What size meal do you give your children for dinner?

[PimpMyTunnel]

I've come across something online and it got me thinking about how much we should be putting on or childrens plates at meal times. The website said that children have smaller stomachs (obviously) and that prepared food we buy are based on adult portion sizes eg. Frozen battered cod should be cut in half for a child as one whole one is meant for an adult. It also said you should give them half a packet of crisps and give them the other half next time. I give my dd a whole packet and also a whole portion on fish. I'm not worried because she is certainly not overweight and I'm happy about how much she eats, I'm just curious. How old are your children and what portion size do you give them?

They all get a whole packet of crisps, there would be carnage if I took half the pack away!

My DD (10) has a portion size about 2/3 of what i eat and DS (7) has about half my portion size. I generally plate up for them and they mostly finish everything so i guess i'm getting it about right.

When cooking breaded fish i would always chop one accordingly for DCs to share - at least i did before DD decided to be a vegetarian. Now DD is on 3 vegetable fingers and DS 2 fish fingers.

I find that they have both got quite small appetites compared to their friends and neither can ever manage a child portion in a restaurant. I was amazed at the amount of food some kids were taking for lunch on a school trip recently.

I give them too much, but they are like little eating machines. My DS1 (5) is a pasta fiend - he'd have it for every meal if he could. He gets probably about half to two thirds of what I consider an adult size portion. He eats as much of it as he wants. Sometimes that means all of it, sometimes just half of it. He is also hollow - very tall and skinny. When they get crisps, usually twice a week - they generally share a packet.

My DS2 (2) gets about half of what his brother is given, and generally eats it all. Apparently at nursery they give them the recommended portion sizes, and he always has seconds. He then eats a pudding as well!

I am constantly telling DH to stop giving them 'treats' at the weekend though. If it was up to him, all they'd eat on a weekend is haribo and milky way with a macdonalds thrown in. I domt mind them having treats at the weekend, in small amounts, but DS2 cant cope with more than a little bit of chocolate without going loopy, then DH complains because he's 'out of control'. I say its the chocolate and his response is 'well it was only little'. Yes a milky way might be little to a 6ft adult, but its actually quite a lot of sugar for a 2 year old!

My 2 eat like an adult. And are permanently hungry. seriously.
Those pre-prepared meals, don't even fill me up. If I ate a tesco's cheap lasagne, I'd be wondering where my main course was , an hour later. so why would my kids be any different?
I dish up a very slightly smaller portion, for my kids than I do for dh and me. And they still beg for more sausages, more brocolli, more runner beans, more curry, more chilli. more of everything , really.
And ds1 is skinny. how does that work?
It depends on your kids. I think it is a non answerable question, to be honest.

From about the age of 10-12 depending on exactly how big everyone is your child is going to have the same base calorie demands as their parents - they're still smaller than adults but they're growing so have higher demands. And children are often more active than their parents so should be getting more calories to make up for that if they are.

They are 8 and 10 years old, they get about half an adult portion and sometimes they don't finish that, sometimes they ask for seconds...they don't tend to overeat, whether it's treat food or dinner.

I give them small plates and the portion sizes are definitely not too big. I would divide a portion of fish into 2. Pasta would be about 50g each plus a tbsp of sauce. I wouldn't give them half a bag of crisps but they will often not finish a packet.

I was going to say what FredFredGeorge has posted already.

Considering how sedentary many of us are, and how active 10yos (hopefully) are in comparison to us (maybe not as active as 10yos 30+ years ago, but still more active than most grown-ups), it would seem strange to automatically feed them less.