SCREAM! does anyone else have children with hollow legs?

[nailpolish]

I AM GOING BONKERS HERE!

all i hear is
"muumy im hungry"
"mummy can i have something to eat?"
"mummy what can i have to eat?"

is this NORMAL?

help

i need a conveyer belt of food for my children

What I'm trying to get across is that 3 meals a day plus some healthy or reasonably healthy snacks inbetween isn't a problem in my view. But, if you offer a large variety of snacks inbetween meals doesn't that then encourage snacking for snackings sake?

yes but i dont know what to do jomist

I've always used the 'no' means 'no' approach - please don't take it that I'm preaching to you . They learned soon enough that some things are open to debate, others aren't. It's fruit or nothing in between meals here. Sure there's room for treats but not every day.

youre not preaching

i just worry that they ARE hungry! they eat all their meals

i am going to start with increasing portion size at mealtimes

Good idea - mine have eaten adult portions for a long time. Ds1 could happily eat 5 weetabix for breakfast at 1yr. I guess it was a sign of things to come

Mine are all like that and are skinny

I have started with bread and butter on a side plate at every meal and they get taost as a supper snack at 8pm to see if that helps

ds2 has been known to eat two whole school dinners and still ask for more. He eats breakfast cereal and toast with an apple in the car, apple or carrots with milk at school, two school dinners, sandwiches and drink at 3pm, snack in the car and a hot dinner......he asks for this every night followed by pudding and toast at 8pm. Even his teacher comments that he eats more than she does

My mother told me I'd have to get a job to afford to feed the dcs and she wasn't wrong!

dd eats two breakfasts before nursery

7am cereal, toast and apple
8.30 cereal toast and milk

they always comment on how hungry she is

I got told off at Xmas by FIL for giving DS1 big portions at meal times, all of which he ate btw (and yes, I mean told off, not just a little comment... can you tell I'm bitter...? Ended up going out and buying my own food for DS - totally ridiculous and a whole other thread....). Apparently I should offer smaller ones, and then give him more if he finishes. I find that usually means he just wants to eat more between meals.

Here, along with the big portions, he usually has a snack mid morning (maybe crackers or fruit) and a snack early afternoon, again fruit or crackers or biscuit.

when we go out to eat, he'll eat the same as us, a whole pizza in Pizza Express no problem...

good luck!

Henrietta, thats what i do just now - give small portions and see if they are hungry, then offer more

maybe that is the wrong approach, ill try bigger portions

thanks

If we take ds2 out to eat we order an adults portion for him without thinking. Ds 1 will have childrens protion but als eat some of ours and dd will want chips or extra veg

I forgot to add he is only 4

I looked after 2 other boys last week for the day and in 30 mins the 4 boys had eaten a whole loaf of bread each, 4 apples, crisps, chocolate biscuits and 2 bananas. We then went out the 1 hour later they wanted lunch of Pizza

hang on a minute... a whole loaf in 30 minutes as well as all that other stuff... EACH
Surely they were sick??? How big were the loaves?

It was a loaf between them, toasted, but it all went. A normal sized Kingsmill loaf.

I was amazed and I now know what human locusts look like!

wow! DH says that way back when he was a boy, he and his mate regularly ate a whole loaf of bread and butter after school, then ate dinner. On Sundays they often had Sunday roasts at both houses, one after the other. Still think it's growing, and if they aren't over weight, don't worry.

hi nailpolish,DS 5 and DD 3 are exactly the same.

They tend to eat cereal at different times of the day,hoummous and pitta bread,chopped banana,apples,odd packet of crisps,poppy seed crackers they seem to like,grapes,carrot sticks,fromage frais,cereal bars or home made ice lollies.

Ii like you feel I am running a cafe it's non stop in between wanting drinks constantly,keeping them entertained and referring their arguements.

I'd try upping the carbohydrates on the main meal front.

As for snacks. I've been working on this with my daughter. She's 4, and is constantly complaining of being hungry. If I know she has eaten enough (fruit been hoovered up, no veg left etc.) then I suggest that she might actually be thirsty and offer a drink. As adults we often forget how hard it is to distinguish between hunger and thirst, and I know that kids have absolutely no concept of this. I know it's not always the answer, but there have been times when she's had the4 drink and been perfectly satisfied.

Of course, then there's the times when it's an emergency run to tesco to see what they have that we've run out of

Agnes

I give my kids fruit with a glass of (full fat) milk. Seems to satisfy their hunger better than fruit alone.