How much does your 2 year old eat?

[lunavix]

My ds has just turned two. He has always seemed to be on the chubby side, I've never let him woof down unhealthy food, but he does get treats. We've never really worried as he's always matched his height centile with weight centile - I KNOW you aren't supposed to take the charts as gospel but now his height has significantly dropped so I'm thinking more in proportions. He was 91 on weight and around 97 on height so we weren't worried. However now he's just above 91 for weight.. and under 50 for height. I'd noticed that he wasn't growing much heightwise but hadn't really realised to what extent.

So now I think this does make his weight an issue... he's only just two and nearly 15kg. He doesn't LOOK fat, but he definately has a belly on him. However I'm not sure if I can even make cuts on his food intake!

For breakfast he will have a bowl of cereal, and semi skimmed milk. Usually cheerios, shreddies, or rice krispies. He will probably most mornings have a handful of cheerios first too (dry) as he can't have breakfast till my mindees arrive and they can be rather late. The bowls are plastic kids ikea ones, not too big, or ones the size of most novelty ones (bob builder etc) With this (when we remember) he usually has a kids carton of Innocent fruit smoothie too.

Midmorning he might have a biscuit (custard cream) or humzinger, if we're out he tends not to have anything.

Lunch is always sandwiches, two slices of white bread with crusts cut off. Fillings are either ham, hommus, coleslaw.... he's rather fussy at lunch. He liked croissants for a while but has gone off them too. With these he sometimes has a packet of crisps (skips etc, a max of 3 - 4 packs a week) a small apple, small satsuma, and a handful of grapes. Doesn't always eat the apple.

Most afternoons he will have another custard cream, simply cos my older mindees have biscuits and he will notice and ask for one.

Dinner time is a kids plate sized portion of whatever I've cooked. Usually a homemade meal - spag bol, shepherds pie, other pasta, spinach lasagne, anything and everything. Occasionally it's junkier - breaded chicken chips and peas, or spaghetti on toast, but I think my meals are fairly well rounded. After dinner he might try demanding a chip or mouthful of our dinner if he didn't finish his but we're rather strict on his and his sulking usually doesn't work. He might have a yoghurt (1 small kids fromage frais) or another satsuma after dinner, or strawberries if I have any in.

Then that's it for the day. He drinks no added sugar squash (usually 2 - 3 beakers a dat) and while I know it's not brilliant for teeth, it's not a worry calorie wise is it? As of tomorrow he's only getting water during the week and I was thinking juice on weekends.. but I can't see it making a huge difference.

What does everyone think? Am I stuffing him? He does swimming once a week, tumbletots once a week, and enjoys walking.

zubin, I agree, a complete ban is unnecessary and harsh. I just think moving unhealthy things out of his regular diet would be best.

Right I think that his diet is quite good. I would replace the white bread with brown - think it would fill him up for longer, ditch the skips, keep the semi-skimmed milk, keep the treats and that's about it really other than ensuring he does plenty of walking. I don't think he is at a stage where you need to worry just yet. My DS (always been a good eater although gone through annoying phases) is now 5 and I look back at photos of him at 2 (DD is 23 months) and cannot believe how chubby he was. He now proudly displays a visible set of ribs where there was once a significant pot belly.

His diet sounds absolutely fine to me. He seems to get loads of fruit and it seems well balanced on the whole.

I too would suggest wholemeal bread or at least that 'whole white' stuff Kingsmill do if he won't eat brown.

Why ban sweets and crisps and biscuits? I just think it makes them want them more. I have always allowed ds1 these sorts of foods and he actually prefers fruit when he is offered both. We live in the real world where if we eat these sorts of things then we should allow our kids to too.

On the yoghurt front I used to mix plain with fruit and then decided life was too short when ds2 came along and I use Noddy yoghurts or Yeo Valley kids ones - they are a bit better than fromage frais.

My 2 yr old eats more than this and is quite chubby I just put it down to a healthy appetite and make sure he runs around a lot. I prefer it to him not eating at all!

Like robin3, I wish my 2 year old ds would eat half as much as yours! And he has a belly on him too!

His diet sounds fine to me - although personally I would ditch the squash and use full-fat milk.

What's wrong with white bread btw? I though toddlers weren't meant to have too much fibre in their diet?

the milk isn't just about getting calcium; its about getting enough fat soluble vitamins.

I don't think his diet's too bad though but be careful with crisps, you have to think about the salt content as well as the fat. If you can use fruits, plain scones, breadsticks, sticks of carrots etc for snacks rather than crisps or sweets that would be good.

