Not a bad mum for this am I?

[Beautyandtheee]

DS (3) is soooo hungry this weekend. Constantly asking for food won’t stop eating. Hes always had a good appetite but wow he is non stop this weekend

At a family meal Friday we let him have chicken nuggets & chips , he pinched some of mine and DH’s too. So it was a huge meak

the other kids there had a curry and a pasta and didn’t like ask their parents for some of theirs

I felt like a bad mym but we let him have nuggets chips as we never cook those dinners at home. It’s only when we go out he has that stuff

he is very active. This morning he did the whole walk around a full park and always walks everywhere tbh when he’s in the house he doesn’t sit still so I just assume his appetite matches his activity? As during the week he walks to and from nursery too so does a lot

hes in 2-3 clothes, I do get 3-4 in pyjamas so they’re baggier and the HV came out last week ;regarding speech not about this) and she didn’t like pull me up and think he looks big or anything. He probably looks his age I’d say? Just has a msssive appetite which I feel bad saying I should watch?

as it could lead to weight stuff if we don’t help

Just feed him a healthy diet. As long as his heigh and weight fit and he is thriving I wouldn't worry.

You're a good mum, he binged on 'bad food' because it was a treat and as long as it stays that way there's no harm. I don't believe in forbidden food, just moderation.

Sounds completely fine. How are you with food and diet? This sounds more like your anxiety projected onto him. That sounds like a completely normal meal and activity level for an active toddler.

Now and again won't hurt. All in moderation I say. You could try things like toast or crumpets if he is still hungry.

thanks I did have weight and food issues as a kid but my issue was my mum and dad fed me sh*te and adult portions and justified I needed it to grow (I most certainly didn’t need an adults size chip shop meal at 10)

we don’t ban it but yeah the moderation is when we pop out so once every other week or once every 3 weeks cos we have big families and friends so it’s either a meal out with people or a grandma minds him and wants to treat him to a happy meal!

He doesn’t like bread ironically🤣🤣 everything but bread. But I offer fruit or fruit snacks (he still likes those baby wafers and smoothie melts? Lol) and I have ensured his dinner of a night has sufficient protein

i just feel like he’s never ending appetite sometimes !!

It sounds like you have quite severe issues with food.

So I don't think you're going to be the best judge of this.

Find medical resources on how many grams of protein, carbs, fibre he should be having a day/week and check his diet against that.

Also check his portion size of fruit & veg.

A bad Mum for what? Letting him eat chicken nuggets once, at the weekend? Its okay (and healthy) to have a treat once in a while, so long as overall they have a healthy balanced diet. My children all go through stages where they want to eat lots more than usual when they have growth spurts and things.

He sounds a healthy weight judging by the clothes sizes. I have an ‘overweight’ dc aged just 4 in 6-7 clothes. (had it with older dc too) and have no end of hassle about it (we are a tall family) and around age 5 the dc have a massive growth spurt and go from overweight to healthy weight in a year, so the HV would definitely have said if she was concerned .

There's nothing inherently 'bad' about a chicken nugget dinner. If I called it a Chicken Kiev would you still have the same reaction to the meal? Or a chicken Schnitzel? Or chicken Karage?

Almost every culture has a form of chicken with a crispy breadcrumb-based coating. True, fast food restaurants tend to deep fry them which isn't great, but if you oven bake/make your own/check ingredients and buy breaded chicken breasts from the supermarket they are a perfectly fine meal choice.

What you saw at the meal was the forbidden fruit effect: they look good, they taste good, I'm not normally allowed them, so I'm going to eat as many of them as I can. Nothing to worry about, but you might want to have a really careful think about your own internal attitudes to good and bad food and whether or not you're covering them up as well as you think you are.

That's said with no shade by the way, these things are really difficult and often we're not even aware that we have them. Parenting often brings up so many things from when we were parented ourselves and food is one of them.