Constant ‘i’m very hungryyyyy’

[Kungfupanda67]

My nearly 3 year old is constantly telling me he’s hungry - my day is filled with constant whines of ‘I’m very hungryyyy mummyyyy’. How do I make this stop?! It’s driving me insane!!
He eats plenty of food, eats fairly healthily (eats all fruit and veg etc, probably too many biscuits but apart from that he eats fine). He’s not overweight but is closer to it than I’d like.
I know it’s not genuine hunger because he sometimes say it while he’s holding food.

My 6 year old isn’t a great deal better, whenever anyone has food he’s suddenly starving. I would love them to be able to listen to their own bodies and know when they’re full, but they can’t. They never ever leave food (apart from veg occasionally).

I genuinely don’t think either of them can know what being hungry actually feels like.

Any advice?!

Are they drinking plenty? Thirst feels a lot like hunger.

Yeah I was meant to put that in the post, they drink loads, at least a cup of water every hour-2 hours

We have the same issue in our house so I'm watching with interest in case anyone has any useful advice.

My lot are the same, they literally eat about every 30 mins or less. They are all skinny though, no clue where it all goes.

You have to set eating and snack times and never waver on them, don’t give in to pestering. I had this all evening after dinner and I set a rule that there was supper of fruit and a biscuit at 6pm. No eating after 6.30. I never let them talk me into a different snack (because it becomes an endless list of can I have) and just keep pointing them to the fruit bowl. After 6.30 I just say ‘no it’s after 6.30’ over and over never giving in. Now I only need to say it once.

I spent the day as a parent helper at my dds primary school yesterday. By 10 am every single child had asked me when lunch was. And then they asked me every 5 minutes. I am not kidding. Admittedly it was an off curriculum day, so everything was different, but by god I was amazed. I must have been asked 100 times in the space of an hour.

I think, based on that experience, it's entirely normal.

We had the same with DS due to meds he was on.

Firstly, what Divgirl said about possibly being thirsty.

I’d also cut down on the biscuits - empty carbs and sugar (if they’re sweet ones) can make them feel hungrier (DS became a biscuit fiend until he got back on track). More protein and more veg if you can and not too much sugary fruit. Eggs or porridge for breakfast work wonders for hunger, ditto berries and Greek yoghurt.

May also be worth a GP or dietician visit if you haven’t already?

Good to know it’s fairly normal! 2 year old has been asking for lunch since 8, currently eating some cucumber (after a bowl of weetabix, a banana, a biscuit, some raisins, grapes and strawberries this morning).

They quite often have porridge for breakfast, changes nothing lol - 6 year old told me he was very hungry 20 minutes after finishing banana porridge the other morning, I just sort of stared at him 🤦‍♀️

They do eat lots of veg, peppers, cucumber, carrots, tomatoes at lunch and then loads with dinner, they have a healthy diet and neither are fussy at all. It’s just very irritating listening to ‘I’m very hungry’ 250000 times a day 😂

Biscuits,crisps and cakes are very moreish. Don't buy them to have at home, make them an occasional treat in a cafe.
Snack time put a sliced apple, lots of grapes, cucumber fingers etc on a plate for them to eat.
I do dinner (evening meal) at 5 but when they're bathed and ready for bed they'll have a choice of tinned fruit (peaches or mango cloves in juice) for pudding. Then bed. Nobody's overweight, nobody goes to bed hungry or fixating on food.

I will try set times for snacks - it is slightly easier with the older one because he can tell the time so when he asks for lunch he just gets told to look at the clock. We let them eat snacks in the lounge too, which we have decided we’re going to stop and make them eat everything at the kitchen table.

My dc just think of eating as another activity to keep them entertained, meaning oh we've finished playing that game now let's ask for something to eat. A kind of boredom alleviation I think.

I would try less fruit/watery veg and more things like eggs and cheese. I'm starving a bit later if I eat an apple, for example, but an egg or cheese and crackers keeps me full. Or add peanut butter with the fruit/veg.

