My little boy has the hugest appetite I have ever seen. With the exception of him being ill, he eats, and eats, and eats some more. But it seems as though he isn't gaining weight from it. I've spoken to his doctor, and he says he is right on track where he is supposed to be with his age and his weight. The doctor also says
to give him food when he his hungry, but for my son, that is really
all the time.If he had it his way, he would eat constantly throughout the day. But I don't know how much is too much. He looks at me and says "hungry!" and rubs his belly. I feel guilty if I do not give him something to eat, because then I feel as though I am neglecting him if I don't give him food when he asks for it. But I also don't want to be that mom who gives her child
everything he wants, whenever he wants it. I want him to be healthy.
We do purchase snacks and foods that are on the healthier side. Fruit, vegetables, granola bars, yogurt and things like that are what we keep in the house for him to eat. But can you indeed have too much of a good thing? I don't want my son to become overweight and unhealthy. Do I try to break this habit of constantly eating now, or should I wait until he is a little bit older?
How do you moderate snacks and food for your children?
Recommend
Comments (15)
I let my son eat when he is hungry. If he keeps asking for snacks, especially if they are healthy and not cookies and candy, I assume that he is actually hungry. Children can recognize when they are hungry and allowing them to have a healthy snack won't spoil them or teach them that they can have whatever they want whenever they want it.
Is he getting enough fat? Growing children need good fats- avocado, coconut, full-fat milk products, etc.
Breast milk is about 50% fat, much of it saturated fat, just to put it in perspective. I know a lot of people are afraid of the f-word, but really, it's good for everyone, especially kiddos.@WaitingToShrug@xanga - I wished I could have breastfed him, but due to some of the medications I am on, I was unable to. My husband and I try to feed him a good balance of healthy foods with healthy fats in them, the doctor doesn't seem to be concerned with his weight. Then again, the last time my son was sick, his doctor literally told us to feed him nothing but ice cream for three days. So don't know if it's time for a new doctor or not, heh.
@JennCorter - Oh, I wasn't saying you should try breastfeeding him. Just saying that fat is so good for them, it makes up half of their original food! Lol. Um, ice cream? That's an... interesting... thing for a doctor to say!
Eating constantly, small portions, is good for your metabolism.
i had a similar problem with my son alongside the fact that he wanted milk through the night,wouldnt do well with a full meal but would eat constantly throughout the day. I stopped giving him milk through the night and decided that he could have one snack of my own choice and no alternative. Now he does well with his main meals and eats the snack he is given if he's hungry. Annabel karmel has a 'baby and toddler meal planner' that i would highly recommend as she explains childrens eating habbits at different stages and that its natural for toddlers eat from the moment they wake to the moment they go to bed one day and barely touch a thing the next day.it atleast gave me some reassurance when i wasn't sure if i was doing the right thing.
As long as his weight is healthy and he's getting what he needs nutritionally-speaking and not getting clogged arteries, I wouldn't worry much about it. Some people have higher metabolisms. Boys are known to be bottomless pits anyway, right?
that muchIf he's old enough to communicate well, you might try to determine whether he's actually hungry, but I'd suspect he is, or at least, he isn't full. He'd get sick if he were eating
too much. (Been there. Done that. It was nasty.)
Pft, ice cream is medicine. But yes, you can OD on medicine. lol I've spent sick days on popsicles and Sprite. It didn't kill me. :P
If the snacks are healthy and his weight gain is on track, I wouldn't worry much. Sounds to me like he has a fast metabolism, or his metabolism is working great because he's eating small amounts of food throughout the day. All kids are different and have different eating habits. My oldest isn't much of a snacker. She's more of the eat-at-meal-time kind of kid. My middle child, on the other hand, always says he's hungry. One thing I learned with him was he can't tell the difference between boredom and real hunger, just like most of us lol. If I offer him something healthy, and he accepts it, I know it's hunger. If he refuses the healthy snack and cries for something else, I know he needs something fun to do instead.
Granola bars and (most) yoghurt (esp. the one in that picture) are not healthy. They are full of sugar, and granola bars have wheat. Sugar (carbs in general) end up telling the brain that they need more (this is a VERY simple explanation). For more info, read "Why We Get Fat" by Gary Taubes and "Wheat Belly" by Dr William Davis. It's possible that he's missing the leptin signals because once he starts eating sugar (including fruits and many vegetables), the insulin load is shutting down the leptin signals.
Try setting a timer and distracting him.
