Talk to me about feeding a 4 year old boy please

[FabIsGoingToBeFabIn2010]

For the last few days he has been saying he is hungry a lot, he was crying at 9pm last night saying he was hungry but settled to sleep with a drink. He had had 2 helpings of roast dinner for tea and then food after that too. His appetite had grown once he started full time school last month but just lately he seems to asking for food a lot. He is 4 and 8 months.

Fruit and cream sounds like his kind of thing. I make lots of pies as a way of getting fruit in to him but the pastry makes it a bigger dish too.

Cream is always a good idea

Whack it on his morning porridge as well with some chopped dates, wonderful.

Morloth goes to put oats on to soak...

Both mine eat like horses. way beyond their years. ds1(6) is well skinny. i can't get enough food in him.

Completey OT, but talking about yoghurt and oats has made my preg cravings go into overdrive and now I am anxiously awaiting the grocery delivery!!!

threetimemummy - please can you post the sausage quesadilla recipe? My DS's great loves are sausages and quesadillas.......

OP- Are you sure he's eating all his lunch? My DS (6) has started skipping his so he can get out quickly to play in the playground without losing his friends.( He needs a wee at lunchtime by which time they have bolted their food and gone outside, its a big playground ).

I'd big up the slow burn carbs as well as the proteins if poss.

If he has packed lunch I know exactly what he has eaten as everything comes back. Obviously I don't see what he eats if he is having school dinners but I have eaten with him once and he ate everything. I just feel the portions are very small for him but a lot of 4 year olds would eat less than him. Seconds are only allowed in years 5 and 6.

Oh fab, that's awful than secondsare only allowed for bigger kids.

Would an eggy breakfast help? 3 scrambly eggs in the microwave takes no longer than toast, and is very filling, meaning the smaller lunch wouldn't leave him hungry.

I mean scrambled, sorry, toddler slang strikes again!

Another request for the sausage quesadilla recipe, please...

How do you make scrambled eggs in the microwave? I only do them in a pan and haven't for a while.

We have just had dinner and he has had 1 1/2 portions of lasagne and broccoli. Banana, grapes and chocolate brownie with cream.

I'm watching this thread with interest, my 4 year old DD asks for food constantly and never seems full. Unfortunately she is quite chubby so I have to keep an eye on her weight - no pies or cream for her, just lots of veg crudites and fruit for snacks, which probably aren't very filling for her. Not sure what else to do though, don't want her to be obese

Im in the same boat as muminthecity in that my DS (nearly 5) is also always hungry but is also rather solid so have to watch what he eats as well...so need food ideas to fill up but not add loads of calories.

He usually has toast or cereal followed by yoghurt and fruit then apple or satsuma for snack at school and then school dinners which he loves and eats all of. When he gets home he then usually either has some wholemeal toast or a wholemeal sandwich,some more fruit,a yoghurt drink/smoothie or milkshake and then has tea about 5.30ish which is usually pasta,meat/veg/etc.

Must admit Ive also fallen into the trap of giving fruit/veg as snacks which aren't filling but am very worried about getting even bigger so not quite sure what else to give. Im sure the yoghurt/oats are lovely and might try them myself but I don't think he'd like them much...flapjacks are good though when I can be bothered to make them lol!

iheart, what you give sounds completely healthy. but it is all carbs. i should know , as a diabetic i have been carb counting for 35 years, since aged 1. but isn't it protein that they also recommend to help them feel fuller for longer. i can't think of low fat proteins, cheese isn't low fat, but i bet others on another thread could.

my ds is 6yrs and would constantly eat if i let him. He is not hungry because he refuses the offered healthy option and so is just being greedy.

I too have to watch what he eats as he is not an active child (in fact he is very lazy), and just wants junk food also he is a bit chubby.

If they are skinny and active feed them but if not i would just offer fruit and see what they say!!

To OP what size portions do you serve? Ds (5.5) eats the same amount as me and has done since he was younger than your ds. Some days he eats loads and other days not much at all. Today he has had porridge for breakfast, he will have a cooked lunch and a sandwich tea at holiday club and a cooked tea when he gets home.

I should add that ds is skinny and will only eat as much as he wants, eg if he has a treat like chocolate cake he won't finish it all if his appetite is satisfied before finishing (wish I had his willpower ).

Iheart - perhaps you should try him on yoghurt and oats then. I know my ds is hungry when he demolishes a bowl of PLAIN, low fat yoghurt with PLAIN porridge oats - its not exciting, its not sugary - its just filling and good for him. He prefers the fruit yoghurt (but we wouldn't offer endless quantities of that). Plain food is quite good for children who might have a tendency to overeat - if its boring and they are hungry they will eat it, but if they are not hungry they won't. I'm not saying we always give ds boring food - he had two portions of stirfry and rice followed by two big bowls of yoghurt and a slice of cake yesterday evening - but its very useful having fillers like that because they won't ask/eat them if they are not hungry

Oblomov-yep I know he does have a very carb high diet but it does fill him up and isn't high in fat so sort of works. He loves cheese and would eat tons of it but I don't really want to go down the route of low fat food at nearly 5 so have just been plodding along doing what we've been doing.

He's had his height/weight thing done at school recently and I know that when the results come back its going to say he is overweight and I think I'll make an appointment to see GP to make sure its all ok. He doesn't actually look "fat" (I seriously hate that word!) but is really solid...He is about 116cm tall and weighs nearly 4stone.

Not sure what else to do really. He is happy and very active...although less so in the winter as I suppose we all are and eats healthily most of the time. Yes he has sweets/chocolate and the odd Mcdonalds but certainly not as much as a lot of other children. Incidentally he wasn't a big baby either...born at 36 weeks weighing 4lb 12oz!!

Im going to get some plain yoghurt and some oats and try him with it...don't hold out much hope of him eating it but will see how it goes!! Sorry for hijacking!

Portion size is less than the 8 year old but more than the 6 year old. He stops when he is full though so maybe I am feeding him the wrong food if he is still hungry. I sometimes offer cereal but that is usually when he has refused a few other things. It is hard to know at times but as I have food issues from not being fed as a kid I don't trust myself to know what to do with my children.

Fab - it must be really difficult if you have that hanging over you and making you worried. My instinct to say to you is that if you're offering things like toast with peanut butter, or yoghurt with oats or even cereal of some kind, or a banana, and he refuses, its because he wants something 'nice' rather than him being hungry - I know that if ds is hungry, a big bowl of something relatively plain (but still nice to eat ifyswim) food will disappear, but if he isn't really hungry, he only asks for the chocolate or flapjack etc.

I can't help on portion sizes as they differ so much - although ds can easily eat 200g yoghurt with about 3 dessert spoons full of oats on it for pudding - sometimes with 8 - 10 grapes added...

I try to stick with set times for lunch and snacks. I don't like just giving them food when they say they're hungry, simply because I think sometimes they say they are hungry just to get some attention.

So we have breakfast, snack at 10:30 ish here or at nursery, lunch, a snack at 2 ish, and dinner at 5 ish. As much to drink as they want. They oftern have a bowl of cereals before bedtime, and bedtime milk.

I also have reverted to giving them full fat milk as they are both growing so quickly at the mo. Although my oldest is lying on the sofa with a bad tummy ache so he hasn't eaten all day!!!

My ds 4 and 3 months goes through phases of eating very little and pases of eating almost as much as an adult. I pretty much let him eat as much as he wants though limit the amount of chocolate/crisps etc.

He doesn't eat much in the way of snacks though.