I am extremely frustrated. My beautiful little girl who will be 4 in November wants to eat all the time. She will eat everything and anything if I let her, of course I don't but constantly saying no is exhausting. She will be eating her lunch and asking me what she can eat for afternoon tea. She will constantly nag for food even when she has just had a meal and is full. She eats very healthy, her diet is full of Veges, lean meat, salmon, fruits, nuts etc. she hardly ever gets processed food or sugary drinks. Today as I was packing the groceries up she pulled a leaf off the cauliflower and said yummy and tried to eat it. She was eating the stalks and leaves off the strawberries she had the other night. please can someone offer me some advice or share their experiences with me about this. Today she ate- breakfast, baked beans with one peice of multi grain toast, morning tea, one whole banana, lunch, avocado tomato cheese melt on one peice of multigrain toast. After noon tea, cherry tomatoes, Apple, dinner, cauliflower rice full of Veges and egg. Bliss ball for desert, which is just almond, cranberry, date, cacao etc. all thru the day she was throwing tantrums and nagging for food. I just can't deal with this anymore. Anyone with anything to say please comment.
16 Replies
To be honest, that doesn't sound like an excessive amount of food to me... Obviously every child is different and its hard to tell portion sizes over the internet, but f you are super concerned perhaps look into seeing a dietician and see what they think?
If it were me, i would offer more food (keep it healthy, vegetable sticks, fruit etc) and see how she goes. It may seem like a lot of food to you but if she is going through a growth spurt etc she genuinely may be hungry!
some kids that age just eat constantly. I'd speak to a dietician, but if she looks healthy etc I'd let her eat.
My son has definitely gone through phases like this
Go see a dietitian (APD). Make sure she is drinking lots of water as children can often confuse thirst for hunger. It could be a growth spurt - temporarily adjusting her intake if it is true hunger could be appropriate as her intake doesn't appear excessive.
Can I just say, congrats for that awesome diet! I wish my son ate all those healthy foods, you are obviously doing an awesome job. I would probably look at where her weight sits with her height, is she in good proportion? If she is, then she obviously needs it, if you feel she is on the heavier side, she might be doing it out of boredom or something else going on?
What's her height to weight ratio? If she's not overweight then I don't think you spoils be overly worried. Little kids get hungry when they are growing, they get hungry just because, they burn off their food intake faster than we do as adults and they're always on the move. She eats a fair amount of filler food. Veggies are filler they're good for you but they don't contain much that will fill you for a long time. Try upping her carb intake ie breads/pastas to make her feel fuller for longer. My daughter is 3, 100cm tall and weighs 17 kilos the doctor says she's perfectly healthy and you don't want to know what she eats in a day. Breakfast is a bowl of nutrigrain with milk or two west box with milk. Pancakes and a glass of milk. Morning tea is an apple and half a banana or an apple and a little kid sizes muffin. Lunch is a sandwich with Nutella sometimes 2. Afternoon tea is another apple and a couple of biscuits. Dinner varies a cup of pasta or half a cup of rice. With meat either a whole sausage or a large chop (pork/lamb) or some steak. A few veggies if I can get her to eat it and if she does she gets dessert. Ice-cream in a cone or a mini muffin/cupcake (no icing) with custard or ice cream. She only gets fast food once a fortnight and she still eats a meal after it. I would never think that she was eating to much especially in a time where she's growing constantly and developing non stop. Maybe you need to have a look at why you're freaking out so much about your daughter eating the amount of food she is. I am over-weight but my children are no where near overweight and it's not from lack of trying to make sure they're healthy. We need to encourage them to be healthy not focus on their weight. If they aren't over weight and are underweight then we need to ensure they are healthy and are getting enough food so that there brains and bodies can develop.
Hi I agree wih previous comments.
It doesn't sound like much at all.
My son is 5 and it's 10am so far he has had,
bowl of cereal,
2 slices toast,
cheese n bacon roll and a banana.
He will eat all day everyday If I let him. No Ida where he puts it because he's as thin as a rake and I worry sometimes he's eating too much and get sick of saying no all the time but I figure he wouldn't be asking if he wasn't hungry and as long as he's in healthy weight range and active why should I deny him food?
It's great your girl eats so much vegies etc but sounds like maybe she needs some more bread / pasta etc which will fill her up a lot more
It doesn't sound like an excessive amount. My daughters (almost 5) Kindy lunch box and breakfast today consists of
Breakfast: 2 weetbix and milk
Kindy morning tea & lunch I packed
1 x sandwich with ham (2 pieces of multigrain bread), 1 small mandarin, handful of grapes, a handful of blueberries, 2 bliss balls and about 120ml of homemade smoothie.
Then she will come home for arvo tea and prob have a banana and a few cheese and crackers.
Then dinner which is carrot, brocoli, caulieflower and meat of some description. No potatoes here.
