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 is a problem actually. she has lunch at school then a meal when she gets in and another in evening

Both DC, 7 and 3:

Breakfast: 1 slice of toast and jam
Lunch: DD had chicken pasta at school
DS had spaghetti bolognaise, 8 strawberries and 4 Marvellous Mix-Ups
Dinner: bolognaise pasta bake, 4 strawberries and 4 Marvellous Mix-Ups.
Snacks: apples at school

sorry, people keep coming and expecting me to do work. the cheek

I know fanjo. Fucking cheek.

i dont care about your toothache, i want to chat on MN

Fanjo I think she's about the same proportion as my DD2. She looks like a little drum, as in no fat. DD doesn't have a big appetite though, she'd eat sweets all day if allowed

She looks like a whippet. And eats more than me. Who err doesn't look like a whippet. It's no fair.

Today my 10yo DS has had...

Breakfast - Weetabix & milk
Lunch (at school) - Chicken pie & veg, fruit for pudding, water to drink
After school snack - small piece of cake
Dinner will be - Pasta with mushrooms, melon for pudding, milk to drink

My DS is the same height as yours but 3 STONES lighter

I think you need to look at cutting the snacks out of his diet for a start, then work towards eating a healthier diet and doing some exercise.

DS (9) on Sun had:

Breakfast: 2 chocolate weetabix with hot milk and sliced banana
Lunch: chicken curry and boiled rice followed by home made bread-and-butter pudding and custard
Afternoon snack: toast with nut butter, cinnamon and marshmallows
Dinner: spaghetti bolognese followed by fruit

He is as skinny as a whippet. We only have one snack per day, at around 4pm, and sometimes it's fruit or yoghurt, sometimes it's something ridiculously sweet (like the above) or crisps.

Suggest offering more filling but healthy foods eg pasta, homemade pizza with less cheese/more veg, rice dishes like risotto, less meat, jacket pots with beans cheese salad. Perhaps two days pr week set aside for 'junk'. I try to make things like oven chips/sausages/beans count as junk. Limit biscuits to 2 per portion but have nice fruits like melon, mango and non squidgy bananas available.

I was an overweight 7-14 year old and my mum did all the things above.

We were on along journey last week and all had burger king. Toddler DS ate a whole kids meal with nuggets, chips etc. i think he enjoyed it more as it is a rarity ( i did!)

3.5 yr old with very good appetite - seems to eat better than most others.
Small bowl cereal or one piece toast, offered fruit ( variable consumption)
Small snack mid am e.g raisins, yoyo bear, a biscuit, little cake
Lunch - sandwich/roll, blob houmous, salad/crudites, fruit or yog
Small snack as am
Dinner - hot meal with pudding offered. 'Nice' pudding 2-3x per week or fruit/yog/sorbet. Often doesnt want it.
Plus 10oz ishmilk daily.

DD is 9 and is always hungry but she's very active dancing 3 nights a week, swimming and playing netball. She would eat far more if I let her but she's very slim and a a small child at 128cm tall much to her chagrin!

A typical day's food would be:-

2 slices of toast or a bowl of porridge
Snack of a biscuit or fruit
Cheese toastie for lunch or tuna wrap with a yoghurt
Sometimes an afternoon snack
Tea is whatever we have so lasagne, stir fry, roast etc
Supper of yoghurt/fruit toast

Yesterday ds1(7) ate:
Bowl of Cheerios
Apple
Sandwich
Yogurt
Grapes and strawberries
Carrot
Cheese dipper
Small pot of m&ms
Fish fingers
Homemade chips
Peas
Yogurt.

Dd(4)
Bowl of Cheerios
Sandwich
Yogurt
Grapes and strawberries
Carrot
Cheese dipper
She went to a friends for tea so I don't know what she had for snacks or pudding but she had fish fingers, waffle and sweetcorn for tea.

