Are these reasonable portions for a two year old?

[Hardbackwriter]

I've been worrying a bit that maybe my just turned two year old's portions are a bit big - people keep commenting on how much he eats, including his nursery, and I wondered last time his key worker mentioned it again whether she's actually trying to politely tell me that he may be eating too much. His weight isn't a concern at the moment, but I don't want to set him up for future problems by getting him used to excessive portions. Both his father and I eat reasonably healthy food but a bit too much of it and so are constantly on the borderline of normal weight and overweight, and I don't want that for him. Today he ate:
2 Weetabix (with milk)
Half a slice of toast with peanut butter
A banana
Half a jacket potato with a decent handful of grated cheddar, cucumber sticks and about four cherry tomatoes
An Ella's kitchen cereal bar and a beaker of milk
An apple and a chocolate biscuit
Two fishfingers, about two tablespoons of mash, about a tablespoon of peas and two green beans (he was offered more green beans than this!)
About six strawberries with a couple of tablespoons of Greek yoghurt
Another beaker of milk

Ps. I'm not particularly looking for feedback on what he eats - I'm broadly happy with that, and it varies a lot day to day - just the amount of it he's eating.

My 2 year old would eat a similar amount to this although fewer snacks. Maybe not the Ella's kitchen bar just the fruit. He burns ALOT of energy off by running manically around the place at any opportunity. How active is your little one? They all vary so much. My DS eats more than his 3 & 5 year old cousins but is much leaner than them.

Thank you for the feedback everyone - a bit mixed! He's 91st centile for height (his dad and I are both tall, he's been giant since birth) and 75th for weight so his weight is definitely ok in proportion for now, but as I said I don't want to let bad habits set in that are hard to shift. The timings are:
Breakfast around 7.30
Snack around 10
Lunch at 12
Snack at 2 (he didn't used to have this, but has since he dropped his nap)
Snack at 4/4.30
Dinner at 6

He always starts asking for a snack quite a bit before he gets one - he is very food focused (and has a sweet tooth, though we do try and channel that into fruit, which is his favourite thing in the world) and I guess that's also what's worrying me. I agree he could probably do with more protein - it can be a bit tricky because we're vegetarian (he eats fish, we don't) and he doesn't eat eggs. He does eat beans and lentils, so we have those quite often but not today.

Loislittslover

How much protein do you think a toddler needs?

(The toast, by the way, wasn't so much offered to him as stolen from me )

My 2 yo dd has:

1/2 portion porridge
1 egg on 1 toast

2 crackers and some milk

Peanut butter S/W (1slice) 1/2 apple

Cottage pie and broccoli
A yoghurt
2 cookies

Plus she has a bite of this and that of what we have too.

Milk! peanut butter! Bread! Fish fingers! Peas! To name some of the high protein foods you are giving your toddler!
You don't even need a gram of protein per kilo of weight don't worry about his protein if these are the kind of foods he is eating!
I think that toddlers are supposed to have anything between 1000-1400 calories per day but obviously that depends on the individual toddler and how active they are!
There are lots of apps you can download to keep a food diary even if you do it for a couple of days you will get an idea of how much he is really eating because when u list it it may sound alot my just turned 3 year old has eaten today

Breakfast avacado on toast 1 slice
Homemade granola bar
Lunch was tofu brocoli peas sweetcorn pasta and olives
An apple
Nectarine
Ice lolly
A few dark chocolate buttons
Dinner was a bean chilli with some spinach leaves
Oatmilk with a little honey

And she ate everything ohh and she had a bourbon biscuit also

My DS is 2 and eats a similar amount for meals, but only has one snack (in the afternoon). He’s 90th centile for height and somewhere between 75th and 90th for weight but has no fat on him whatsoever so no idea where he puts it all! He has a huge head so I suspect that’s part of it 🤣

Today he had:

• large bowl of porridge and fruit (same portion as me)
• bowl of soup with 1.5 pieces of toast (same as me)
• banana and rice cake for snack,
• chicken curry and rice (probably about half an adult size portion).

Oh and a cup of milk at bedtime, water for all other drinks

If he's not overweight what's the problem? Maybe he's having a growth spurt. I'm just very impressed at what a varied diet he's having. My 2 ate terribly at that age and are still very fussy. I think his diet sounds great!

My almost three year old would eat similar to that 🤷🏼‍♀️ Except without the toast (it’s toast it cereal for breakfast, not both) and less snacks. Our nursery lets kids self regulate and are happy to give them second or third helpings if they ask. I’ve never been told he eats too much, he’s tracking his percentile weight so I’m not worried.

An average day

Breakfast - 1-2 Weetabix with milk, a banana
Lunch - Cheesy scrambled egg on one slice of toast, fruit
Post nap snack - Cereal bar, small cup of milk
Dinner - Pasta, one sausage, broccoli and cauliflower
Dessert - either a yoghurt or a small portion of custard, fruit

My 18mo was fussy at breakfast today so only had a few cornflakes and some raspberries. Snack was breadstick with peanut butter and some cucumber. Lunch was a slice of toast with cream cheese. Afternoon snack was blueberries. Dinner was a few tablespoons of mash, two meatballs in tomato sauce with courgette, pepper, mushrooms and celery; and black currants for dessert. Probably too much fruit and not enough veg but she can eat as much as she wants to - it's impossible to get food into them usually if they are full and I guess they know if they are hungry better than we do. I'm sure they will go through a phase where they won't eat anything at all and you miss the bottomless pit days.

he is very food focused (and has a sweet tooth I have one of those toddlers. My daughter asks for chocolate, biscuit and lolly pop (ice lolly) for breakfast- I have no idea why as she has never had any of those for breakfast- hope she doesn’t demand these things are nursery

Anyway my only tip is no snack at 4/4.30-
If you can move dinner to 5/5.30 ish. Oh and my LO still had a bottle of milk at 7pm bedtime at that age.

