'm actually quite shocked that you would let a 15 year old eat like this! She needs protein, she needs iron, green veg, complex carbs, healthy fats. She needs to realise that being a vegan, especially as a still-growing menstruating teenager, is pretty tricky to get right and to plan out proper meals.

I would cut out the stevia with coffee. If she's not got a mature enough palate to drink coffee plain, she shouldn't be drinking it at all. If she wants to put a sugar in when she's older, that's fine. But I wouldn't allow it at this age (unless I had an athletic beanpole DC and was trying to pack the calories in). She also needs to eat 5-7 portions of fruit and veg a day, minimum (most vegans eat a lot more!), not one (soup). She needs to eat lunch, not snack on junk food. No wonder she'd needing to eat a bowl of cereal before bed -- no substance to this diet at all.

How did she eat when she was 10? Did you make lunch? If you're all at home together could you not be sitting down to a proper meal?

@hopsalong huh? why can't she drink coffee with sugar/sugar alternative?

How tall is she? I eat more than that on a daily basis and am slim. I’m 1.77m though and very active. Encourage her to include more fruit, veg and salad.

Even a lot of products that are marketed as being vegan (vegan galaxy anyone?) still have milk and/or eggs listed as possible cross contacts. Perhaps they should be sued for false advertising?

A vegan knowingly eating animal products is no vegan. I have never met an vegan who would eat Oreos (especially when there are much nicer actual vegan biscuits in the world). I am in the US and around 10 years ago they were popular as a “vegan snack”, but everyone now knows they are not actually vegan. I think people who really want to follow a proper vegan diet would not touch them.

"Do people really think two slices of toast, a small number of falafel and wedges and bowl of soup is a lot of food?"

You forgot the cereal before bed, which means she has 4 meals a day, one of them including pudding and also some snacks. She might need that of course, but seeing as most of us are not being very active at the moment, it sounds like a lot to me.

@hopsalong she ate cereal or toast for breakfast, pancakes sometimes. things like sandwiches or pasta for lunch, and a proper dinner like homemade curry, chilli or shepherds pie. maybe some chocolate, biscuits or crisps as a snack and always some fruit too.

"I’d eat more than that now as a non-growing adult. I’d certainly have eaten way more as a teenager. For reference I’m 5’4 and about 50kg"

Yes, we are all very different. I eat less than that and I'm shorter and weight a bit more than you. Are you very active?
(I have to admit that I drink a few evenings a week as well so that ups my calories quite a bit and I barely move in lockdown).

@laidbacklife she's about 5'4ish

A vegan knowingly eating animal products is no vegan.

Good job Oreos don't contain animal products then.

It's pretty nutritionally poor in terms of protein vitamins fibre etc.
And probably not a huge amount of calories.
Can you replace some of the carbs and junk with more nutritious foods? Veg etc

@TooOldForSims
They do contain animal products. They admit they do. Are you vegan?

Asking mumsnet to gauge what is ‘a lot’....
Hmmm.

What you’ve listed sounds perfectly normal.

It's not possible to tell from what you've posted whether she's eating too much. Fried wedges will have a tonne more calories than baked wedges, a 300ml coffee will have double the calories of a 150ml coffee... I could go on. It also depends on her metabolism, her time of the month, how much she exercises and her NEAT (the calories you burn from non-exercise movement like fidgeting). If she's a healthy weight then why are you worried? Based on what you've said, I'd be more worried about a lack of nutrients, especially fibre and protein. There would have to be a lot of fibre and protein in the soup to make up for the lack of nutrients in her day so far.

At the risk of an absolute flaming, she'd probably feel much more satiated if she ate some eggs and meat.

Also Oreos are vegan. They’re just made in a non vegan factory.

They admit they do.

They admit no such thing.

Do you think companies like Galaxy should be sued for advertising chocolate bars as being vegan even though they have milk as cross contacts?

Also Oreos are vegan. They’re just made in a non vegan factory.

Exactly.

Do you also think that vegans can't eat in non vegans restaurants, SiaPR?

At the risk of an absolute flaming, she'd probably feel much more satiated if she ate some eggs and meat.

I actually feel a hell of a lot better since giving meat and eggs up .

The vegan vs non vegan nature of Oreos is completely irrelevant anyway. If the kid is happy to eat them then that's up to her.

From the website:
Is Oreo suitable for vegans? No, Oreo have milk as cross contact and therefore they are not suitable for vegans.
Soooo. Sounds a bit like they are admitting they are not vegan....
I think Galaxy should be as upfront and honest as oreo, yes.