Ds2 (10 mths)
Porridge with fruit purée
Banana
Biscotti
Peanut butter sandwich
Cucumber
Strawberries
Yogurt
Fish finger (minus breadcrumbs!)
Homemade chips
Peas
Fruit pot

The boys especially eat a lot. Bit light on veg and protein yesterday for my liking but I need to go shopping and stock up.

Dd (11)

Hot cross bun
Milk

Steak pie
Sweet potato mash
Carrots
Broccoli
Snow peas
Water
Cherries

Goat curry
Rice
Frozen yogurt
Water

Milk
Pear

If I was taking my 11 year old dd to MacDonalds, I would get her an ordinary meal rather than a happy meal. I would say happy meals are for much younger dc.

Ds (4) might eat that on one day whilst on holiday, especially if we're away in the caravan. But we always have loads of fruit around to compensate for lack of veg.

On a normal day he has either cereal, toast or fried egg on toast (weekend only as he eats breakfast at cm or nursery most days). He has a mid morning snack of fruit, bananas are good as they fill him or a cereal bar. Then soup + bread or a ham sandwich for lunch, followed by yoghurt or custard and a piece of fruit. Sometimes an afternoon snack - cheese dippers, mini cheddars or a small 'salad' of cucumber, cherry tomatoes and olives or yellow pepper. Then dinner is either roast (if left over from weekend or previous day), spag bol or other pasta with a lot of veg chopped in, or baked potato and beans with veg, quiche or bangers and mash etc all served with a portion of veg.

Of course he has treats and often asks for sweets or chocolate. Sometimes we let him have a small amount, or if he's only recently had some we offer fruit instead. He never argues and is always more than happy with fruit. It's about setting good habits and following them - and providing a good role model with what you eat. Incidentally we only sit down for meals together at the weekend, so it is possible to set good standards even when not sitting down together.

well, as you've now realised (though a bit that you didn't know it anyway), that's a hell of a lot of junk on one day.

Yesterday DD (5) had
1 weetabix, small bowl cornflakes, poss small bowl rice crispies with FF milk for breakfast (she always has a huge breakfast)
mid morning snack at school would be fruit or carrot, I think that's all they get
school lunch (don't know what that was, menu said stir fry but she said she didn't have that)
packet of pom bears at pick up (after school snack is normally oatcakes or biscuits or Pom Bears)
veggie chili and rice for tea, small yoghurt and an apple (that's a lot for her).

water/milk to drink. Very dilute apple juice is just for when we're at a cafe.

no idea what her height or weight is but she looks pretty slim and is very active, we go to the park every day after school.

Gosh, my 11 year old would struggle to eat all that. She will however eat grapes from morning until night if allowed!

Yesterday she ate:
Porridge with blueberries on top, made with skimmed milk and a 250 ml glass of fresh orange juice for breakfast.
Packed lunch of chopped cucumber and carrot sticks, babybel, handful of almonds, apple and a nature valley oat bar. This is not enough IMO but she's at secondary and if I send any more it comes back uneaten. Apparently 'snacky' food is better to nibble on at break and before clubs etc.
After school she had a banana and a homemade smoothie in the car (made with carrot, orange, pineapple and a handful of seeds).
Dinner was baked cod with courgette, pepper, red onion and tomatoes. She had a chocolate Alphro soya yoghurt for pudding.

She had 2 hours of ballet after school, and 45 minutes of stretch and tone class. She has a lunchtime club on a Tuesday too, but I forget whether it's choir or gymnastics.

She's always been active, so I've had it easy there really. With food, we've never offered our kids a junk option on an every day basis. We will serve up fish, veg, lean meat, wholemeal pasta and rice, etc. If they don't like it, there is not another option. They won't starve themselves, so if they're hungry they eat the healthy food. It sounds cruel, but it works! They are allowed genuine dislikes (DD2 hates milk, DD3 hates mushrooms, DD4 hates mashed food, like mashed potato or carrot). I never make them eat what's on their plate, but they know they won't get anything else until the next meal.