Is there a reason why she only has a melt with 1 piece of bread, could u give her 2 pieces at lunch. Maybe a glass of milk after lunch to keep her full longer.
My 3yo is a constant whinger for food but I think it's from boredom. I am very strict that food is to be eaten at set times and not all the time.
That really doesn't sound like too much food to me...it sounds normal. I wouldn't be worried about it.
My 3.5 year old would be begging for food too if he only got to eat (your example of what she ate today) too! That isn't a lot at all.
My 3.5 year old- bowl of cereal for breakfast. A piece of toast and/or A banana.
Morning tea- a yoghurt pouch.
Lunch- a sandwich, a mandarin. Handful of blueberries. A few cucumber slices. A couple of strawberries.
Afternoon tea-cheese and biscuits.
Dinner- veggies and protein.
Try giving her more food. Offer 2 pieces of toast at breakfast. Some fruit at lunch. Some veg sticks on top of her snacks.
So long as it's healthy food, let her eat. She may be having a growth spurt.
Also, kids some times don't know the difference between thirst and hunger. Give her a drink of water when she asks for more food. If she's still hungry in 10 minutes, it's hunger.
Shes hungry. Thats not enough and not filling. Make her four or five meals through the day ( a banana isnt a meal) and also offer snacks and fruit and vege in a container she can eat all day whenever she wants. Kids graze so they need to eat more often.
My tip is feed her more. And also more filling substantial meals.
I know some days I find myself so hungry no matter what or how much I eat and we have to remember kids grow a lot more than us so they do go through stages of pure food demolition because their bodies are getting ready to use that energy for growth and development, so don't stress too much, I have two girls who are food monsters and could spend three days doing nothing but eating but then go back to their own normals patterns of eating, if she is happy and healthy and sleeping well ( she is eating like a champion I must say good job!) then don't worry she might just need a bit of extra fuel in her tank
My 2 year old daughter eats
A bowl of cereal
A piece of cheese
Half a banana
A piece of toast
A yoghurt
A sandwich (2 pieces of bread)
A muffin or something similar
Half an apple
Meat of some sort, veggies and a side usually rice is her fav
Sometimes dessert usually sweetened rice or something as she LOVES rice haha!
and this is a normal day of eating for her sometimes a bit more sometimes a bit less.. I have two children and my 6 year old eats more Than I do! Kids can seriously eat both my children are very active a healthy kids but man they can eat!
Sounds normal to me. She might be going through a growth spurt. Today my 4 year old ate:
3 wheat bix for breakfast
1 piece of fruit and a scone for smoko
2 pieces of pizza left over from dinner for lunch
1 apple for afternoon tea
And am sure he will eat all his dinner tonight ( fish and veggies)
If he eats his veggies he gets tinned peaches for dessert.
My miss 4 eats more than that in an average day.
Example today:
Brekky Large boiled egg, half a banana.
Morning tea apple and mandarin.
Lunch 1 sml tin of tuna, 1/3 avocado mashed together with mayo, half a punnet of blueberries.
Afternoon tea home made popcorn popped in lots of coconut oil, banana milkshake (banana, milk and sml scoop ice cream).
Late snack 3 slices of cheese (Bega brand block cheese so smaller than the precut square cheese).
Dinner spaghetti with sauce of slow cooked pork, onion garlic carrots salt in olive oil. Salad.
This is an average days worth of food.
I wonder if you have a smaller appetite and your daughter has a larger appetite.
Either way so long as it's healthy food I'd let her eat as much as she likes.
The only time I'd be worried is if she were becoming overweight (I'd ensure I increased jet activity levels) or eating lots but losing weight.
That doesn't sound like much food to me at all. How do you know she is full?
My 2 year old eats 1-2 bananas, 2 slices of toast with Vegemite for breakfast. For morning tea he will eat 1-2 bowls of fruit and yoghurt. Lunch he eats the equivalent of two sandwiches - might be pasta or casserole or something but four slices of bread gives you an idea!
For afternoon tea, depending on what he ate for lunch he has a small bowl of mixed nuts and a cup of warm milk.
Dinner he usually eats the same as me and then he has home made sugar free ice cream for dessert.
He's not overweight- my oldest eats even more than that- but you have to look at what they eat over a week as well because at this age they can get distracted or just not hungry.
As another said, also make sure she's not thirsty? My boys drink a lot ;)
I'm not sure why you wouldn't give her more food, it sounds like she is just hungry! Luckily it's not my two- they cry and cry when they want more lol
To be honest, I think she is hungry!
Try giving her two pieces of toast at breakfast and a full toasted sandwhich for lunch.
Maybe add a yogurt with her banana for morning tea or afternoon tea.
Huge high 5s for how healthy she eats! My little boy is way hungrier when hes having growth spurts too so keep that in mind.