AIBU to think this is a lot for a toddler to eat in a day?

[Theladypatience]

Average day for an 17 month old:

One weetabix with milk and half a banana plus 3-4 Cheerios (while he waits!)

Cup of whole milk later in morning

Snack of two homemade pancakes and some fruit or three baby rice cakes with hummus

Rice and fish or a sandwich with some puffs or fruit and hummus rice cakes

Afternoon snack babybel with 1 homemade porridge finger or flapjack with veg grated into it or a homemade lentil bite made with veg and a bit of cream cheese

Dinner of spag Bol with veg mixed in or lamb and couscous or tuna pasta or Turkey risotto with veg and some kind of yogurt or baby custard pudding

Bedtime milk

He’s big at 12kg at 17 months but very active and rarely sits down.

By the time he is 2 he will be half his adult height

What?

I wish my 2.4 year old ate half of this in a day! He's only small tho and approx 11kg.
I wouldn't have said it sounded too much but as most have said- depends on the portion sizes

@Pumperthepumper I have spoken to the HV and was advised stopping bf would help. He is healthy and weighs last time I checked 13kg which is above average for his age but he is also very active. He doesn't eat much at breakfast ( a couple of toast bites, a couple of small pieces of cucumber and 1-2 tiny cubes of olives and feta cheese) the rest goes onto the floor. For lunch, 2-3 bites of a sandwich if we are lucky and a pot of yogurt but he eats good dinner which is what we usually eat. Snacks is a hit but he loves his apples, clementine, watermelon slice and blueberries. The fruit is spread across the week as he will never ever eat that in a day. Op's sons diet is what I have imagined my DS would have and tried to give that amount but he just doesn't eat. He uses me like a human tap for breast milk and comes and goes all day. I'm working on stopping breast milk.

Sounds fabulous

By the time he is 2 he will be half his adult height

What? confused

^^is he tyrion lannister?

That sounds about right to me and my DS used to eat more than that especially at breakfast. He is now an adult and eats like a horse but he is not fat.

I love children with good appetites!

@sparepantsandtoothbrush girls are usually half their adult height at two years old, boys a little bit less.

@Susannahmoody as a boy probably not quite, most girls are.

Half the height at 2... Huh?!

By the time he is 2 he will be half his adult height.

Wtf!

Sorry I have nothing to say on food but must follow this thread to see how the half adult height by 2 thingy ends up.

By the way op, your dc's diet sounds exactly what I would have wanted to feed my DS and imagined he would eat that amount as I have seen friends prepare that amount of food for their dc. I also come across many mum influencers online who show that amount of food if not more food for their toddlers during the day. My Ds2 doesn't eat that much at all and I just wish he did because it's a constant battle every single day trying to feed him and constantly preparing him new food just in case he may like it and gets a couple of bites in him. I really like toddlers who have good appetites and wish my little one had an appetite as it would be a pleasure just feeding him instead of finding creative ways many times a day so he gets food him and doesn't starve.

I think this height thing must be true ish, my two year old is 3ft 3 and is set to be a giant 🤣

My son eats way less than this but he's never had a big appetite so I think we are the minority

Sounds perfectly normal and average based on my dc and other dc I know. I mean some eat a bit more, and some less, but we’re all people with different preferences.

I also have no useful comments on food as my 15m old is going through a fussy/teething stage but I've heard of that height thing and tried it with DS1.

I measured DS1 at 2 and when I doubled it it gave him an adult height of 5'9" (1 inch shorter than DH so realistic sounding)
(He's 5 now and comes up to my chest)

My 13 month old dd eats around the same amount

I just love seeing little toddlers who sit down and eat their little packed lunches and nibble all day without making a fuss holding their food with their little fingers while stuffing their faces when I'm out and about or with friends kids. I just admire them so much. My son loves pasta and rice and even with that he would pick a few pieces of rice or a few pieces of half cut farfalle and his done

Sounds like a normal amount tbh, they do eat a lot!

The lentil bites sound nice, ignore the snippy comments. They always crop up if someone mentions a lentil.

