How much should an 11 year old boy eat?

squibbs25

Hi everyone, thank you so much, you all seem to be saying what i am thinking.
He made me feel like i was being unreasonable.
He does drink water during the day (but would be solely juice if he could get away with it).
Sountherscouser, i think you may have hit the nail on the head about being bored.
DS has just read your replies and is a bit shocked that you all seem to agree with me!
I think he thought i was going to be a big bad ogre haha.

Thank you all for taking the time to reply, i really appreciate it.

southernscouser

squibbs25 wrote: »

Sountherscouser, i think you may have hit the nail on the head about being bored.

Tell him if he wants more food to go out and burn off the energy first!

Oh and as he is reading this, I think you should up his pocket money! :rotfl:

squibbs25

southernscouser wrote: »

Oh and as he is reading this, I think you should up his pocket money! :rotfl:

What a shame he's just gone up to bed so he missed that!

onlyroz

If he's still hungry then try offering him raw veg and dips, or fruit and yoghurt.

silvercar

20 minute rule. If you are eating it can take 20 minutes for the brain to register that the stomach is full. So after a full meal wait 20 minutes and then see if he is still hungry.

Remember that kids often don't drink enough, so he could be mistaking thirst for hunger.

Savvy_Sue

At 11 I am sure mine were eating as much as me at meals, if not more, so it may be worth increasing his portion size.

DS2 and DS3 will now eat for England (17, 19) - several sets of sandwiches through the afternoon while waiting for their main meal! We are still trying to work out where DS2 puts it because he has the build of a racing snake.

remembered_nights

Everytime we asked for a snack, we got told to have a drink first. But there was always a basket of fruit handy.

At 11... I would eat three servings of dinner in a row :eek: And I've always been skinny! So you can actually just eat that much during growth spurts I reckon.

seven-day-weekend

Young adolescent boys can eat as much if not more than an adult as they are growing so fast.

I personally would give him more if he wants it.

My son could eat eight weetabix for breakfast at 13. He's now 29 and quite slim - he's never been fat.

elisebutt65

When you think about it - kids his age should eat more than us adults as we've finished growing now and if I know if I ate them same as my 2 boys (8 & 14) I'd be even fatter than I am now!!! Kids are going though amazingly fast changes at their age - just hitting puberty - my eldest grew 1/2 inch just this month!! :eek: He's already 5'10"!!!

My 8yr old will sometimes eat 4 bowls of soup on the trot - which is why it gets made in huge vats!!!!:rotfl::rotfl::rotfl:

Just because they don't seem active - they do a lot more than us, esp at school and breaktime. My littlies is like a little humming bird and only sits still on a Sunday morning when it's lie in time and he is under warnings of death if he ventures upstairs or makes a noise to disturb the ugly bear(DS1) in bed before 11am. DS1 never seems to do a thing and barely moves off the sofa after school but he's up at the crack of dawn 6 days a week on a bike with his paper round before he walks a mile and half to school, plus he fences and plays rugby at school.

I don't begrudge either of them the odd packet of crisps or bottle of coke(that's why I'm in the Bad Mothers gang:D) as they both eat real food most of the time - DS1 won't eat anything green but I never saw anyone die because they didn't eat peas:o

I would agree with the 20 minute rule though because they can stuff an awful lot in that 20 minutes and then 1/2 hour later they'll be rolling around with a tummy ache or feeling ick cos they were pigs!!!:rotfl::rotfl:

Amber07

My eldest son is almost 10 and it is staggering the amount he can put away!!

Mind you, he is a skinny kid and is always running about outside with his friends the moment any half-decent weather kicks in.

Like others have said, maybe your son is going through a growth spurt at the moment, I wouldn't worry unless he does start to get overweight. Maybe encouragng him to get an active hobby would counteract this from happening.

Thing is, if he feels he is hungry, he may just spend pocket money on food when he is out - at least if you are giving him an extra helping of dinner now and then at home you know he is eating decent food.