My child is a greedy pig. Is it my fault?

[Paddingtonjuice]

My 10 year old child is eating us out of house and home. I have always had a relaxed attitude to food but think I need to rethink now. 12 year old is great, just has his meals plus 1 bag of crisps per day, 1 penguin, plenty of fruit. Today 10 year old has eaten cereal for breakfast, tuns sandwich for lunch. Sausage, mash and vegetables for tea. Then while I have not been watching, 2 bags of monster munch, 4 lollipops that I had saved for Halloween, 3 ice lollies, 1 entire punnet of strawberries, 2 trios, 2 sausage rolls. 2 apples. About 6 crackers with butter. Then went to bed complaining they were hungry. This is not normal is it? They are actually skinny. Am I right in thinking they will overweight be soon if I don’t stop this?

I’m going to give the flip side of the coin. DS was skinny as a rake all through childhood so I never limited the amount of food he ate, but he hit his 20’s and he ballooned. He’s now overweight but struggles to cut portion sizes because it’s what he’s used to. He’s cut out all additional snacks etc but he’s struggling to lose the weight. I agree with replacing the unhealthy snacks for something healthier but I would to a degree control portion size at meals too. I wish I had done this. Your stomach does stretch to allow you to eat more, it’s how people end up obese. So endless feeding isn’t the answer.

I thought crisps and chocolate were supposed to be treats.

That’s a lot of food. Sounds like boredom eating to me. He wouldn’t be hungry if he was out with his mates. Also check he is drinking enough water - easy to mistake thirst for hunger.

OP you would not believe the amount of junk I ate growing up. My sister and I used to love eating. We have always been slim, but eat a bit less junk food these days!

My DC eats a lot. They can't just have cereal but need toast and fruit on top. A sandwich wouldn't be enough for lunch. I do large portions, have fruit available and encourage more filling snacks like veg soup or ramen noodles. Sausage rolls, cold pasta salad and leftovers are encouraged over sweets and snacks.

Our DD is 9 and mostly vegan so she eats healthy plant based. She eats more than me and is so tall and slim. As long as it's healthy stuff...

I was the same around that age. The hormones are getting going and growth spurts are imminent.
If you're concerned about the volume of junk, just stop buying it.

Btw cereals are a really crap choice for breakfast. They are full of sugar and will never keep anyone feeling full for very long.
Lots of comments along these lines. Surely it depends what sort of cereal?
Shredded wheat, weetabix, ready brek are all cereal but have hardly any sugar.
Frosties, chocolate weetos, honey nut cheerios etc. Obviously have more.

Sounds like my 10 year old - I’d just try and improve the quality of what he’s snacking on.

Personally I would be concerned about the fact they just help themselves to things - especially if you were saving things for halloween and they've now eaten them.
Have snacks which they can help themselves to freely (try and make them healthy, many suggestions here) and other things which are only allowed once a day. If you dont want to make it about their weight, say it's because those things are expensive and unhealthy and eating 3 packets of crisps per day is not healthy.

Wow, the language caught my eye. Greedy Pig???? That's definitely unreasonable.

Also all this 'skinny' talk gives me the shits. We all know skinny equals greatness and worthy of our praise....

Penguins and crisps wouldn't make it out the shopping bag in my house. Don't buy them and let your DC have them when out and about as a treat. Have loads of healthy stuff in the house and let him hoover that up.

Our house rule is toast, cheese and fruit are unlimited except 1 hour before meals. Sweet snack not more than once a day. All meals I cook with leftover options (ie I expect to make potato cakes for breakfast 2-3 times a week) and everyone helps themselves. Seconds are normal: it's take a small portion, eat it, then see what you feel like more of. Some days I think DS(8) eats more than any of the adults.

But we're a tall family and I remember coming home from school and getting through half a load of bread etc. I don't want to starve DS out of height. I can see his ribs and definitely not overweight.

My 11 year old loves sweets, DD1 (15) has reined it in a bit as she has got older. I don't think either of them are greedy, they need to eat more calories than I do as they are still growing, and I'm trying to shrink.

I've always taken the view that if they are slim and their teeth are ok, they sleep well, concentrate at school and enjoy general good health then it isn't a problem.

If your child is a boy, I'd say it's normal! My 8yo eats 2 breakfasts, snacks, lunch dinner pudding and then frequently can't sleep because he's 'starving'! He's a slim muscular ball of energy though. I am jealous...!

Please don't call your child a greedy pig. I would look into any emotional issues given the amount and type of food they are consuming.

@KitKatastrophe cereals are carbohydrates which are broken down into sugars, starches and fibres.

And let's be honest, who eats plain cereal any way? Even with fruit on, you're still adding sugars.

[quote Couchbettato]@KitKatastrophe cereals are carbohydrates which are broken down into sugars, starches and fibres.

And let's be honest, who eats plain cereal any way? Even with fruit on, you're still adding sugars.[/quote]
So what would you recommend for breakfast? Toast is also carbohydrates, so is porridge. Fruit is not allowed because it's got sugar in and I don't eat eggs. So what would be an acceptable breakfast? Plain yogurt?

Incidentally for breakfast I had plain weetabix this morning.

It does sound like a growth spurt, but I agree with others - you have far too much un healthy food in the house.
That is yours and your DH problem to fix.

I was super skinny as a child as well as my brother and we ate like pigs whenever we could - we were supposedly not allowed chocolate as DB has/had a cows milk allergy but we still ate it and the penny sweets etc.

Having said that my treat once a week was a large bag of BBQ hula hoops and yes we did have Club/Trio plus crisps etc for packed lunch - 70s kids.

We were very active kids though, always playing out, out on bikes, swimming etc.

I wouldn't deprive them of anything - maybe have filling breakfasts like porridge, scrambled eggs etc and have healthy snacks but remember dips like hummus in pots eaten too much are filling too, and nuts can be fatty.

I disagree with not teaching children about overeating. It's not healthy and they are not using any self control. Just because they are not overweight does not mean it isn't affecting their health.
Personally we limit the snacks, no one needs to eat that much it's probably boredom or habit. It's also quite selfish to eat all of those things an not think of others, so I would try to break that habit.

Stop keeping crap in the house. Kids - and many adults - will just eat it if it's there. It's not a sign of hunger, but boredom.

My kids do not eat all the snacks. One because they're polite and would never go into the kitchen to take food without asking (you might consider teaching your kid some manners), and two, because there's no Penguins or crisps in there.

It's not rocket science ffs.

That doesn't actually sound like much food to me! Child may be having a growth spurt; plus kids just burn energy like mad. Provide healthier options (eg toast and peanut butter), but it doesn't sound like a problem to me.
'Greedy pig' is a horrible way to speak about your DC who isn't actually eating much, I feel sad for your DC if this is your attitude to them, and to food, I think you need to do some self-reflection.

@KitKatastrophe protein based breakfasts are really good like eggs, meat, fish etc and berries are surprisingly low sugar so ok for keto diets etc.

But let’s face it, for kids, you mostly just want them to eat something so they won’t be hungry to far before lunch. I wouldn’t be advocating cereal too much but at the same time, I don’t think it’s the devil’s food.

Tastes change as an adult (plus more time efficient) so that’s when it tends to be more suitable.

Also to clarify I’m not suggesting a child is keto but just saying what a low carb breakfast can be and that berries aren’t that bad.