My oldest eats way more than most of his peers. He always has. Nursery commented (especially the day he ate the fruit platter for the whole room of 12 while someones back was turned....) friends commented. He is now 11, skinny as a rake, still out eating most people.
It has been very interesting in lockdown. The snack requests stopped within days. He is declining food - sometimes even pudding, which is unheard of. He is obviously self regulating still. Busy days he eats more, quieter days he eats less.
If I really thought he was trying to pull a fast one on food, I'd offer a banana, which was one of his least favourite foods. If he accepted that I knew he was hungry. DS2 got offered cereal.
Different kids eat different amounts. If he is sticking to centile, go with it. Keep an eye on it, but dont stress too much.

I know he eats quite late for a two year old, and I guess that's why he wants two afternoon snacks. I don't want to change it though because it's the absolute earliest we can have dinner all together every night so if he ate any earlier he'd have to eat on his own - we normally, but not always, eat the same thing (tonight we had Linda McCartney pies in place of his fishfingers) and it means a lot to me that we eat together. He does seem to snack a lot compared to all the other toddlers on the thread - I'm sure it's mostly habit (nursery give two snacks a day) but perhaps actually he needs bigger portions at meals? He is going to be furious if a snack time goes...!

Some kids just eat a lot.

Ds3 is 3 - and he eats bigger meals than my 10 year old. Both equally healthy weights.

There’s not much point comparing against others as some will have toddlers who pick like a bird at food and others, like me, will have those that eat like a horse. Both can be equally normal.

Gosh. My kids don’t really eat that much and they are 12 and 9.

Both either have:

1 slice of toast with banana or a bowl of Cheerios plus a cup of tea for breakfast.

The youngest may have a couple of Jaffa cakes mid morning if they are hungry.

Lunch is usually a sandwich with some cheese, cherry tomatoes, cucumbers or carrot batons. A small packets of Squares or some thing similar.

Mid afternoon they’ll have some fruit, popcorn, maybe a Club biscuit.

Dinner is always a battle - tonight they had half a sirloin steak, fresh noodles and veg. The eldest age pretty much all of it and the youngest left about half.

They’ll have some Cheerios or Rice Krispies before bed.

They really don’t eat much and never ask for food. Considering I’m always thinking about my next meal, I find it odd. The youngest drinks lots but my eldest doesn’t really, so it’s not like they are filling up on liquid.

Both born on the 50th for weight and are now around 90th for height so not small.

I wish they’d enjoy food but the eldest would eat punnets of tomatoes and cucumbers (so hardly any calories) if I let them and the youngest wouldn’t eat unless I cajoled them constantly to have food. There’s no pleasure in feeding them - I wish they would eat more!

I don't think two weetabix is too much, maybe drop the toast and keep the fruit. I probably wouldn't give two lots of potato in a day, lunch for us would be a sandwich or wrap and a cooked meal later.

Hardbackwriter
My thoughts are already above, but for years, DS used to have
Breakfast at home
Breakfast at nursery
Snack at nursery
Lunch at nursery
Snack at nursery
Tea at nursery
Dinner at home

And often a bowl of porridge before bed.
It was constant food!

My 2 year old is very similar and the timings of the meals and snacks is similar here too. Although she starts eating at 6.30am (banana and cup of milk) She eats roughly the same amount as her 4 year old sister. They are both a healthy weight, have a varied diet and just love their food.

Thanks again for all the comments - again, I'm broadly ok with what he eats, and it's not that rigid so I wouldn't say today was typical or untypical in terms of what he ate (I wouldn't offer him the toast as standard but just gave him a bit of mine because he asked, we had potato twice because DH made jackets for lunch not knowing I'd already planned that we'd have mash with our dinner), but it is pretty typical in volume.

I'm sure pp are right that I shouldn't compare and that if his weight is fine it's fine. I'm just a bit wary that presumably (hopefully?!) he's not always going to run around literally all day and when that happens I don't want him to be so used to massive portions that it then becomes an issue.

My daughter is 2.5 and eats the same, if not more. Sometimes she eats less than what you've stated but usually she eats big portions at meal times and has snacks between meals. She's perfectly average.

I've never been bothered about portions, both my kids eat what they want from their plate. If they don't eat that's ok. I'm hoping that is self regulating their appetites and portion control. Both of them were 99th centile when born and are now both tall for their age but slim.

My daughter is a very slow eater, my son wolfs his food down, both eat a lot!

My DS is 3. He doesn’t eat that much breakfast but otherwise it’s fairly similar. Today he has had: a slice of toast and marmite and a banana, some cubes of cheese and apple slices, a salmon fillet traybake with pesto, tomatoes, asparagus, green beans and new potatoes, a gingerbread man, half of an adult size pizza with lots of toppings on (we made it together so I just let him chuck ham and any veggies he likes on!), lots of watermelon and 2 cups of milk.

PS I’m aware that sounds like a pretentious food diary for a 3 year old, but I had a day off today so time to cook. Yesterday was sausages, chips and beans