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.

I have a 4 year old and a nearly 3 year old.
A typical day

• Breakfast

Cereal and Milk with Sugar free squash A piece of fruit

Snack - Ricecake/belvita etc

Lunch
Ham roll with cucumbers carrots and peppers
Yogurt
Banana
Occasionally savoury snack like small crackers or fridge raiders chicken bites

Snack- Small snack such as 2 small gingerbread men biscuits

Dinner
Spagetti bolognase or another family meal full child plate

Seems quite a lot for a 3 year old imo.

Ok so she eats more than me 😂

As long as her weight is fine don't worry about it. Must be a growing girl!

@Pebbledashery

I will weigh her.. I've just ordered new scales as mine are broken! But it's basically normal sized weetabix, she had 2 this morning. I did 1.5 in the first bowl and half in the second bowl so it made 1.5 bowl of weetabix but 2 weetabix biscuits.. I should've just said that lol. The wraps are the normal sized ones, the mini ones are like air for her! I make the wraps them chop them up into circles and she demolishes it.. The chicken pie is a normal standard shop size small pie, I bought some foil pie container things and made them to put in freezer, the one today had shortcrust pastry. She's very good with vegetables, there's not much she doesn't like so I'm very lucky.. She's definitely more of a 3 square meals kind of girl than a snacker, I do offer her snacks mid morning such as fruit or bread sticks but it's almost like she wants to save her appetite! She sleeps 7 to 7 so is ravenous by the morning!

That's more than I'd eat and I'm an overweight adult. I just calorie checked it and it comes out around 1700calories depending on exactly how much you use. Eg I estimated 30g of cheese(which wouldn't go far in two wraps). She's essentially having two breakfasts and two lunches. Why two wraps? Why toast and cereal? You'd be better off having a healthy mid morning snack than two carb full breakfasts.

I don’t think it sounds like a crazy amount . My 3 year old is a fusspot so you’re lucky yours eats a good varied diet !

My 3 year old today -

Cornflakes
Banana
Milk

Raspberries
Pesto pasta
Bar of choc

Banana
Yogurt

Carbonara
Ice pop

That's a lot compared to my 3yo (and my 5yo actually) but she's never had a huge appetite besides a very brief period around 2yo when she ate lots for a while (growth spurt or something I assume?) all children are different though and you say she's very energetic. Mine aren't the most energetic of children so they probably don't need as many calories.

An average day for my DD(3) is

Picks at a very small bowl of cereal/a pancake/fruit for breakfast but rarely finishes it

Snack: banana/piece of toast/cheese

Lunch: this is the only meal she's guaranteed to eat and comprises the usual - sandwich of sorts with ham or chicken or maybe a pitta bread with hummus, 1 yoghurt and little bowl of fruit (blueberries/strawberries usually)

Afternoon snack of an apple/crackers/rice cake or whatever I have to hand. She loves apples so will always eat them but no guarentees on the rest

Dinner: if it's pasta she'll devour it but if not she'll probably only pick at parts of it. If she's being picky I make sure she has a cup of milk at least to try and get something in there!

It's hit and miss but I trust if they need more they'll eat it and just make sure they have a good multivitamin every day and hope for the best! I was a picky eater so I don't stress about it as it turned out fine in the end and I'll eat anything now. I think I'd feel the same if they had huge appetites - I'd trust it's what they need right now and as long as they weren't overweight/are getting g lots of time outdoors to play it's completely fine.

My 3 year old varies a lot. Yesterday he had 2 x adult size bowls of cereal with milk and a yoghurt for breakfast, scrambled egg on toast for lunch (1 egg, 1 slice of toast), an apple and a banana as a snack, then a big portion of golden rice, peas, carrots, green beans, fish fingers and a Yorkshire pudding for dinner. The day before he had cereal and toast for breakfast but then picked at some alphabites at lunch time, had half a pear, then half a bread roll for dinner. That was all.

Mine is 3 too and it sounds like a bit more than what my DD eats but my DD is quite short, is your child quite tall? As they'd obviously need a lot more if so. Also I can see your DC seems to eat a lot more earlier in the day than later in the day, this is generally the case for mine too but she does have some snacks so meals are probably a bit smaller. But I think their diet is great, I wish my DC would eat broccoli!!

For comparison today she ate:
Breakfast 9am - cup of full fat milk (approx 150ml?), 25g bowl of Cheerios with small amount of full fat milk, and a kiwi.

Snack 11.30am.- A large orange fruit shoot and a Peppa pig ice cream lolly. We were at soft play and her friend from nursery was having these so she wanted them too.

Lunch 1pm - one cheese and onion roll (shop bought), one clementine, a cadburys chocolate cake bar and a strawberry squeezy yoghurt. With water to drink.

Snack 4.30pm - 1 salt and pepper cracker.

Dinner 6.15pm - small amount of a tomatoey pasta bake which was 1 Quorn meatball and about 3 tablespoons of pasta shells in a tomato sauce. She picked the melted cheese parts off them. With water to drink.

Dessert 7pm - another roughly 150ml of full fat milk with Wellbaby vitamin in and 5 dates.

Tiny bit more water just before bed. And she drinks water whenever she wants throughout the day too. As you can see she doesn't have the healthiest diet...