8 year old girl always hungry!

[Orangeorganic]

My 8.5yr old DD is always saying she’s hungry and asking for food. She’s not currently overweight and she does sporty clubs 3 times a week, but I’m conscious it seems like she’s constantly eating and I don’t want her to become unhealthy. She is my eldest so I have no reference point.
Example of today’s food -
breakfast - small bowl of strawberries & blueberries, yoghurt, cheese, banana
snacks - apple, bag of popcorn,
lunch - 2 poached eggs on toast, crisps
dinner will be chicken with rice and veg but I know she will ask for about 20 snacks before then
I don’t restrict food (if she says she’s hungry I offer fruit, yoghurt, cheese string etc) and I don’t deny her stuff like sweets/biscuits, we eat out fairly regularly at kid friendly places like pizza express so she doesn’t see food as something that’s scarce and she needs to fill up on when she has the chance, it just seems like whatever I give her she’s never satisfied 😂 and I’m wondering if this is typical for her age and growth spurts or not?
What do your 8/9 year old girls eat?
Thanks!

That sounds like a miniscule breakfast op. Where’s the solid carbs in that? More snacks needed too

How many calories are in what you’re feeding her?

Agree the breakfast lacks carbs / protein for someone very active.

And Two poached eggs on toast also quite light on calories.

Really, she had no actual food of substance until the eggs and toast at lunchtime. I didn’t give my kids any snacks unless they had been swimming or something like that but their meals were actual meals.

There is too much snack food and not enough meals.

Mine is 10 and has the following
Breakfast - hashbrown, slices of toast and berries
Snack - (Taken into school) Rice cakes, peperami, chocolate biscuit
Lunch - At school (hot)
Snack - Cheese, olives, cucumber, carrot, (crisps as a treat)
Dinner - Whatever we eat but always carbs and protein with veg
Pudding - A yogurt, berries, fruit, crackers

It looks to me like yours is hungry because she isn't getting enough to fill her up. They only have small tummies so little and often works well

ok so to clarify she isn’t eating too much but rather I need to make her meals particularly breakfast more filling?
I do feel quite stuck with breakfast as she doesn’t like porridge or cereal, so weekday mornings she tends to eat as she has this morning or have something like a croissant with fruit and yogurt. I could do her poached eggs for breakfast before school thinking about it, as a more filling breakfast?

Any advice gratefully received!

Her school isn’t open today but yes usually she would have a hot school dinner for lunch

I think you need to reframe your own relationship with food tbh. It's not greedy for a growing child to be hungry.
If she is a healthy weight then healthy foods should be unlimited in quantity imo.
Ie not crisps, sugary snacks or heavily processed things as they are easy to eat more than hunger tells you to but 'normal' foods then sure.

Eggs are a great hot breakfast.
Nothing wrong with the occasional sausage or bacon roll either.
Toast with peanut butter and banana on top is my go to ATM.

This she needs some carbs for energy she isn't an adult.
The high protein low carb breakfast recommendations are more geared at adults, that must be quite a low calorie low carb breakfast? Try something like porridge or add in some toast with the fruit and yogurt, I think most kids would be hungry very quickly off that breakfast.

@WarmGreyHare Hi, thanks for your message, I did say in an earlier post that if she asks for food I never say no but will direct her to fruit, yoghurt or cheese etc

I would say poached eggs better for breakfast than croissant/fruit/yoghurt. Dont’ be fooled by the hot lunch at school - they literally give same portion size to just turned 4yr olds as they do to 5ft2 in the middle of puberty 11yr olds!

After school my dc got into the habit of having a bagel with peanut butter and sliced banana, probably with a biscuit too to keep them going through till tea.

I would say she needs more protein at breakfast to fill her up. Eggs are a good shout or maybe protein yoghurt with fruit. Would she eat cold meat with a croissant maybe? School lunches are very small in my opinion; on packed lunch days mine are fine but on school lunch days they come out starving. I find that fruit is a great snack but isn’t filling so I usually give it with other bits like peanut butter balls, peanut butter on crackers or toast or hummus and breadsticks!

