How much food does your child eat in a day ?

[CarolDW]

I've been keeping a food diary of what my 10 year old boy eats. I've had a look back at yesterday and here's what he had: (It seems like quite a lot)

Breakfast: 2 slices of toast(w/peanut butter), porridge

Lunch: (McDonald's) Happy Meal with cheeseburger, Chicken McNuggets (9 pack)

Dinner: Pizza(cheese & pepperoni) small bowl of pasta.

Snacks : Dairy Milk bar, Tangy Cheese Doritos, Apple, Pringles

How does this compare with what your DC's have to eat each day ?

It does seem quite a lot. And mainly junk. Is he overweight?

That is a pretty shit diet. Where's the veg? Fruit?

Sounds like a holiday day diet
What does he normally eat ?

Why would you have macdonalds pizza & pasta all in one day though ?
Did you go to Pizza Hut ?

Bigbadgeorge- Yes, he is overweight, that was why I was keeping a food diary.

We didn't go to pizza hut, looking back it seems odd to have pizza and pasta but he only had the pasta because I had cooked some for me and my husband and there was a bit leftover.

My child (8) eats a lot, every day, normal weight, fairly active. The weather is vile here today but we managed a 45 minute dog walk which is the minimum activity we would do in a school holiday day.

Breakfast - Dorset cereals raspberry porridge sachet with an orange.
At Waitrose mid morning - pancakes with bananas and maple syrup.
Half a panini (just plain warm bread from the bakery)
Lunch - smoked salmon and scrambled egg with the other half of the panini.
Afternoon snack - alpro yoghurt with a pink lady apple and three rice cakes.
Dinner is a hairy bikers breadcrumbed baked chicken dish with baked potato (probably half of one), salad, cucumber and tomato, probably followed by a bowl of blueberries, maybe a biscuit from the Christmas tin.
Pre bedtime snack will be another apple and a few rice cakes.

If I ate that much I would be huge. I think it is fairly healthy, not sure everyone will agree but I am happy with it.

Carol I think the key thing isn't how much your son is eating but rather what he is eating.

Does he enjoy fruit/veg? Could you cut down on the trips to macdonalds?

If you made pasta for yourself and DH why didn't your DS just have that with you instead of the pizza?

You've posted before about your overweight son & had lots of good advice.

Why don't you meal plan ?

Err a kids meal and then a 9 piece mx nuggets and then a sweet shop and you wonder why he's overweight

He's 10, you control his diet, you are the parent

No point in a food diary and all that crap

When I took him to mcdonalds i had only planned to get him a happy meal, but he said he was still hungry when he had finished and asked for them.

I'm not surprised he was still hungry, the 'food' is appalling. Why not take out a packed lunch ?

If he was still hungry you could have said ok let's go home for dessert you can have a banana and an apple, or you could have not taken him at all and made him a giant baked potato with tuna, salad, chilli, beans whatever and filled him right up

Mcdonalds is addictive crap, he's 10, he can't take himself, stop taking him

My dd (11) had bacon, eggs, toast & diluted juice for brekkie.

Banana as a snack & then ran 3k.

After lots of water & a hot choc, she ate her lunch of cheese & some crackers, a 50g choc bar (her treat that's been in the drawer since the summer), Naked bar, satsuma & some crisps & a juice drink.

Tea will be homemade something with veg & a yogurt.

Sorry I agree that seems to be an awful amount of junk for one day. He is hungry all the time because it's all junk that he is eating nothing substantial.

My son is younger and eats a decent amount, but I am quite aware of his diet. He has a lot of fruit for snacks, Veg for meals and treats are not a daily thing. I never used to be like this with my own diet but we have all eaten healthier since my son was born.

Maybe see a dietician? To advise you what may be the next step. You can make healthy eating fun, making healthy pizzas with lots of veg for example. Exercise together, swimming, cycling, running around in the park. Your son is still young that differences can be made. Being overweight will affect his health and I assume he will be going up to secondary school soon, kids will be relentless there if your son is the big kid.

Good luck

My DS is 10, today so far he has eaten 3 homemade pancakes for breakfast (this was a treat, he normally has 1 weetabix and sometimes a slice of toast. He had a biscuit & drink mid morning, then for lunch had a breaded chicken breast, savoury rice with peas, red pepper, sweet corn mixed in and baby corn, followed by a yoghurt and a fruit juice and some of his chocolate Santa. He has had two more biscuits and a drink this afternoon.

For tea he will probably have a ham sandwich or toastie, big bowl of fresh fruit with yoghurt and then a small chocolate bar.

He isn't overweight and eats a fair amount of biscuits etc but I don't give him sugary cereals, he doesn't drink fizzy drinks (he doesn't like them) and most meals I cook from scratch although we do have McDonalds and Pizza sometimes but not that often. I also think junk food like McDonalds doesn't satisfy their hunger at all as probably lacking in vitamins etc makes them crave more food.

My DS is also fairly active and plays football and we go walking a lot.

My 9 year old, 91st percentile for height, 75th for weight has eaten/will eat the following today.
Breakfast: 1 boiled egg, 2 slices of toast with butter, tomatoes, cucumber and a glass of fresh orange juice.
Mid morning snack: banana and glass of milk
Lunch: tuna pasta salad with sweet corn
Afternoon snack: 2 gingerbread buiscuits and a mandarin
Dinner: a dish made out of green beans, onions and tomatoes with rice cooked with a little bit of olive oil and natural yoghurt.
It is a pretty typical day for him and his siblings, and I should say he eats slightly larger portions than I do. I do a salad with each meal, which he helps himself to, and often, as is my husband's tradition there is fresh bread for mopping up juices/sauces but he doesn't always take it.
Is he fussy with food? Or will he be happy to eat anything? Maybe just upping his fruit and veg (moreso the veg) will fill the gap so he has less of the treat type food.

I think my DS would benefit from more exercise. I don't think he's done anything exercise-related since Christmas.

He certainly isn't fussy (I don't think there's anything he wont eat) so I think he just needs more veg

Ooh and I forgot to ask is he thirsty? Some people mistake thirst for hunger and so eat when they are thirsty. Maybe encouraging him to drink water regularly might help, and if he had soft drinks, try to cut them out altogether.

He often says he's thirsty and asks for a drink, but usually ends up getting food as well.

My 8yo today

Breakfast - bowl of coco pops with semi skimmed milk,
Mid morning - apple
Lunch - salami sandwich, cucumber, celery, carrot sticks 1/2 bag quavers.
Mid afternoon - grapes
Dinner - chicken and broccoli stir fry with noodles. Ice pop for afters.

He drinks a lot of water, but I know he's had 2 glasses of milk and a glass of orange juice today as well.

This is pretty standard for what he eats daily,

If one of the kids say they're hungry, we offer a drink first and 9/10 they won't ask for food again. We stick to milk, water and apple and orange juices.

My DD tends to get overweight as she doesn't seem to have an off switch when it comes to food, so we have to be careful about portion sizes as she'll just keep going if we don't.

That is a dreadful food intake if it's typical. Not so much the quantity but the amount of junk.
He is a child and his nutrition is your responsibility not his.
It's your job as his parent to sort this out.
You should do something now, it will only get harder. As he gets older his appetite will, like all teenage boys, grow huge. He needs to have some healthy eating rules in place that will allow him to fill up without getting fat.
He should not be allowed to choose his diet and should have to ask permission before taking snacks.