Constantly asking for food?! Help

[x6bec]

Hi, my dd constantly asks for food. She's not the smallest of girls so I have to watch what she eats. I don't know how to tackle this. It's almost like habit....mommy can I have an orange....mommy can I have some sweets....mommy can I have something else! I just find myself saying no all the time and then she asks for something else. There is no way she can be hungry all the time. Any advice is greatly appreciated because it's really starting to get me down now.
Thanks in advance
Oh its not boredom either as it happens whenever we are out too

Can you give us sone more info, like what her height and weight centiles are, how old she is and what she does eat?

She's just turned 3 and has always been around the 90th centile. She will eat anything she can get her hands on. Has weetabix or porridge for breakfast, sandwich for lunch and another piece of fruit, some raisins, a baby bell and whatever we have for dinner plus a little yoghurt. Nursery give her a biscuit and I will give her fruit sweets for treats. How does this info help?

Is she very tall? What's her height centile like?

It doesn't seem like a huge amount of food, what's the portion size like?

It doesn't sound like much to me either and my two are skinny rakes. Little ones often need regular meals and snacks.

If she's always been around the 90th & remains so I wouldn't worry too much. The centile thing means in her age group, out of 100 kids, 10 will be heavier than her. Don't confuse it with him charts for adults & us needing to be in the middle of the chart.

I think kids of this age generally have a good handle on whether they're hungry or not. My son at 2.5 seems to inhale crazy amounts of food & some days after 3 meals at nursery, including 2nd helpings he'll come home & drink 2 cups of milk, 2 slices of brown toast & jam and ask for more!

Does she drink much?

It doesn't sound like too much to me either. I am mum of DS (age 7) - he in 95th percentile for height and weight. So big, but not fat.
Typical eating day... at a weekend...
Breakfast: 2 x chocolate weetabix with semi-skimmed milk, then an apple juice
Mid morning (after swimming) a 4-fingered kit-kat
Lunch: M&S Kids Spag Bol/Curry, plate of cucumber, 1-2 small chocolate mousse
Snack: varies - but something like (only 1 of) small chocolate muffin, plain bagel, brioche, couple of biscuits
Tea: pasta, broccoli, sweetcorn (with one of steak, chicken, salmon, burger, sausages, fish fingers etc), followed by apple or orange
Snack before bed: small amount of chocolate
Drinks over a litre of water a day.

I realise an age difference, but think little and often. If you are worried by weight/size, just make sure snacks are healthy/sustaining/fruit. My DS often says hungry, and when I offer a banana he is suddenly NOT quite so hungry!! I suggest little and often, especially at 3. Keep the fluids (water) up though. xxx

I hope you don't mind me pointing this out chilliqueen, but in that typical day, your ds is having chocolate 5 times!!

X6bec my ds is the same, he is 2.4, and also just asks for food all the time, and I mean all the time. It does my head in. I always end up carrying a massive bag of snacks round with me so that I don't get caught out. I make a point of offering fairly boring stuff a lot of the time, oatcakes etc, but he still takes it, so I figure he's just hungry, and just try and be prepared with healthy stuff to offer him.

I've tried cutting back on the snacks to see what difference it makes to how much he eats at mealtimes at well, but they remain just as hit and miss as ever. Ds is also at the higher end of centiles although I've not had him weighed or measured for a long time. He is solid but not fat, and hovers around the 91st centiles for both weight and height.

From what you describe it is not much and she is eating lots of healthy snacks. Children this age need to eat every couple of hours. Three meals a day does not work for them. As long as she is eating healthily let her eat as she needs - she will have a much better attitude to food as she grows up this way too.

Ineedcheese... yes when read it back it does seem like lots of chocolate - but they are smallish portions! I probably should have said this is on a very active weekend day - not a school day. Less of everything consumed on a school day. Also no sweets eaten at all and no sugary drinks etc. Overall mainly healthy (I hope)!.

OP, responding as my DS is just about 3, so similar age...

Breakfast: piece of fruit and weetabix or porridge
Lunch: hot lunch at nursery - normally with meat
Snack 4pm: piece of toast or fruit at nursery
Supper: hot supper - whatever we have - + fruit or yoghurt
Bedtime: milk

However, sometimes he will eat half of the above. And sometimes he will eat practically everything in the house - it sounds like your DD is eating completely normally, in fact a little light tbh - don't be worried that her weight is 90th centile - some children have to be 90th - mine is 99th! He is also over 100th for height - is your DD tall?

My policy is if he wants food, he gets it. However, he gets fruit or hummus + veg. He can eat as much as he wants of those. And if he wants chocolate or cake and doesn't want healthy snacks, he isn't as hungry as he's claiming!

I feed my 13 month old about that much, so maybe she genuinely needs more? A bigger breakfast especially

My DD is 3.2 and to honest it doesn't sound like much food unless portion sizes are very large. DD is 98 cms and nearly 15kg as a comparison and she will often eat more than that. She drinks huge amounts of milk and to be honest would live off that given the chance but she would still eat the same amount as your DD.

How tall is your DD and what does she weigh? You need both height and weight to see if she really is a little too large or not - maybe she is genuinely hungry?

How are things now OP?

I agree with those who say that what you describe really isn't that much. My dd is 22 months and if she is having a growth spurt she wouild eat that by mid afternoon. You can always tell when she is going to grow as she will eat constantly for a week and then suddenly all her trousers are too short. She is also in the high centiles, around 98 for height and weight. Very tall but not fat at all.

I would offer her healthy foods as extra, veg, fruit, toast and humous. Maybe offer larger portions at meal times as well. I suddenly realised that dd is a toddler now not a baby and will happily eat a child sized portion rather then the smaller more baby portions I had been giving her and then wondering why she was still hungry.