Literally this is all my children all day 😂 Today they have had cereal, bagels with butter, a chocolate bar, bag of crisps and a yogurt. They are still hungry!
Last night for dinner however they didn’t want much except garlic bread and strawberries....
They seem to eat lots in the am and dwindle off as the day goes by x

If I think about it, I am hungry.. that feeling is probably a left over mechanism from prehistoric days when eating as much as possible was generally a good idea.

I suspect learning to ignore that feeling is just that, some5hing that takes effort to learn. To differentiate between I could eat more and I need to eat more is quite subtle.

So if the children are lively, growing and not underweight you just have to be tough and ignore /distract as much as possible.

Adding calories with peanut butter or cheese may quieten them for a while, but if they are currently correct weight , then adding more calories will make them fat in the long run

Watch the sugar ( eg in yogurt) as it makes the feeling worse, and try to match meal sizes to their rhythm ( I am a morning eater // grazer, DH is a fixed four roughly equal meals a day person)

And they do grow up at some point!

I agree that children swing between being voraciously hungry and living off fresh air. DD has been known to pack away a man-sized breakfast, as well as pick like a fairy. But she clearly regulates herself - she’s never said she’s hungry and has always been the same height/weight ratio.

DS, however, was irrationally hungry. Always wanting to eat, always wanting biscuits etc and was gaining weight at an unhealthy rate. Mostly due to meds but I do believe that sugar played a part.

Eating mindfully was also something we reinforced at meal times, ie don’t bolt food, chew properly and slowly, take a break, have a drink and let your tummy catch up before asking for more.

As a combined strategy (mindful eating plus less sugar and empty carbs) it did work. DS now doesn’t mention food between meals any more and his height/weight ratio is balancing out.

Applying my adult behaviour here- are they bored? I think I'm hungry all the time when I'm sat at a desk but if I'm working outside I can completely miss the cues til I'm about to fall over.

Do they say they're hungry when they're engrossed in something as well or is it when they're not in the middle of something?

What does my tits in is when they wail about being hungry but then won't eat the meal I put in front of them!

Never when they’re engrossed in something, although they do sometimes say it when they’re eating! I’m fairly certain that they’re not actually hungry, so I don’t want to start giving them wedges of cheese and peanut butter between meals because they’ll get fat - they just seem to both really enjoy eating so it’s like a hobby for them... I’ve finished this game, let’s have a snack now.

My 6 year old eats ridiculously quickly as well, and asks for seconds before he’s finished his last bite. He takes massive mouthfuls (to the point that he occasionally gags because he’s ramming so much in). He wants pudding after every meal and gets really grumpy if we don’t - we usually have pudding, it’s usually a yoghurt or fruit, but on days when he has swimming or rugby he has his ‘pudding’ before he goes to activity, then dinner when he gets back. He seems to think this is grossly unfair!

Like I said, neither of them are overweight (the 2 year old is definitely chubby, but I think he’s still at an age where it’s baby chub) but even 6 year old could quite easily put it on I think. I’ve always struggled with my weight and I really don’t want my kids to as well, just struggling to teach them to listen to their bodies and not just eat for the sake of it.

Perhaps they need more protein as part of meals?

Glass of milk instead of water?

More protein? I can still be hungry while eating crap food like biscuits, what I need is filling food.

If you're seriously worried about them getting fat then ditch the biscuits all together because peanut butter /cheese/ banana is much better for them.

I have cats not children.

If I left them to their own devices they would have me convinced that every half an hour they had never been fed before ever in their entire lives. After stern ignoring you can get the whinging down to an hour before mealtimes only but it's still painful.

One of them can self regulate, one cannot and given free access to food would be the size of a barrel.

My neighbour finds the same with her dogs.

I strongly suspect children are the same. It's a healthy mammal thing to aid survival. As long as they are growing properly, it doesn't necessarily mean they need a snack.

Sorry nothing to add except this thread has made me seriously realise I'm not actually hungry as often as I am. BOREDOM lol.

It may be the biscuits as sugar causes crashed and high feelings of hunger. Is it something in partiuclar they want when hungry? Maybe they need to be distracted of speak to gp?