Help a 7 year old eating me out of house and home!

me_and_me_monkeys

My over active 7 year old is underweight and eats sooo much I am begining to think he has a tape worm!


Breakfast -3 slices of toast, fruit and a drink

Walk to school (all 3 mins of it) - an apple

Breaktime - - School milk and an appleLunch - 1 round of sandwich, cheese string, yoghurt
Banana and orange

Afterschool - apple Dinner - 1 adult potion of a main meal + extra

helpings + the littlest monkeys leftoversBefore bed - Apple and milk

He is permanently hungry! I try to make him eat as healthy as possible we don't do crisps, chocs are for special occassions. Is this normal? He used to go to breakfast club at school - but he doesn't like it as they limit him to 3 bowls of cereal!!!

dee_mum_of_3

welcome to my world lol - i have 3 ever hungry sons and im told it only gets worse.......

anonymousie

Sounds about right TBH, my 8 yr old (girl) eats like that, and my lad (11) eats more than the adults the 14yr old also eats plenty. We haven't bothered with "childrens partions" when out for some years!

I assume you are asking for advice rather than making an observation?

Ithink your lad probably needs more calories and calorie dense foods during the day, with some thought to the GI attributes of what he eats to help sustain energy release from his food. YOu haven't said, so assume the bread is white- if so his toast "fuel" will burn out by mid morning easily. Change to wholemeal (not just "brown") bread and it will sustain him longer, add porridge or shredded wheat/shreddies and he will still need a mid morning apple but will be "powered through" the morning.

SAme with lunch wm bread will be more sustaining, and I'd add a small choc biscuit or munchy bar of some sort. We don't do sweets much, but kids (esp if underweight) do need a bit of fat/sugar in their diet as they really do need the extra calories. You obviously think about what you feed them, and feed them well, but it is documented that kids on a super "healthy" diet actually get malnourished as they can't handle all the fibre and need the calories.

Do you have pud after dinner? If not a yoghurt would be ideal (full fat) to boost calories and calcium.

Does he drink milk? My 3 had at least a pint/day to drink (extra to cereal etc). He should be having that for calium and if he is under weight full fat milk will be best for him (we have semi skimmed as the kids are not underweight).

me_and_me_monkeys

Thanks

Bread is wholemeal or granary. I know mix pasta rice 50/50 brown and white (I am working on 100% wholemeal!) We have porriage (with jam or rasins) or weetabix with a banana at weekends or if we have enough time on a school day. They have just changed the milk at school to semi-skimmed as we have too many overweight kids at school. He probably drinks about a pint of full fat milk at home (he would finish the container off if I let him!

Good Idea about the youghurt after tea. And I think I'll have to make some 'trail mix bars for his lunchbox.

Its hard cos my next monkey isn't underweight (a little over perhaps but not anything major) so I have to be careful.

My 7 year old just doesn't seem to know when his stomach is full! I have seen him eat until he is sick (sneeking into the kitchen and refilling his bowl when my back)!

blue_monkey_2

Yep, this is about the same as my 4 year old eats, I questioned this with my friends and their kids eat the same. It's normal apparently, I wish I could eat that much!!

snowmaid

Your child seems quite normal and healthy to me! He could be going through a growth spurt....

filigree_2

It is possible to give children too much high fibre food, so don't fret about getting him to eat wholemeal pasta. The ordinary white stuff is fine.

All that fruit is great but (as dieters will tell you) fruit fills you up but it's low in calories. As Anonymousie said, kids need energy dense foods so you could try peanut butter on toast, olives or avocado which have fruity vitamins plus healthy oils.

I don't see much protein in there, apart from the milk. Protein helps stave off hunger for longer. Would he eat a boiled egg in the morning?

I sympathise - Filigree Junior has hollow legs! When he was a toddler I didn't mind giving him five meals/snacks a day and I thought he would eventually move towards three meals a day but it didn't happen. He still has four meals a day. On the plus side he is really easy to feed and has never been a faddy eater, in fact he's very adventurous and will try just about anything I offer. I do like kids who like their grub

Toothsmith

filigree wrote: »

I don't see much protein in there, apart from the milk. Protein helps stave off hunger for longer. Would he eat a boiled egg in the morning?

I thought this as well as I read the diet.

Maybe some scrambled egg on toast in the morning? And a bowl of porridge (Proper stuff, not ready brek)

I would say Breakfast is your best chance to fill him up.

If it doesn't get off to a good start, then he'll be feeling hungry all day.

But if you stuff him full at breakfast, i'm sure the battle will be won.

funky-footprints

this sounds like my 7 year old. i actually find school dinners are a bargain. i find he tends to eat more am, than pm. how long do these growth spurts last tho???

saturday for example,
He got up and had an apple & a banana, before i was up, breakfast was a 2 egg cheese omlette & glass of juice. took his sister to gymnastics for 9am, we walked past greggs the bakers and he dragged me in, he devoured a bean & sausage pastie. took his sister after gymnastics for a posh hot chocolate where he also had a tea cake. on the way home in the car he moaned he was hungry and started eating the pizza we had bought in greggs (which was supposed to be for lunch) thats all before 11am.

home for dinner where he had the rest of pizza, glass of water and a cake. (also bought from greggs) a tangerine and a packet of crisps mid afternoon, with a pork chop dinner and fruit corner for tea.

he often will have cereal before bed.

my 5 year old daughter eats like a sparrow ..... sigh!!
x

ailuro2

Or add some beans to the morning toast- hehe- he can let the teachers have it, Dennis the Menace style- :rotfl:

Nah, seriously, they are a really good source of protein, and lots of kids like them- they're easy to heat in the microwave so don't really add any cooking time to your breakfast.

Trying to keep him off too much bread first thing is good- it can be high GI, which will set him up for a day of highs and lows, but adding protein helps lower the GI so it really will keep hunger locked up until lunch.:j

ailuro2

funky-footprints wrote: »

this sounds like my 7 year old.
apple
banana,
2 egg cheese omlette
glass of juice
bean & sausage pastie
posh hot chocolate
tea cake.
pizza
pizza
glass of water
cake
tangerine
packet of crisps
pork chop dinner
fruit corner

he often will have cereal before bed.

:eek: that's enough to feed me for a week! (wel, almost)