I'm a nutritionist by the way and wish my 2 year old ate as much as yours. Although she has always been fussy, she used to eat a good amount; now she eats very little, will eat cheese and potato pie with broccoli, carrots and peas and swede in too, chicken, banana, mango, yougurts, waffles, occasionally cheese spread sandwiches, ready brek type stuff but no other cereal, breadsticks, rice cakes, sometimes toast and pasta. sometimes cottage pie. In fact i have been meaning to start a thread about her diet for ages now, think I will today!

sounds about the same as my ds2 who's also just turned two - but then he is the size of a small shed..! I wouldn't worry - ds2 eats twice as much as our 4 year old ds1 who is the size of a twiglet - but I think it's just their genes, appetite, personalities etc. and there's not much we can do but try to keep the 'bad' stuff to a minimum - and stuff fruit and veg down them.

Dd is 2 and a half and solid! Don't know what she weighs, but is not a waif!

She has;

Breakfast - cereal - shreddies, crunchy nut cornflakes and rice krispies with full fat milk, followed by apple, or toast and apple at weekends

Lunch - a sandwich - one slice of brown bread, piece of ham. Also grapes, apple, satsuma, banana - whatever fruit we have basically!

Tea - Something cooked - shepherds pie, spagbol, fish fingers, that sort of thing.

Snacks - always fruit. At bedtime she has a cup of full fat milk.

We don't do puddings, because I'm too disorganised, and I'm VERY lucky that she loves fruit so much, because it makes it easy to give her a healthy diet. She does love biscuits etc, but we rarely have them in.

Just wanted to add that as others have said it may be just him settling into his body shape. I dont think it is a case of over feeding him as my 19mth old is only 10.5kg and ate yesterday(fairly typical of his diet)
Bfast: GF rice puffs with rice milk, whole apple, rice cake with DF spread and soy butter
Snack: 3 rice crackers, slice dried banana, 8 grapes, 3 slices cucumber, a tomato
Lunch: Serve of beef stew, GF cruskit with avocado on, slice dried banana
Snack: GF meusli bar, 6 grapes, 1/2 slice GF toast with vege spread
Dinner: Savoury mince, carrot sticks, zucchini, mashed spuds.
Supper: Canned Boysenberries

Woke up about 1am and asked for more food when I went in!!!

My dd2 turned 2 in feb.
She has:
7:30am-beaker of full fat milk(about 8oz)Then toast or cereal(cheerios or rice crispies)
Then around 10/10:30-some fruit-usually a banana or grapes is her choice.
12:30-lunchtime.She will have a cooked meal-similar to what you do for dinner lunavix.She will have a small yogurt for dessert(usually some chopped fruit in natural yogurt)
3:30-She usually has a small biscuit and maybe some fruit-raisins,grapes.
5:30-dinnertime-usuallly sandwich or toasties with ham,cheese tuna or whatever as a filling.Her older siblings(6 and 4) have both had cooked meals in school so this meal is the smaller one.For dessert the can have a small yogurt or fruit.
7pm-beaker of full fat milk(again about 8oz)

i know its a different age but my sisters ds is 15months and weighs 35lb, hes a very picky eater and very lively and h.v said hes just gona be a big boy, his hands are huge!

p.s either you lot are not being honest with your kids diets on here or you are sticking to the rule about no crisps, sweets, even yoghurt!none of us were bought up on such strict diets and were still alive. dont mean to upset anyone, but all these diets seem "too good"

Mine barely eats, the beast

yea ur probly right kama, ive got an 11year old so cant rememberand an 18month old with v.bad food intolerances whose diet is bland/restricted/boring but dietician has told me fatten him up and as he can tolerate ready salted crisps i give him 2or3 bags a day inbetween meals. its not working, hes still a stick insect

hi kama,he lives only on potatoes, meat, few veg, few jars. no fat at all in his diet so she suggested that the crisps were a good snack for him because of the fat content. i think obviously the fat content to her was praps more important than the salt content. he has absolutely no salt in his diet because its so restricted at present.hopefully he'll grow out of a lot of intolerances by school age

You can get crisps with no salt at all, from either health food shops, M and S, or Sainsbury's. I would be pretty worried about the amount of salt in 3 bags of crisps.

to be honest franny it never crossed my mind, i was just pleased he was getting some fat in him. the dietician didnt bat an eye at the crisps and i get multi pack ones which are only sunflower oil/salt which he is ok on, lots of ready salted ones have other crap in them.

if ready salted crisps have no salt in them, what on earth are they called then?he cant have any other coz of the milk in them

The no salt ones are not ready salted. The ready salted ones have salt in. The no salt ones will state "no added salt" or similar.

Sorry if you knew this but I am not sure what you meant by your last sentence. The ones I am talking about will not have any additives in, they are just plain potatoes and oil. The brands I know of that do them, are Tyrrells, Marks and Spencers, and Kettle Chips, but not all of their crisps are salt free, you need to look for the ones which only state potato and oil on the ingredients.

Good luck it all sounds very hard going for you :(

thanks franny, il investigate the crisps, im glad you mentioned it coz until someone does say something you dont realise and i spose coz the dietician didnt say anything i wasnt concerned

Well I am no dietician but surely if you can get fatty foods without salt that has got to be better, right?

Hope we've helped a little :)

its given me advice and its not my thread, ooops.