3yo constantly hungry & tantruming - am I not feeding him enough?

[lindsell]

DS1 (3.5yo) seems to be constantly hungry at the moment and I can't understand why.

I think it's making him have worse tantrums as if I don't "catch" the hunger in time (i.e. feed him within 2 mins of him saying he's hungry) then he has total meltdown about something petty (e.g. whether he or I pull up his trousers after going to the loo - that resulted in a 30min tantrum yesterday).

He goes to nursery 3 days a week but when he's at home this is a typical day for him foodwise:

Breakfast (c8am): 1 or 2 slices of toast, small bowl of cereal with greek yoghurt, piece of fruit (e.g. plum/peach/apple)

Snack/Breakfast 2 (c9-10am): banana or another slice of toast

Snack (c11am): handful of rice cakes or crackers & cheese

Lunch (c12.30/1pm): sandwich (2 slices of bread) with either (naice ) ham/chicken/tuna filling and either handful of cherry tomatoes/chopped up pepper/carrot etc. Sometimes piece of fruit afterwards. Sometimes he has homemade soup (veggie with lots of added lentils etc) with bread instead of a sandwich.

Snack (c3-4pm): homemade oaty bar or biscuit or similar.

Dinner (c6pm): cooked meal such as spag bol/fish pie/chicken breast/pork chop/salmon/beef casserole etc together with appropriate potatoes/veg (he eats a good range of veg - carrots, broccoli, cauliflower, green beans, peas etc). Portion size is about 1/3-1/2 adult size. Pudding - usually greek yoghurt mixed with fresh berries or other fruit.

I know he probably has a bit too much fruit but he only has sweets/cakes etc on special occasions and normally only has water to drink. I'd like him to have more protein at breakfast but he won't eat eggs (have tried in every format and I hate them so doesn't help!) and won't drink milk which is why I try and give him greek yoghurt for protein/calcium.

Is there something I'm missing? Does this sound like enough food? Does it sound like it could be a growth spurt? Something else?

Any thoughts would be welcomed I don't like him saying sadly to me "mummy I'm hungry all the time"

It sounds like the food is right for him. I would say from my experience that children say they are hungry when they don't know how to say what they really want. My oldest says she is hungry when she is really thirsty, my youngest says she is hungry but she is actually tired IYSWIM.

It does sound like plenty of food and personally I would stick to a "you've just eaten, lets do something else now" speech. It may cause tantrums but then my dc can have a tantrum over anything anyway so it doesn't really matter what the subject matter is.

He could be bored, cold, tired, thirsty, ill, etc.

That sounds like plenty of food to me. For comparison (because I found it interesting to compare) the kid (3.2, but tall) yesterday ate:

Breakfast (7:30am)1 bowl of Shereddies followed by 1 bowl of honey hoops mixed with Shereddies, strawberry yoghurt

Lunch (12:30) most of a tin of tomato soup with a slice of bread and butter for dipping

Snack (4-ish) small box of raisins

Tea (5:45) 1 sausage, quarter of a tin of beans, a decent serving of sweet potato / potato mash

She has a drink of water and a drink of milk on the go most of the day. She used to have a bit more fruit but seems to have gone off it at the moment; she does every now and again. She scooted probably the best part of 2 miles because we ended up going to both parks near the house, which are in opposite directions - and did a fair amount of climbing and sliding at both.

She does seem to have my metabloism though, which means she 'goes under' as we call it very quickly. We can both go from feeling a bit peckish to feeling faint with hunger in about 5 minutes. At 30-something I've learned to live with it but she hasn't, yet.

That said, she is now more determined to be independent that ever before (and she's always been pretty determined). Little things like pulling up trousers are important when you're trying to assert your status as a child rather than a baby - the kid is always making that distinction at the moment. Maybe the tantrum you mention was more about wanting to be grown up?

to add, she was also BF in the morning and the evening. Easy to forget as that's not my job!

IMy almost 5yo does this too. Hoping it tails off as he has started school. His usual diet goes like this-

Breakfast- bowl of cereal or piece of toast followed by fruit.

Snack around 9/10- at school they are allowed 2 pieces fruit/veg and milk or water.

Lunchbox- Salami sandwich, cheese and cucumber cubes, banana, frube, cereal bar.

3.15 snack

5.30- dinner last night was filled pasta, tonight is chicken with cous cous and roasted peppers.

I agree that a lot of children say they are hungry out of not knowing what else to sj. I find it frustrating though as I feel as though I am constantly feeding him and dd is now startig to copy!

A others have said it could be he's not hungry and doesn't know how to express what the problem is.

Or as you have said it less to a tantrum if he's not fed and if it's just a recent thing. then it could well be a growth spurt and he just needs more food at the moment. low blood sugar often leads to tantrums with my DD.

Thanks all - I have wondered if it could be something else - boredom/thirst etc and I have tried offering a drink instead of food but even if he has some then he still says he's hungry and he eats everything that he's given. So I think it is usually hunger but will try offering water everytime first and maybe try distraction as well.

machadaynu that particular tantrum was because he wanted me to do his trousers not him so the opposite . The tantrums are triggered by a variety of things which seems typical 3yo (particularly as ds2 is 4mo and so attention is split) but what seems different recently is the seemingly constant hunger and the real meltdown tantrum if I don't get food into him in time to avoid it. He hasn't had those sort of meltdown tantrums since he was about 2.5 and I thought he'd grown out of them

I was concerned that I wasn't giving him enough food as it's hard to find guidance on portion sizes etc. Weight wise he's always been between the 9th-25th centile and is around the 15th at the moment so on the low side. But it sounds like it's about average (or even a bit more) from the examples so far