Make sure he's eating high fat foods. No 2% milk, or 0% yoghurt, and no fruit in the yoghurt. Lots of nuts, and high fiber, low starch vegetables (no corn, carrots, potatoes, sweet potatoes, beets; no citrus, melons, apples, grapes, pears). No wheat, which encourages more eating. The more fat he eats, the fuller he will feel and his insulin will not rise and then drop like it does with all carbs. He will NOT get fat by eating fat.
He may be of a healthy weight now, but his body is having to deal with all that sugar from the fruit, yoghurt and granola bars (and whatever else he's eating). At some point, he will likely become insulin resistant--even if he's still slime. This is the perfect time to investigate other ways of eating, like low carb/high fat, or Paleo. A toddler's tantrum is much easier to deal with than a 9 year old's LOL!!!!
@TracyKVM -
I actually wanted to add my daughter's story. She was my third child, and more than a pound smaller than the other two. She stayed tiny for the first couple years, despite eating ALL the time. Her siblings that were a normal birth weight also ate a lot, but soon put on the adorable baby chub. They both thinned out around age 2 1/2 - 3, but my daughter, who was already slim, went the other way at that age. By the time she was 4, she was 60lbs and showing signs of insulin resistance (belly fat, carb cravings). She's about to turn 7 and weighs over 80lbs (her 10 year old sister and 12 year old brother all weigh within 5lbs of each other, 80-85lbs). Now, she is very tall, but she is not slim at all.
I wish the doctors had recognized insulin resistance in me and I would have changed things right from the start with her. Children do NOT always recognize when they are truely hungry, because what they've been eating has changed their brain chemistry and signals. I have been turning things around, increasing her protein and fat while trying desparately to get rid of wheat and high carb snacks (like granola bars) that the rest of the family still eats. While an older kid does have the benefit of being able to understand why a change is necessary, they are still too ego-centric to want to give up what they've always known. Heck, I'm 41 and I still want what I used to eat, LOL!!
Since you mentioned your daughter, do you feel that now is a time to take your little one to an endocrinologist and question your son's needs for food? I am assuming your daughter is seeing one, by the symptoms you described here. By her her symptoms of perhaps insulin resistance this may be a family pattern that should be addressed, even though your other children are not showing signs. They could easily fall into this resistance "zone" even though they are thin. My dear friend has two children who are insulin resistant, and the whole family eats the same way. They've always done that, and she has plenty of filling recipes that they enjoy. Nobody feels hungry or left out. I'm not a registered dietitian, but your little one's need for food all the time is going to catch up with him if you keep doling it out. It's not necessary for him to eat like that, and a doctor needs to work with you and a dietitian to balance out what's going on in the family.
@Pollypinks@xanga -
I have a daughter with symptoms of insulin resistance; the original writer wrote about her son and doesn't address IS; I brought it up because my daughter was the same way. You seem to have combined the two of us.
I'm in Canada, and the wait for an endo is 6-8 months and generally, you won't get a referral to one "just" for IS symptoms. Even being diagnosed with diabetes doesn't get you into an endo automatically. And most dieticians follow the ADA plan which has a focus on carbs---which raise blood glucose levels. Pretty stupid meal plan LOL. I'm hoping the other two inherited my husband's genes in this area, LOL; they are SO picky I can't change too much of what they eat, but I do put emphasis on low carb/high fat for the whole family. I just have to choose my battles now that they're older. Sigh. At least if it catches up with them when they're adults, I can say "See, I told you so!".
Hmm that is a tough one. I am always afraid my daughter is hungry, and since she is only 14 months old she doesn't really tell me when she is. Sometimes she goes to the kitchen and says "mmm" so I know she wants something, lol. I would feed him when he asks, but give him tiny amounts. If you know he is getting enough food, maybe he just has a fast metabolism or just wants to eat. If you give him small amounts all day he should stay full. And some boys are just tanks and can eat, eat, eat!
I wouldn't worry too much as long as he's active and eating the right kinds of foods. I never worried about my sons' intake (they were lacto ovo vegetarians until they reached the age of six). I nursed both of them until they weaned themselves (at about 14 months). I did limit TV and computer time and went outside to play with them every day.
The result: Two healthy teenagers who love their fruits and vegetables.
Don't sweat it. A hour of play outside (don't forget the sunblock) and let him "own" his diet. Provide him with the healthy choices you always have and let him help out in the kitchen with age appropriate tasks.
Tracy, Thanks for the clarification and timely response. I clearly needed advice. I too have waited many weeks, months, to see specialists, and without insurance, it's a no go, and with insurance, you plunk down $300.00 just for visit number one. So it can be maddening I'm sure when one has a child with an issue and isn't sure what to do. Obviously I didn't come close to having the answers.