Toddler is always hungry!

[Ra4940]

My 17 month old daughter has always been a very hungry baby..even from birth she would always want to breastfeed very frequently and quickly moved from the 70th centile to the 95th where she has stayed. She’s so the 95th for height, I’m tiny but her dad is very tall so I think she may take after him. She looks quite ‘solid’ / still has chunky legs but was a late walker so only really been confidentially walking and running around the last 2 months. I make sure she gets plenty of exercise and fresh air and she eats anything so very healthy but portion sizes are probably bigger than average. She never eats any sweets or chocolate.

Should I be restricting her food more? She’s started having huge tantrums at the end of mealtimes and eats so quickly and frantically..she will stuff her mouth without swallowing until it’s full and still want another bit of food ready in her hand! Should I be holding off more or feed her if she’s hungry as long as it’s healthy and she’s exercising lots?

Confidently walking not confidentially 😁

Definitely don't restrict her food, she's a growing toddler and really needs to know that there will be enough food for her or you might trigger off life long problems.

My DN is on the 98th for both and us now a beautiful teen.

How much milk is she having each day? Is it full fat?

What does she have in a typical day?

That’s what I thought but just wondered if it was normal for her to be ravenously hungry all the time!

Typical day is a big bowl or porridge for breakfast with full fat milk, peanut butter, chia seeds, banana and blueberries or avocado / peanut butter toast

Mid morning snack something like a healthy kids oat bar and some fruit

Lunch something like a baked sweet potato with beans or tuna Mayo, leftover veggie pasta or homemade fish fingers with sweet potato veggies and peas

Afternoon snack of a snack bar and fruit or boiled egg

Dinner is usually a little of whatever we’re having, we eat vegetarian and healthy, e.g veggie moussaka or Mexican bean stew with rice or cous cous. I sometimes add some tofu or veggie sausage to whatever we’re having for protein

I don’t really give her meat as we don’t eat it but she eats fish and gets plenty of protein.

2x 7oz bottles of full fat cows milk a day also

How about swapping the snacks to something more filling like a round of cheese on toast or offering a banana with the boiled egg?

I know that my DN had always eaten huge amounts, she just needed it to grow that tall.

Does she help herself at mealtimes so that she's got a bit of control over how much she has? Might take a bit of practice to get her used it to though.

Yeah good idea it does tend to be the snack times that she gets the most upset when it runs out so maybe it’s not cutting it..mealtimes shes great at feeding herself and she’s definitely full then as she leaves a bit or refuses extra food. I’ve noticed it more now that covid restrictions have eased and ive spent more time with friends kids etc and noticed the big difference in appetite! I know I shouldn’t complain as my friends have the opposite struggle of getting their little ones to eat

Yes if snack times aren't cutting it she needs a bit more

I agree with Bunny – try making the snacks a bit more substantial. I also find that some days my daughter essentially wants her tea at 3pm and her snack at 6pm. We just roll with it, offer suitable food until she's had enough. We do occasionally end up with some rather random combinations when we've started with some blueberries and cubes of cheese that have had to morph into a full meal prepared within a hungry toddler's tolerance time!