How much should a 5 year old boy eat?

[Mo2]

I know lots of people worry about how little their kids eat, but I sometimes worry about how much DS1 (just turned 5) eats.

Typical day might be:

Breakfast: glass of milk + cereal or toast
Mid morning snack: piece of fruit
Lunch: hot meal + pudding (don't know how much eaten, but I suspect all meat/ potatoes/ some or no veg & all pudding)
Afternoon snack: sandwich or fruit or biscuit (or combination of these)
Tea: Something like pasta + a yoghurt or sandwich + crisps etc or some of whatever we're having e.g. chicken & rice/ lasagne etc

Having written it all down, it doesn't look so bad, but sometimes I do get the sense he is greedy rather than hungry. If he's had his supper, but then fancies some of what we're having he always seems to want to have more to eat.

We call him 'hollow legs', and he isn't overweight by any means, so he does seem to be burning it off somehow?
He always insists that he's "still hungry" so I don't feel that it's for me to say "no you're not!"

He is tall for his age - 117cm and weighs about 46 lbs (3 st 3lbs)

That sounds completely normal to me. Ds eats about the same, and often more. He walks half an hour to and from school and also runs around at playtimes, and obviously is still growing so I think he needs the energy. I always offer him seconds until he is full, and he has seconds at school lunch too (I have checked up with school and they say he does eat his veg and salad too). I want him to learn how to tell when he is full himself so that when he grows up he won't overeat. I believe it is more important to control quality of food than quantity, eg if he's still hungry offer him extra sandwich/fruit/rice but not extra crisps/ biscuit/ pudding. If he's full he probably would not go for sandwich/fruit/rice out of greed!

Thanks TAC - I'm with you on the 'quality' thing - we always joke (when we KNOW that he's being greedy rather than hungry...) "hungry? oh - you can have some broccoli then..." Strangely he never takes me up on it then!

I agree it can be difficult to distinguish greed from hunger sometimes - dd will often have a good meal and then say she is still "starving" - I do the same as TAC - offer her fruit. I think as long as he's not overweight then you don't need to be concerned.

Mine is 5, and we have this all the time. As long as he gets given extra's which are good food then that's fine, so often if he finishes a meal then says he's still hungry, then I give him fruit, and more fruit.

Does your ds eat quickly? I read somewhere that it can take your stomach up to 40 minutes to tell your brain that you're full. So if he finishes quickly, puts down his fork and says "I'm still hungry"'s just that his brain hasn't got the message yet.

I know my ds isn't greedy. If we give him sweets he is always eager to share, and often doesn't finish a pack (such as a tube of smarties).