My dd 2.7 seems to be constantly hungry. She used to be a good eater in terms of 3 meals a day plus snacks but over the past few months she has turned into a "grazer", preferring snack type things to meals. so far, I've gone with the flow. By the time mealtimes come around she eats very little (although this can vary as sometimes she wolfs it all down) but then half an hour later she will say she is hungry. I'm not keen on making her sit at the table until she's eaten her dinner. Example: we started her tea at 5.45, it was tomato soup, some left over chicken with french bread and butter. All the bread was eaten and about 1/4 of the soup and chicken. "I'm full mummy". Fast forward half an hour and she is announcing that she's hungry.
She is a perfectly acceptable weight for her age and height (about 33 lbs and 98cm), very bouncy and always on the go.
As I mentioned I've been going with the flow thinking it was a phase/growth spurt but it's been going on a couple of months now and discussing it with my partner we've decided that we should try and get her back to 3 full meals a day with scheduled snacks in between. We decided that as she has just started nursery (2x wk for half a day) now is a good time to start. Felt confident that this was doable and ready for the "challenge".
DD started nursery today and now my confidence in turning things around eating wise and also in my ability as a mum has gone right down hill! I stayed with DD for the whole session as it was her first, after the first 15 minutes there she kept saying she was hungry (had failed to eat hardly any of her lunch) but of course there's no eating at nursery until snack time. I told her this and she skipped off but every so often would come back and say she was hungry again. The (very lovely) nursery manager raised a few eyebrows, so I explained the situation as above and she said that I need to be very careful with the whole food issue, and that I definately do need to get her back onto 3 meals a day with scheduled snacks and that if i don't bad habits will be established which could lead to weight problems and obviously would be an issue at nursery if she kept asking for food.
Now, despite my partner and I coming to this conclusion ourselves I am now filled with self doubt and wonder if actually what we are planning is right. I am fed up with the constant call of hunger, giving her snacks and subsequnetly her then not eating the meals I've prepared. I am worried about encouraging an eating all day mentality. I have read some other threads about constantly hungry toddlers but these children seem to eat their meals and lots of other snacks and no mention of how this fits in with nursery/school.
Basically, I fell like a shit mum, who's been too lazy to address the issue and who is now going to find it's too late to do something about it and that I'm setting my dd up for a life of obesity.
Any advice/help out there or stories of similar experiences would be well recieved.