How much does your 3 year old eat?

[Pebbledashery]

My little one has always had a VERY healthy appetite. She's just turned 3 and her appetite has rocketed.. Please tell me if this is far too much, she asks for more and seems genuinely hungry so I do give her more, but not sure I'm setting her up for an obese future.....this is her eating today. Its slightly different in the week as she's up much earlier for pre school and eats at slightly earlier times.

Breakfast: 8am
1.5 bowls of weetabix with milk
A cup of milk
1.5 slices of Wholewheat toast with butter and marmite.

Lunch: 12.15pm
2 x cheese and ham wraps
Carrots
Cucumber
Houmous
(she asked for more wraps after demolishing two wraps but I hadn't made any more)

Afternoon snack: 3pm
Quarter of a blueberry and lemon flapjack
Small bowl of strawberries

Dinner: Between 4.30pm to 5.00pm
Home made roast potatoes (3 potatoes but wanted more)
Carrots
Broccoli
Half a small homemade chicken pie (then asked for the other half so ended up eating almost all)
Pudding: Pear

She isn't partial to many snacks during the day, and eats incredibly well at meal times. She guzzles a lot of water in the day time too and I never give her juice. She will take water up to bed with her too for the night as she's now lost interest in bedtime milk.

Does this sound OK? She always stops when she's full but I was just a bit worried she was eating a lot and I was giving her a lot. I don't like to deprive her as my ex used to try and starve her when she wanted food (I never let him.. But the intention from him was there) I don't want to then send her the other way into an abyss of overeating.

Please be honest, I'm thick skinned and grateful for opinions.

It's great shes eating op!! My 5yo and 1yo have hollow legs and eat the same amounts as your dd but my 4yo DD wouldn't touch half of that.
She lives on water melon, strawberry's, jam buttys, strawberry soreen and then nuggets and pizza and plain pasta?! I try everything and she won't touch it !!

Good question! I always worry my 3 (next week) year old eats too much and having disordered eating my entire life it is the one thing I stress hugely about (him eating too much or too little and me passing stuff on to him).

Mine eats
1 weetbix
1 slice toast

Wraps for lunch with peppers, courgette onion and cheese. He will have two and ask for more sometimes I give it some times I don’t. With houmous, carrots, peppers and cucumber.

Snack is strawberries or melon

Dinner he has huge portions of a lot of what we eat and will always ask for more. Sometimes has the same portion as me!
I give him more if he asks and we have it.
His dinner are generally healthy chickpea curry, potato curry, halloumi and bean stew, lentil pie, chicken and cous cous, salmon and pesto with potatoes he would eat a salmon fillet to himself and about 3 potatoes plus lots of veg.

I’m trying to be relaxed about it and if I’m cooking healthy things it doesn’t matter how much he has, occasionally he eats hardly anything. I have no idea if my approach is right and I stress about it a lot.
Mine is just under 91st for height no idea what he weighs but there is nothing of him. Shall weigh him next week when he is three and put it in his red book.
He is also very active most days.

Thanks for the quantity update. Yes she is eating larger than average portions, and certainly exceeding the kcals required for a child her age.
But that said she’s eating a varied and healthy diet and isn’t snacking excessively and self regulates by stopping when she’s full.
I think if she’s a healthy weight when you weigh her I wouldn’t worry.

Maybe ham or eggs or cheese with breakfast instead of Marmite?

I'm pretty sure my 3yo eats more than that
Porridge + toast
Fruit
Wraps, yoghurt
Cake
Normal dinner + dessert
for example

Please don’t weigh her OP. She’s 3 years old. By being obsessed enough about her weight to be weighing her, you’re running the risk of making an issue over weight to her and you don’t want to do that. Especially a young girl.

I understand why you’re thinking about food but honestly, if you’re feeding her a healthy, varied diet with and she takes plenty of fluid with it, then you have origins to worry about. There will be times in her childhood she won’t be as hungry, just give her what she needs.

We absolutely should not be talking about putting on weight, BMI and controlling portion sizes with any child. It is not healthy.

You have NOTHING to worry about that should say. I’m supervising dinner as we speak.

There's nothing wrong with weighing a child, it absolutely doesn't make an issue. You just say you want to see how big she's growing. Kids love to hear they're getting bigger and taller.

@Formaldeheidi

Please don’t weigh her OP. She’s 3 years old. By being obsessed enough about her weight to be weighing her, you’re running the risk of making an issue over weight to her and you don’t want to do that. Especially a young girl.

I understand why you’re thinking about food but honestly, if you’re feeding her a healthy, varied diet with and she takes plenty of fluid with it, then you have origins to worry about. There will be times in her childhood she won’t be as hungry, just give her what she needs.