Poached eggs is still very low carb? She needs some decent filling carbohydrates.
Two poached eggs only contains about 150-160 calories - a growing child who is active needs more than that, what about wholemeal toast with it?

That’s not much food for an active child. Replace fruit breakfast with carbs - toast, cereal, porridge. Add veg to lunch and remove crisps. Dinner is ok but maybe add a healthy pudding. Fruit is good for snacks between meals but also carb snacks may be needed. Most kids need a snack mid morning and mid afternoon. I always had in lots of bagels to avoid snacking on crisps and sweets.

Maybe switch it up to something more solid. Starchy carbs and protein are filling. Fruit is great but is mostly a sugar hit.

Is she genuinely hungry or bored?
I would include more veg, as it stands there’s no veg until tea time and veg is good for bulking out meals and snacks.
Is she drinking enough? Lots of children confuse thirst for hunger.
I think if you are giving nutritious meals and a snack there is no harm in reminding children that they have had that, and they need to wait until the next meal for anything else.

That breakfast isn't lacking protein - yoghurt contains protein. It's lacking carbohydrates?
Children need starchy carbs!!

Poached or scrambled eggs for breakfast sounds perfect.

But it's pretty normal for kids to ask for something to eat constantly. I point them in the direction of the fruit bowl but they can also help themselves to boiled eggs/ carrots and houmous, glass of milk etc from the fridge.

Often they mean they are bored or thirsty rather than hungry though.

Eggs for breakfast are good. If she's likely to say she's hungry later, give her three eggs with a couple of slices of toast.

Fruit and cheese is then a good mid-morning snack.

A healthy, filling lunch. Something with lots of fibre and protein.

A healthy afternoon snack, e.g. veggies with a dip and some nuts.

Dinner, healthy and filling.

At this age it's not really about how much/often they eat, but about what they eat. Make things like crudités and houmous unlimited, but cut out popcorn and crisps as regular snacks. Get rid of cheese strings and swap for cheddar. She's isn't going to get fat from eating too many apples or too much cucumber.

I think a lot of people now are so hung up on high protein diets that they are forgetting that children need carbohydrates, and plenty of them. Carbs should be a child's primary source of energy, not protein. Yes protein is important but im increasingly seeing people almost seemingly restricting carbs for children? Why is that?

Eggs on toast for breakfast instead of lunch. Sorted.

As others have said, her breakfast isn't enough. Scrambled eggs or cream cheese on bagels, poached eggs on toast, crumpets... She needs more carbs.

sausage and bacon are both carcinogens. that's like saying the occasional fag wont do any harm!

As a child, the healthy thing is a good, varied diet with plenty of protein, carbs, fruit and veg, enough healthy fats (fish, avocados, nuts), limit unhealthy foods/unhealthy snacks, and as long as she's a healthy weight, let her eat as much as she wants.
Protein will keep her feeling fuller for longer, but make sure you are actually giving her enough calories and that there are some substantial carbs in that too!

I do think that it would be beneficial to many people growing up, to reduce snacks as they get older, because constant eating does affect hunger signals and insulin levels/resistance, so it's important to learn what real hunger feels like, rather than confusing boredom or emotional emptiness for hunger. But that's for teen years, not at age 8 when she just needs the nutrition.

Agree with others that this sounds light and low-carb for an 8 year old. For reference my (50th centile) 4 year old's diet yesterday:

Breakfast: handful of blueberries, slice of granary toast with peanut butter, small bowl of porridge (made with whole milk)
Morning snack: banana
Lunch: Half a tin of baked beans (ate most of), cheese, pepper slices
Afternoon snack: small flapjack
Dinner: veggie curry (chickpeas, green beans, spinach and cauliflower) with rice (side plate sized portion)
Greek yoghurt with strawberries for pudding