To think this isn’t really enough food for a 13 year old?

[ChocolateCrepe]

DS has been given 2 slices of a supermarket pizza, 4 chicken nuggets, a handful of fries (literally about 12) and a few cucumber chunks for his dinner

I think this is nowhere near enough food for a growing teen
The adult who gave him the food thinks it’s plenty and I’m being silly

DS is far too polite to ever comment if he didn’t think it was enough but I’ve made him a sandwich and he is now eating it happily

WIBU?

@Mummyoflittledragon yes it was part of a long line of abuse and neglect. I reported it all to childrens services

@Harmonypuss

really ? You would eat 4 nuggets and few chips for one meal

and another 2 small slices of pizza

and be full and eat nothing else

@SemperIdem

Have you ever considered getting treatment for your eating disorder, @Harmonypuss ?

@Quincythequince

How would that last you for two meals?
Unless you are very very short and thin and need only 1000kcal a day to maintain your weight?
You realise teenagers are growing yes? Laying down body mass as they get larger and physically mature and need to support all the energetically expensive processes that are part of puberty.

In answer to you both, I'm 5'11" and no, I don't have an eating disorder, I've had a gastric bypass, so yes, 1,000 calories a day would actually be about right (if not too much) for me.

Yes, I do realise that teenagers are growing, I was one once and have had 2 of my own. I did say in my original post that a 13yr old would more than likely need more than the OP stated her son has been given.

I have no experience of teenagers but I also reckon my 1 year old would eat that amount if it was put in front of him

@Blondeshavemorefun

@Harmonypuss
really ? You would eat 4 nuggets and few chips for one meal and another 2 small slices of pizza
and be full and eat nothing else

See my above message.
I'd actually probably have one piece of pizza and about 6 chips for each meal and if I wasn't satisfied with that and the nuggets were available, I might have one or two to top me up.

But you've had a gastric bypass! That's like saying "I couldn't eat any of that. I'm tube fed"

It's totally irrelevant

@healthadvice123

@Harmonypuss 2 meals? Do you would eat one tiny peice of pizza as 10 inch cut in to 8 i a small piece and 2 nuggets and 6 chips all day ???
I have teenagers they can easy eat a 10inch frozen supermarket pizza both are not overweight, one id actually a little under

As I've said to @semperldem, @Quincythequincce and @Blondeshavemorefun above, yes, that's pretty much it for 2 meals, not that I'd have both on the same day, I'd maybe have 1.5 weetabix softened with water and a little milk and sweetener added for taste for breakfast and a small banana for lunch, then 1 small slice of pizza and a few chips as my evening meal. Not that I eat pizza often but that's about the size/ calorie content of my meals.
I totally understand kids, especially teenagers need a lot more calories, I wasn't disputing that but I also understand that one size doesn't fit all and that one 13yr old won't need exactly the same as another, in the same way as I, an adult woman don't need the same as every other adult woman does.

@PeloFondo

But you've had a gastric bypass! That's like saying "I couldn't eat any of that. I'm tube fed"

As I've already said above, I was just pointing out that we're all different and have different needs

I didn't realise an early poster was right - these threads really do attract the eating disordered!

@Harmonypuss but thats not a standard amount of food at all and 13 year olds rarely have had a gastric bypass
Most people would be ill on that amount as calories are too low surely

@Harmonypuss will you always be on that small a portions , my cousin had a bypass and she started off like this but now seems to eat more all be it little and often as opposed to 3 big meals ?

The portion size is small, and the food is also absolute junk. I wouldn't feed anyone, whether adult or child, that as a main meal.

But we're not talking about everyone's needs! This is about the needs of a healthy teenager!

Doesn't sound small to me, dd1 has never eaten that much in her life at one sitting, dd2 eats more but that's about right for 13. It's how much I'd have (not that I would have that combo, too many carbs) I cook a supermarket pizza (6 slices) for 2 of us with salad

@gogohmm yet you say you serve half where as the ds was given a quarter

Def some weird eating habits on here , eating too much is not good but neither is not eating enough

I see this thread is attracting all the weirdo competitive under eaters. Absolute madness.

As another poster has said

a teenage boy needs nearly 3,000 calories a day

this meal is less than 1/4 of that

Its not enough

In my opinion this would be about right for lunch, not for dinner. At the most important hot meal of the day a growing child should be allowed to eat his fill - and of course be tought not to be greedy. Anyway, this meal has no vegetables, no fruit, the poultry is processed. So not a good meal at all, but if a once-off and compensated with a healthy dinner he'll be fine!

They always do. It's sad in a way to see just how many women are completely obsessed with diet culture.

I’d be more concerned that your son does not feel able to tell his dad he is still hungry. What’s that about?

I agree with this. Why is his dad so controlling about food? A 13 year old should be able to say "I'm still peckish after that, I'll grab myself some bread/cheese/fruit etc."

And his dad should take note and cook sufficient food next time. Being this controlling over what a child eats for dinner is so, so wrong.

Just a thought - is the 13 year old his biological son? They don't have different dads, do they?

My six foot tall teenager boys ate very small meals .. they were very unlike other boys that age . They were too busy to be bothered with eating much . Eldest is 6ft 4 and now 35 and still isn’t a big eater .

@healthadvice123

I'm 4.5yrs post surgery and I very rarely go over 1000 calories a day.
As I said earlier though, everyone is different and has varying requirements, some find they can't stand sweet things, some can eat more than others, which all goes back to what's been said before, we're all different.

@TomTraubertsBlues

But we're not talking about everyone's needs! This is about the needs of a healthy teenager!

No, we're not talking about "everyone's needs", but what one healthy teenage lad needs won't necessarily be the same as the healthy teenage lad sitting right next to him, hence me saying that we're all different and our individual bodies have differing requirements. So what is adequate for one may not be for another.

The needs of ANY teenage lad will be totally different to what an adult with severely disordered eating and a gastric band eats.

Your experience is not an example of "different people having different requirements". You are an example of someone with long term disordered eating.

Doesn't sound small to me, dd1 has never eaten that much in her life at one sitting, dd2 eats more but that's about right for 13. It's how much I'd have (not that I would have that combo, too many carbs) I cook a supermarket pizza (6 slices) for 2 of us with salad

@gogohmm

You have daughters.

The OP is talking about a teenage boy.

At 13, my DS would have eaten an entire frozen pizza and a trough of salad, and an hour later he would have been scouring the fridge for more. I often found him making an omelette for himself or finishing off leftover chili or stew at 10pm.

His feet grew to the biggest size they could get to without having to order special humongous shoes for him when he was about 13-14, and he grew tall enough to play American football in high school.

My girls had a much more gradual growth trajectory.