Hungry 7 year old

RoseFairy

is it always like this or just recently - it could be a growth spurt coming along.

btw the menu looks yummy!!

anyway, i have a similar problem with dd1 being more hungry & appetite than younger dd2!!

i keep protein type snacks as well, like chicken/turkey slices or chunks or tinned fish - as protein keeps hunger at bay a little longer. then theres the eggs, milk or yogurt in bottle, pots tubes etc.


they are growing, and though we try our best to give a healty diet, its best not be be obsessed - just so long as you feel you are giving a good balance.

you could keep a weekly diary and have a look to see where you might want to give a little extra, say, milk or cheese or protein or carbs or liquids. for an adult it's rec. 1.5-2ltr water and for children i suppose it would be a little lesser - not sure but say 1-1.5ltr per day.

try to give liquids with each meal, and i would think that's its probably better to eat little and often than increasing portion sizes (that's if you feel that his portion size is sufficient.)

LittleMissAspie

leiela wrote: »

I'm going to try and cut back the suger even further but its so hard to know what to give him i don't buy other snacks, any idea's of none sugery snacks??

Fruit. I mean, it's sugary but the fibre in it means it's low GI so his blood sugar will stay stable. Nuts of any kind, not too much salt obviously. Cheese and crackers or oatcakes.

Does he eat little and often? I know people say that's the best way to eat but personally I prefer 3 meals a day with no snacks. I've tried little and often but I never felt full up, so I always thought I was still hungry.

RoseFairy

like weetabix (or tesco's own variety as is cheaper).

please check and compare salt on this - as i wanted to go cheaper but saw there was more salt in the tesco one. also with Rice Krispies, - the tesco own brand had more suger per 100g than the branded one

boydE

My two are eating constantly.

your menu looks very poor, flap jacks, muffins, ice cream, chocolate cake. He should have only one of those.

Give him a big bowl of porridge, he wont be hungry then.

If you have crap food in the house then they will eat crap.


My sons meal and he is active.

porridge or weetabix

school dinner, usaually ham salad or chicken salad
mars bar and can of pepsi max

lunch
cooked dinner

supper
bowl of cereal

liney

Hard boiled eggs are nice easy protein fueled snacks. I cook some and keep in the fridge for upto 3 days.

My ds4 is exactley the same. He eats well, but he always seems to want something else! If he's happily eating fruit as a snack though i tend to belive he is genuinely hungry.

Spendless

what about a boiled egg for breakfast, if they don't like [STRIKE]wallpaper paste[/STRIKE] porridge.

I was covinced this was a boy thing as I have an 8 yo exactly the same.

leiela

boydE wrote: »

My two are eating constantly.

your menu looks very poor, flap jacks, muffins, ice cream, chocolate cake. He should have only one of those.

Oh i should point out, the flapjacks are hm and have no suger or syrup in them to bind them i use banana's and unsweetened apple sauce so the flapjacks are 100% good stuff. Muffins again no suger i use a tiny bit of sweetner tbh they are more like bread with raisins in.

Ok granted Chocolate cake and icecream are bad, but the chocolate cake was made with half sweetner and half so not AS bad as shop bought.

icecream ok i have no defence haha.. but it was served with wholegrain pancakes and fruit so can't i get brownie points for that at least :P

Also all the meals are homemade, i don't use jar's / tinned sauces so i don't think my kids diet is THAT bad.

tbh my kids won an award at school not so long ago for having the "best diet" in the school, as a whole i think they eat pretty darn well, either that or the rest of the school eats REALLY badly haha.

LondonDiva

I think that you could also start him off with a bigger breakfast. So cereal and toast. I'd also suggest cutting out snacks apart from fruit and things like cheese - you may want to make the fruit bowl access all areas so they don't have to ask if they want some.

If he asks, oi'd offer him a glass of water first then tell him to come back in about 5 mins. It is amazing how dehydrated we can get.

Smashing

I'd bump up his meals a bit (cereal and toast in the morning - does he like peanut butter? Good protein and fat hit to keep him tiding over) and then if he's hungry between meals direct him to the fruit bowl. If he turns his nose up at fruit then he can't be that hungry and probably just wants the taste of food.

leiela

I did go though a stint of giving him cereal and toast in the morning but it didn't really seem to help he'd still pester an hour later, which is why i cut it out... by holding the toast back i had something in reserve.. bad i know.

Fruit bowl been there done that ... the only thing he will eat is banana's (we are working on that haha) and we went though a stage of him eating banana's at an astonishing rate and having to deal with assosiated "bowel trouble".

We are getting better on the fruit front for some reason both my kids suddenly decided they where the enemy after years of eating them i blame them starting school it seems that none of the other kids in the school knows what a peice of fruit looks like.

With this in mind i've really started battling against them on this one, tbh thats the reason for the strawberries and pancakes and raisin muffins.. it might not be great but its a start 6 months ago they would have picked the fruit out of almost anything i made them, now they are at the stage where they will eat them "in" something, but still not alone *grrr* tbh my eldest is even worse on that front in that he WILL starve rather than eat fruit.

Step by step and all that.

Hmm peanut butter theres a thought tbh i've Never tried them with it, personally i can't stand the stuff but it's worth a go.