Filling and calorific ideas for hungry 3 year old

[FrannyandZooey]

Ds seems to be having a growth spurt atm and I am struggling to keep up with his appetite. I need some ideas for things that will fill him up that are fast to prepare - he wants to just snack all day, and so it is a bit tricky to make the things he is eating healthy.

Here is what he ate yesterday:
BREAKFAST:
a banana
bowl of cereal with milk and fruit
toast and butter
satsuma
yogurt

SNACK:
2 ryvitas with butter and jam

LUNCH:
brie sandwich
hummus and veg to dip in

SNACK:
carrot cake

TEA:
2 scrambled eggs
toast and butter
veg stew with swede etc in
peas and sweetcorn
apple
big chunk of cheese

Now this is ok, but it is relying rather heavily on eggs and cheese etc for protein and fat. We are vegetarian but we don't usually eat loads of cheese (all that animal fat, etc). I didn't know what else to give him that was fast and easy - when he needs food atm he gets quite upset if it doesn't come fairly fast

I am out for the day but will look hopefully for any ideas later on. Thanks so much.

how about some soup as a starter before each meal? Something like lentil or whatever really.

Even if it's a half bowl before the rest of his food it might fill him up more and it's a nice easy thing to make and reheat with each meal?

Hi F&Z, we recently saw our HV about DD2 who is 4yo and very skinny. The HV's advice was not to apply the same nutritional guidelines to DD2 as we would to us; young, active and growing children have high calorie needs and small stomachs so they need low volume, high calorie foods and those tend to contain a relatively high proportion of saturated or mono-unsaturated fats. Her advice was to increase the amount of full-fat milk, cream, olive oil etc. that we were giving DD2 and start giving DD2 high calorie puddings - e.g. fruit crumble and custard. It feels almost 'wrong' to do so but I'm willing to accept that the nutritional requirements of a skinny, highly active 3/4yo are very different to those of a plump, desk-bound 42 yo (me not you!). However, you may want to look up the nutritional guidelines for yourself before adding olive oil to DS's soup and serving up jam roly-poly and custard.

would he eat peanut butter if allergies do not prevent?
Also maybe butter based crackers rather than ryvita which have little calorific content.
Homemade fruit muffins - made with olive oil
cheese on toast, cheesy pasta
my dd eats all morning it seems, she has hollow legs
However she is very petite, weight and heightwise. But she eats like a very small hungry horse - not a lot of meat either tbh,
Growth spurts we tend to offer her extra bowls of cereal, smoothies with milk yoghurt and banana etc.
it's hard to get around when you are very fresh food focussed, I find that it would be so much easier to buy convenience snacks sometimes, but I simply cannot.
Dd has ahd weight issues and does not convert cals from fat so well, so she needs a higher than normal sugar intake...
Woe when you shun convenience foods.

dd loves rice pudding. i just boil it on top of stove and add steamed apple for flavour.

Yes, smoothies are good. Full-fat yoghurt, banana and a tin of raspberries (you can get tins with light syrup or juice which we then drain off). Yummy.

Oh, really great ideas, thank you all so much

yes I would never normally give ryvita but my mother brought it for a 'treat'

I think it is the convenience v fresh thing that is part of the problem - I think I will have to be more organised about having LOTS of food in the house and ready prepared

I am happy for him to eat plenty of fatty foods but not lots and lots of dairy produce which I don't think is good for anyone of any age. We do have peanut butter and I'll try to encourage more of that, on toast etc. Definitely yes to rice pudding and smoothies and all the rest, fab. Do you have a recipe for fruit muffins, Piffle?

He has calmed down a bit today on the eating front thank god!

Lots of Champ!