We absolutely should not be talking about putting on weight, BMI and controlling portion sizes with any child. It is not healthy.

Yeh, except for the fact that 9.5% of 4-5 year olds are obese and a FURTHER 12.8% is overweight.

There's nothing wrong with occasionally weighing your child. Parents can be bad judges of character when it comes to assessing a child's weight by eye.

I'd say my three year old ( 3 years 5 months) eats a similar amount, although probably eats less for the main meals but has more snacks. A days worth of food is probably the same as yours. He's on the 98th centile for height and off the top of the chart for weight. He's not fat, but what I would call 'solid'. Some days though he eats a lot less. He definitely eats more when he has a growth spurt.

Way more than my 3.5 year olds, but all children are different.

You dont have to assess your child by eye. You don’t have to assess your child’s weight at all. You educate YOURSELF on how to feed your child properly. You learn how to feed them a nutritionally balanced diet which means they are healthy and thriving. That’s the real problem, not the number on the scales. Passing on a culture of food restriction based on weight to a child is what fuels a cycle of obesity.

It’s astonishing (but unsurprising) to see how all those crying out for OP to weigh her child haven’t even asked how active her child is. Diet shouldn’t be seen as food in isolation - that’s unhealthy.

My 3y5m son eats tons but it's more snacks than meals as he usually refuses proper meal food, basically he's a nightmare and lives off crap. Anyway I think if she's not overweight then not to worry.
My lo stepped on the scales this morning just messing about in the bathroom he's 2st8lb, tall and always on the go!

@Moraxella

That’s about what my string bean 23 month old boy eats. It all sounds healthy and varied too!

Really?! My 2 year old doesn't eat much she is super fussy which worries me anyway and now I'm even more worried if this is normal. Doctor didn't have any issues with her but she is 95th for height and around 25th for weight

Newmumatlast my DS1 was also 95th percentile for height and 25th for weight at that age. It's not necessarily a problem - just their body shape. DS1 is now 15yo, still tall and skinny for his age but very active and healthy.

Way way more than mine. Getting her to eat is a complete pain in the arse. I wish she ate more and meal times weren't such a battle.

Both my three year olds eat like this, but they never stop moving. Both on 50th centile for weight, one on 50th centile for height and the other on the 70th. I never limit their intake of healthy food. The only thing I do is try to avoid cycles of carbohydrate heavy snacks leaving them equally hungry 45 minutes later.

I clicked YABU as your child self-regulates her food in take.

You also have not posted how active your child is.

Plus children eat more around a growth spurt. It looks like they are being greedy to adults who are shorter/have smaller appetites but they need the food because they are growing.

Most DC regulate the food intake and stop when full. They need to be offered enough food.

They'll put on weight if the food is rubbish and packed with calories like fast food and biscuits etc.

A bowl of cherry tomatoes and carrot sticks are always good to put out on the table in case of increased appetite

@stripedbananas

A bowl of cherry tomatoes and carrot sticks are always good to put out on the table in case of increased appetite

That's a good idea

My mum used to serve soup almost at every meal. (We have a morphy richards soup maker, it's brilliant!)

OP since you mentioned wanting honesty, this does seem like a lot of food for a 3 year old. It's more food than I eat in a day as an adult. Eg I've never had Weetabix and toast at the same meal unless it's a Sunday brunch or something. Breakfast only needs one main carb so it's one or the other. I will also avoid 2 wraps at lunch if there is also a side of veg.

It's taboo on MN to remotely imply that children can eat "too much" but at the same time there are many threads from adults with very unhappy relationships to food and their body. Some posters act horrified about weighing children, but it's perfectly responsibly parenting to ensure your child doesn't end up obese. I would be horrified if I had been overweight as a child and later found out my parents NEVER weighed me or controlled my food out of political correctness.

I use the guide of 1/4 - 1/3 of an adult portion size for toddlers. It's hard to imagine how they can physically fit more food inside them based on body and stomach size. That's like the equivalent of adults eating a giant football sized burger. DD rarely asks for more after she's finished but if she does then I tell her to "Let's wait 20mins and if you're still hungry you can have more. It takes a while for your tummy to tell your brain you're full." 99% of the time she will go do something else and be perfectly fine.

This sounds reallly similar to my dd at 3. She is now 6 and her appetite hasn't really increased at all. Always been a healthy weight according to health visitor and school nurse checks.

Please don’t weigh her OP. She’s 3 years old. By being obsessed enough about her weight to be weighing her, you’re running the risk of making an issue over weight to her and you don’t want to do that. Especially a young girl.

This attitude is ridiculous and I do wish it would stop.

Checking a child's weight does not equal obsessed

Checking their weight is no different to checking their teeth, eyes and ears.

It's adults projecting their own hang-ups that causes problems.