My son is 17m and here’s what he eats in a day:

Breakfast: two weetabix or fortified porridge with a scoop each of flax, hemp, ground almonds and ground walnuts, topped with raspberries and soy milk, and an orange or banana.

Lunch: homemade baked beans on wholemeal toast, or a homemade curry (for example spinach and chickpea) with coconut rice, or a lentil dhal with a sweet jacket potato, or homemade veggie shepherds pie and veg, or avocado with ground almonds on toast that kinda thing. An orange or banana or apple. Cup of oat milk.

Mid afternoon snack: hummus on a rice cake, or some marinated tofu pieces, or a homemade butter bean and garlic dip with breadsticks

Dinner: similar to lunch but a lot more veg included and on the side, sometimes homemade soup and bread (I add loads of edamame or broad beans to the soup), or a veggie version like deconstructed Mexican fajitas, maybe lentil bolognese with linguine or spinach pasta, spinach bites on the side.

Supper: bowl of coconut or soy plain or Greek yoghurt with berries and some sliced fruit. Cup of oat milk.

If he’s gaining weight as he should be according to your GP/HV then I wouldn’t faff around listening to anyone else tbh, he’s doing fine. Sounds like you put a lot of effort and card into his diet, well done! Doesn’t it feel with a toddler like you spend the entire day preparing food, watching them eat, or cleaning up after them 🤣

Care. Not card! Sorry if that bit sounded patronising btw, I’m far from super clued up on toddler nutrition but I always think it can take so much time and energy and effort to try provide a balanced diet for a child it’s nice to recognise the work that goes into it :)

My son is a few months older - he has a four course lunch every day (at nursery, my catering does not stretch that far) so your menu seems entirely reasonable to me!

@mynameiscalypso

My son is a few months older - he has a four course lunch every day (at nursery, my catering does not stretch that far) so your menu seems entirely reasonable to me!

Oh yeah I forgot to add on my comment that he has a second breakfast at nursery too, plus an additional morning snack 🤣

He’s a normal weight, just eats a lot. Really enjoys food :) it’s such a joy to feed a toddler who likes to eat. Well aware that it may not last!

Sounds very reasonable to me, and roughly in line with what my two (18m, 3yo) eat, although I don't think we end up offering as many different things in a single day so ours probably eat bigger portions of fewer foods, iyswim. My 3yo has wild swings of appetite and will live on air one day and eat us out of house and home the next, but 18mo is a steadier eater and she'd eat approx what you've written down - maybe a bit less, but she's a bit on the dinky side (because she burns it all off so fast!)

Unless your child is having weight issues in either direction (to the level that a medical profession is concerned), quality of food offered is more important than quantity. Yours sounds fine.

We limit milk as a drink to one cup a day, otherwise we'd be bankrupt, and limit quantity of treats like cake and biscuits. We try to serve treats with a meal and put it all on the table together but with the understanding that this is their full allotment of chocolate brownie today or whatever and there will be no seconds, but they can have as much as they want of the normal food. Usually they eat the 'treat' first then move on, but because we've served a very small portion it's not enough to fill them up so they eat some other stuff too. Means there's no "incentive" about it and they don't have to try to leave room or anything. I'd say we're quite strict about sugar in our house and it's not a frequent treat for them, but we're relaxed about what and how much they eat at a meal as long as they're polite about it. Ellyn Scatter has been very helpful for me, as I lived in a "clear your plate" household and it got very fraught.

To clarify about the treats/pudding thing: we don't do courses or puddings. Everything for that meal goes on the table at once. So we do eat pudding foods like yoghurt but don't serve it at a separate time.

The height thing works more for girls, the average height is 2 foot 9 double that is 5 foot 6.

Sounds fine to me. I'm a big believer in letting a child navigate their own appetite (especially as they're usually going through growth spurts, teething, running around, illness all factors in).

My eldest has always had a good appetite but is super active and perfectly in proportion.
My youngest is all over the place. Sometimes she eats a mouthful of toast, other days she eats me out of house and home again, in proportion and both of them always followed their centiles.