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Infant feeding

Get advice and support with infant feeding from other users here.

Can toddlers overeat?

7 replies

Lavender14 · 11/12/2023 09:46

So I have ds who has just turned one. He's always been a good eater in terms of solids and is still breastfeeding just in the morning, when he gets home from nursery and last thing at night. He goes to nursery during the day and I've noticed that he's eating a lot. For example this morning he had a bowl of porridge, Blueberries and a banana for his breakfast. Because he was dropped off early they obviously tried him with the breakfast the other babies had and he then ate an entire bowl of wheatabix. He will eat all his snack (usually toast, cheese and a few types of fruit) and will eat his main lunch meal (think casserole or stew etc) but has started to always take a second portion. He'll have something for his afternoon snack like custard fruit and a piece of veda and then at home he'll eat all his dinner which would be again some type of stew or curry etc and sometimes will take a bit of watermelon or other fruit after.

Should I be worrying that he's eating too much? He's not overweight and has generally always tracked along the 50th centile for weight and his clothes etc fit as they should. Do I just count my blessings and trust his appetite and let him eat what he wants? On the very rare occasion he will refuse food when he's finished it just doesn't happen too often!

OP posts:
Jellycats4life · 11/12/2023 09:50

Of course they can.

Just keep an eye on things. Sounds like you don’t need to be worrying about his weight right now.

GreatGateauxsby · 11/12/2023 09:52

I don't think so...

My DD has def eaten too quickly and been vommed it all back up 🥴

Some days she will literally eat an man adult size portion of noodles for lunch other days she will pick at a cheese string and some apple and yoghurt.

She's not overweight and very active. She eats a good variety so I just let her get on with it and chatise my husband for constantly trying to get her to "take one more bite" when she's clearly finished eating. 😑

Webex · 11/12/2023 09:53

From my experience definitely trust his appetite as long as it's not all sugary stuff which sounds like it isn't. My DS used to have 5 meals a day on nursery days (twice a week) as he had breakfast at home, three meals at nursery then dinner with us at home. He's still a skinny wee thing at age 8.

flowerchild2000 · 11/12/2023 09:55

I have 4 children and they always do this right before a growth spurt. I always start looking at buying bigger clothes when I see my kids eating like that. Perfectly normal!

monpetitlapin · 11/12/2023 09:56

My toddler would never stop eating if I let her. My oldest was exactly the same at this age (it's improved a bit from about age 3 but they still have no sense of when to stop if it's their favourite food).
Mine seem to go through phases of being great at self-regulating then phases of not being able to tell that they are full. Oldest has always been around 98th centile since pregnancy and youngest is around 25th centile so it doesn't seem to translate to actual size of child either.

Lavender14 · 11/12/2023 19:20

That's good to know, we don't feed him that amount during the weekends when he's at home during the day but he also doesn't seem to be looking for food either so I'm wondering if nursery are offering smaller portion sizes too. Everything he gets is healthy and well thought out and the most sugary thing he'd really have is fruit.

That's a good point about a growth spurt, he's still just about fitting into his 9-12 mth clothes so he's actually probably due a stretch because he's normally 91st centile for height. Thanks for the reassurance!

OP posts:
Olika · 11/12/2023 19:35

My DD stops eating/refuses food when she is full.

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