Help! DD is constantly starving!!

radiohelen

I agree about the protein powder - it comes in milkshake flavours and it's easy to whip up in the morning with milk. Stick banana in it if you like. That and a homemade cereal bar should do the trick.

You could try making chicken dippers and having those in the fridge for coming home. Just slice up chicken breasts, beat an egg white in a cup, put it all in a bag with some spices of your choice - soy sauce/cumin/paprika/chilli - mush it all together. Put sesame seeds (or breadcrumbs) in another bag - remove chicken strips one at a time, toss them in the sesame seeds and stick on a baking tray - bake at 180 for 20 minutes or so.

You could try mexican wraps rolled up with an omelette insides spread with salsa - doesn't seem so breakfasty, although you said she didn't do eggs so scratch that!

Bagels and cream cheese to take on the bus?

Make up a boiled fruit cake and eat with cheese - my husband does this all the time, a weird northern thing!

Oh and this is a great muffin recipe...
Magical all purpose Muffin recipe

In a big bowl, mix:

300g s/r flour (or plain flour with an added tsp of baking powder)
half tsp bicarb
half tsp baking powder
half tsp salt

In a medium bowl or jug, mix:

1 egg
250ml yoghurt/fruit juice/fruit puree/milk or any combination of these
150ml veg oil/melted butter
175g caster sugar (I actually use a bit less than this, depending on what else is going into the muffins)
Any flavourings e.g. lemon/orange zest, vanilla essence, spices etc.

Add wet to dry and fold in with a crisscross-round movement, using a big metal spoon. Before they're totally mixed, add in 150g 'lumps' and don't overmix. Lumps could be: nuts, chopped fruit, dried fruit, grated carrot, chocolate, raisins, dates, tinned fruit chunks etc, even marzipan if you're sick enough to like that stuff.

Spoon the mix into muffin cases inside a muffin tin and bake at 190C for about 20mins till they're risen, cracked and golden.

HTH - good luck!

Butterfly_Brain

Have you checked her for worms? not nice I know but schools are breeding places for them.

babyshoes

More protein rich foods as well as high fibre would help her stay fuller for longer, as others have said. Nuts are high in protein, as well as all types of beans, so snacks and meals with extra portions of protein might help her satiated for longer.

We did the Atkins diet once in which one eats mostly protein. I found it amazing how it seemed to work - I wouldn't usually feel 'full' like I would with something high carb, but quite quickly felt satisfied and not hungry either. I think the feeling we often associate with being 'full' is actually more like a state of bloating! Well, whatever the reason, it worked in the short term...
Some snacks we used to have in the fridge included cold sausages, chicken legs/ pieces (you could shove some in the oven when cooking something else), boiled eggs, roast meat leftovers, cheese, cream cheese etc. Perhaps your DD could have a cold sausage or chicken leg to eat on the bus along with her cereal bar or muffin? For a snack when she gets home, finger slices of cold roast pork is delicious with a dip of mayo - not the most slimming snack ever (!) but if she is very thin anyway that doesn't matter! Cream cheese on whole grain rice cakes is yummy and somewhat healthier. Hummus is a less fatty protein rich dip/spread which goes well with all sorts of things. If you have things in the fridge that are both healthy and easy to eat a small portion of, she is likely to go for those.

That said, when I went through a similar growth spurt, I ate loads of instant noodles as a snack, because they are quick, easy and satisfying if you want something hot and savoury... If the rest of her diet is mostly good, the odd pot noodle won't hurt and will keep her stomach quiet for a little while.

bitsandpieces

If she's eating lots but still skinny, foods to make her feel fuller for longer might not be needed. If she's skinny, she's not getting too many Calories - so there's no need to do anything to reduce intake.

When I was doing lots more exercise in the past, I had to eat lots and lots of meals and snacks in order to maintain my weight. Being hungry all the time can be an effective way for the body to prompt us to eat as much as we need

daska

I'm not sure that sounds very much to me. At 8 I was convinced that DS1 only had to open the fridge door and inhale and all the food would magically disappear. He'd happily have eaten everything you've listed and probably the same again - and still looked like a yard of tap water! To me that diet looks too adult if that makes sense? You say she's eating the same diet as you - but are you as active as she is? Energy rich foods don't have to be sweet, and upping the fat and protein content will make her feel more satisfied for longer. Could you combine the juice and banana with some full fat yoghurt into a smoothie for her to drink on the bus? Nuts would be a good addition. Fromage frais or greek yoghurt instead of an ordinary yoghurt?

valk_scot

My DD is 8, tall, skinny and athletic and she eats a LOT more than that, in adult sized portions. Don't forget that all the low sugar/low fat/restricting portion sizes is for overweight kids and adults, so don't worry about that if she's clearly burning up all her calories. Yes, you have to watch the types of fat she's eating for other reasons but don't worry about giving her full fat milk and yoghurts, for example. Fat and proteins make you feel full as well.

