My 3 year demands food all through the day

[Pernod]

My just 3 year old dd constantly appears hungary and drives me mad by asking for food all day long. I give her 3 healthy meals a day and snacks of fruit or rice cakes. I have tried increasing her portion sizes at meal times but she still complains she is hungary as soon as the meal has finished. When-ever we go to other peoples houses she embarasses me by asking for food & eating loads there.
She is on the largish size at the moment & I'm sure she's nearly as heavy as her 6 yr old sister.
I don't want her to suffer like I did as a child by being teased for being on the chubby size.
She swims once a week & also goes to a gym club.
I honestly think she'd just eat all day if I let her.
Help, what can I do to stop her thinking of food the whole time!

ds is already like this at 18 months. Drives me mad too. He is only on the 9th percentile for weight though so I figure he just needs the food.

I'm not sure making it an issue is a great idea as we all know the more we are told we can;t have something the more it calls to us ..... (eg chocolate biscuits in my case )

I agree that cereal/porrige on it's own does not work for me as a breakfast and I get hungry quickly. Can you try making her breakfast a bit more protein heavy add some cheese or some ham to it? Maybe a ham omelette or scrambled eggs on toast some mornings and see if that works better for her.

Also on snacks offer some low fat cheese or again ham/protein based stuff as well as a piece of fruit. I know that rice cakes/fruit on their own do nothing to keep me full. Half a ham sandwich and a piece of fruit may work better - make sure there are a couple of slices of ham in it to make the protein content higher.

I agree that eating a lot like that can also be a boredom/attention seeking problem but try and up the protein first to see if that helps. If she is having something with sugar in (bisucit/cake etc) only give it with a meal or a protein at the same time. These rules really help me (when I can stick to them) to feel less hungry during the day.

I think the question of whether they eat their meals as well as snacking is crucial. I would not have snacking if proper meals were not eaten. sometines hunger disappears when yogs. rice cakes or fruit are the choice!
Agree with you expat. - i don't think i have a healthy relationship with food at all and try really hard not to pass it on to my children