Help with child's eating

Miss_Cinnabon

Need advice on my 4 year old's eating, he eats constantly and is always going through to kitchen looking for stuff to eat, yeah i know kids do this but its getting out of hand, my other 2 kids never did this.

For example, he wants cereal in the morning, he will finish it off then want another bowl, then he will want yoghurt, then fruit then sweets and anything else he can lay his hands on, i am constantly having to get him from the kitchen and im now exhausted, loved it when the safety gate was on as he couldnt get in kitchen, too old for that though, fridge/cupboard locks dont work, he can get round them all.

He knows to stand up on the washing basket to get into cupboards.

His weight is fine, no fat on him so dont know where he is putting it all!

The other day he had come downstairs while i was sleeping and was eating stuff from fridge, cupboards etc and made a complete mess of the floor and again this morning at 1am he had sneaked down and did the same, he had poured himself cereal and sweets were all over the table, i had bought 6 muller yoghurts yesterday for everyone as we love them but he has opened 4 of them, part eaten, i am at my wits end, read him the riot act this morning that he wasnt to eat unless i told him it was ok and he says fine but will see how it goes today, going to be a lot of tears today i think but its the only way.

Health is suffering as im so run down, had bronchitis twice in the last few months, i never eat fruit as kids always get in there first, need to get this all sorted before i lose my sanity altogether:eek:

what im asking is this normal for a 4 year old to do? never come across it before so dont know

ailuro2

Google "prader willi syndrome" one of the prime indicators of the condition is the kids want to eat all the time, they can't stop themselves even if they tried, and no amount o f telling off would stop them, I remember watching a TV programme about it a while back.

It would be good to rule it out in case he ends up on the naughty chair when it's not his fault....

jovichick123

Hiya,

My DS would eat me out of house and home if allowed to :rolleyes: He too, like your LO found out how to 'help himself' in the night and it was driving me mad. He is also 4 and not overweight...

I have noticed that if I give him toast in the morning, a mid morning fruit snack, big-ish lunch, afternoon snack (usually crackers) and then a big tea (I have started making sure this always involves some kind of filler like a large portion of rice/pasta), he doesn't seem as hungry by the time morning comes round. I have also started locking the kitchen door before I go to bed which has no doubt helped too :rotfl:

I realised that he is going through a bit of a growth spurt at the moment so I think this could possibly account for the need for extra food - maybe your LO is perfectly normal and is just getting bigger?

(((hugs)))

S xx

fernliebee

Personally I think there are 2 issues here, first if he is hungry fine, as long as he is eating healthy stuff fruit etc then won't come to much harm, however the other issue is about helping himself. In our house we had free access to the fruit bowl, but anything else we had to ask for, just to check it wasn't being used for dinner/ had to last all week etc. Maybe if you have the fruit bowl where he can help himself but be really firm over other cupboards and fridge then he may get it, maybe use a sticker chart to help with this?

I also thought from you mentioning the half eaten yoghurts that this was more of a 'power' game (for want of a better word. If he knows he isn't really supposed to take food, then opens 4 yoghurts and doesn't even finish them, then it does sound as if he is pushing his boundaries to see how far he can go, (very common age for it too, in fact another thread on here atm about 4 yr olds acting out.)

I really hope you get this sorted soon, for your own sanity!!

Miss_Cinnabon

hi thanks for replies

he doesnt have prader syndrome as no symptons for that, thanks for mentioning it though

yes i think its a power thing and down to his age, just need to get him out the habit and going to lock the kitchen door as i cant have him coming down in middle in night, need to work out how to lock door though as it doesnt have a lock as such:D

he has been going wild this morning, due to sweets last night:eek:he was helping me make bread this morning and as soon as he finished he was asking for a yoghurt and then went through to living room and was chucking his chalks all over the place! going to take a lot of time to get this sorted, fruit basket is in kitchen and have no probs with him eating fruit, its the helping himself i have probs with

julie03

could you fit something like this http://website.lineone.net/~dave.cushman/gatelatch.html on the kitchen door really high up, we have one on my 15 year olds bedroom door to stop the younger ones getting in when he is not there

Lunar_Eclipse

I have one child who eats a lot, but nothing compared to a good friend who has two boys (7&9) who are all skin and bone and eat a huge amount (think really big bloke quantities!) I have two girls, who from what I've seen generally eat a lot less than boys, mainly because they are nowhere near as active, in general. Boys I know from the age of 5 seem to eat more than my husband.

My children are not overweight, but the youngest (7) certainly eats more than I recall doing as a child. However, she is very active and about 1.45m tall. In a typical day she eats the following:
- Breakfast: 4 pieces of toast with a banana
-Mid morning: fruit
-Lunch: sandwiches, 2 x fruit/veg, cheese or yoghurt plus a pudding (biscuit/mini muffin.)
-After school snack: sandwich, a piece of fruit, cheese& crackers and smoothie.
-Dinner: cooked evening meal (often not a huge portion) followed by pudding. Sometimes she also needs supper (weetabix/toast/cookies & milk.)

Appetites in children (& possibly adults) vary enormously. My eldest daughter has friends whose parents say they live on thin air. Other parents say they can't keep up, which I often feel with my youngest. But she is always on the go. Yesterday she did football (twice) and cricket after school, which was about 3 hours of solid very energetic running around. I managed to fill her with loads of pasta carbonara during the break between the two sports. But supper was definitely required whilst I read to her: an enormous banana, cheese & biscuits.

msb5262

Hello OP,
Just wondering if feeding your son more protein foods early in the day might help? You mention cereal, toast, yoghurt, fruit and sweets - maybe starting to give him a protein-based breakfast would keep him going a bit longer. It does sound as if he is really hungry even though he's been fed. Could be worth trying protein breakfasts for about 10 days, then review: boiled/scrambled egg, cheese sandwich or toastie, bacon or sausage sandwich, or you could go Dutch and offer ham, cold sausage slices or spreadable cheese.
I know that my mum in the 1960s had a real thing about feeding children protein, which I've taken on board to some degree, and reading all about Atkins diet and GL etc has convinced me that we tend to feed children lots of carbohydrate foods, which don't provide slow-release energy. If your son isn't up for protein-type breakfasts, maybe proper porridge would keep him going a bit longer?
Just a thought, don't know if it may be useful.
MsB

Paparika

Yucky post alert

Does he have worms?

Felicity

Hi, I am going through the same thing at the moment, albeit with a toddler.

He will eat 2 weetabix for breakfast, then nearly an adults portion of (spag bog, chilli and rice, fish with potatoes and veg etc.) for lunch and the same for tea.

After lunch he is constantly asking for more food so I start with cherry tomatoes (he would eat half a punnet), then a large rice cake, then an apple, then a banana. Plus lots of fluids as sometimes that can confuse children (as well as adults) ie they don't know if they are hungry or thirsty.

If he wants to eat I let him but it all has to be healthy and stuff (outside of his main meals) with not much fat and not too many calories in it.

He is a healthy weight so I just keep feeding him!

Have you tried restricting him to the fruit bowl as somebody else mentioned, or snacks such as carrot sticks, tomatoes etc?

Miss_Cinnabon

hi thanks for info about the lock, will look into that

good tip about the proteins, he normally has cereal, toast or porridge for brekkie, we do eat low gi foods in the house as my eldest has diabetes, my 4 year old is not keen on eggs, have tried him with scrambled eggs but will look into what else he can have and no he doesnt have worms