She's really got to eat more at breakfast. I went for forty years not being a morning person and not eating breakfast so it was hard to retrain myself, but once I did I felt the health benefits at once. One reason you feel sluggish in the mornings is because your energy levels are so low from lack of food. Then you feel you can't eat because you feel this way, then it just gets worse. Get her up twenty minutes early? Insist? I found the best way to encourage my two to eat breakfast was to sit down with them and eat it too. If she doesn't like all the normal breakfasty things, how about sandwiches?

Finally (and I'm saying this in the nicest possible way so please don't take offence) your post has a lot of comments about unhealthy foods, rubbish, bad sugar etc etc. You also say that she's eating your sorts of "proper" adult foods and that she's a "bit of a greedy piggy". You also say you're jealous of her weight. (yes I know it was a jokey comment, but still...) I'm as bad as the next woman in the UK about thinking about my own weight and restricting what I eat but I do try very hard not to apply this sort of thinking to my DD. Kids need a different diet to adults because they're making bone and muscle etc etc. She shouldn't just be eating the sorts of foods you eat, she needs more of different foods and some of these you may think of as unhealthy for you, but they're not unhealthy for her iyswim? You are feeding two completely different people here, remember, with two very different sets of nutritional requirements.

JenniO

Yeah sorry but my daughter is 6 and she could have polished off your daughter's meals for the day and still have more! It didn't look like enough fat in her diet to me. Fat isn't evil in fact it is good for the brain cells. If she is an active girl, she is not going to get fat from eating 'fat'.

I think your meals sounded really nice though, so well balanced!

charliee_3

not ness to do with OP as her DD is not under 5, but there was a big thing a few years ago about 'museli-belt malnutrition' where the children of middle-class familes were becoming ill due to malnutrition because their parents were over-zealous in feeding them low-fat, low calorie adult type food, skimmed milk, etc and too much high fibre foods and frut and veg and not enough fat and protein...
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/life_and_style/health/article3856699.ece

i thought it was quite interesting..

brighthair

It probably is just a growth spurt. I was very active between 10 -16 with school and horses and constantly hungry
It wasn't unusual for me to eat -
breakfast - 3 weetabix, 2 pieces toast
school dinner - full meal and hot pudding
tea - whatever mum had made (corned beef hash, lasagne) and I'd always have 2 helpings and then cereal before I went to bed!
I snacked on yoghurts, fruit, milk by the pint and whatever else I could find. Dad used to call me hollow legs because I ate and ate. I was 5ft6 by the time I was 14, and used to get growing pains in my legs too
As long as she's eating good food, just let her eat what she wants. We never had crisps, choc, biscuits in so I could eat what I wanted

Fire_Fox

I am a fitness instructor and do a lot of nutritional advice as part of my job. Agree with the others about including sufficient healthy fats: oily fish, cheese and nuts tend to be filling and packed full of nutrients. Definitely read up on low Glycaemic index carbohydrates (jumbo oats, barley, new potatoes, sweet potatoes, beans and lentils, brown pasta, brown basmati rice, granary or stoneground bread, wholemeal pitta). Include some protein with every meal and snack, but most important of all BREAKFAST FIRST THING!! Studies have proven people who miss breakfast spend the rest of the day playing catch up and tend to crave sugary and fatty foods.

I know you said your daughter can't face breakfast but this must be worked on. Start with insisting on a small glass of fresh juice (apple and grapefruit are lower GI than orange or pineapple) or fresh milk. When this is sitting OK on her stomach make the glass a large size, when this sits OK time to move onto a yoghurt or fruit smoothie/ milkshake (milk plus half a banana) - basically you are starting with a drink and working towards solids. Once she can handle a fruit smoothie make it thicker, adding yoghurt or whey protein powder even whizzing in some oats or wheatgerm. It may take weeks or months to get to having a thick smoothie for breakfast, that is fine work at your daughters pace. She never needs to get to the point of sitting down for toast or cereal, the body cannot tell the difference between solid nutrition and liquid nutrition.