kiddo "begs" for food
sechat322
member
My 12.5 month old is, to put it kindly, food-crazy. Since she first got them, she's always really enjoyed solids and the transition to cow's milk in a cup at 1 was easy-peasy and cold turkey (she doesn't go crazy with milk now, but will drink a bit with each of her meals). Now that she is walking and talking a bit, her food-love is more obvious than ever before.
She gets three meals, of what I think are appropriate size, and depending on the day and her nap schedule, one or two snacks. Often, even after what I think is a pretty big meal, she'll sit in her high chair signing and saying "more" - which, depending on what and how much she's had, we either do or don't give her more. (If we don't give her more, she's usually easily distracted once she's out of her high chair and back to playing.) In order to get an "all done," we usually have to give her something less desirable to her... so, say, broccoli.
Now, though, she will walk around the kitchen and fridge signing and saying "eat," and will cry if nothing is forthcoming - even if she just finished a pretty good meal a few minutes before. You can't eat anything in front of her without sharing, even if - again - she just ate herself. I really do think we're feeding her plenty, and we try to give her mostly good quality stuff with a good balance of protein, whole grains, fruits, veg, etc. I don't really think she's ever actually hungry when she ends a meal/snack... she just plain likes food and likes eating.
I've just ordered one of Ellyn Satter's books, so maybe she can help, but in the meantime... any advice on this? I want to encourage good habits, but obviously don't want to deprive a hungry kid. Thanks!
Re: kiddo "begs" for food
I have simply started trying to eat around the same times he does and eat the same things, or similar, in order to minimize the number of snacks. Maybe you could try offering her something she will eat, but doesn't particularly care for, to see if she is really hungry or just wanting to munch?
Make a pregnancy ticker
You bet! In fact, she can be all the way across the house, practically, and if she hears sweet, sweet action in the kitchen, she comes running as fast as her little legs will take her.
In our case, though, she's about 60-something percentile for weight, and pretty short (30-something percentile), and we're not blessed with that ultra-fast metabolism!
basically this. my son eats what i consider a ridiculous amount of food, but our pedi said as long as it's healthy, let him eat as much as he wants. we don't really give him anything that we're not ok with him eating a lot of, and if he is devouring something like pasta then we just offer him more veggies or fruit as a dessert. eventually he gets bored and wants to play, but like PP, if he hears one of us in the kitchen he's like a magnet and is on us immediately. kid loves him some food. it's actually helped us, b/c we no longer snack in front of him or eat anything we're not ok with him eating, so we're eating healthier!
I'm a big believer in letting kids regulate their hunger themselves- they eat a lot because they are growing/moving and burning a ton of calories. Sometimes I wonder where all that food can possibly be going- her stomach can't be that big!
I just offer wholesome real foods at meal times, and at snack time. I let her eat until she says "all done." I figure as long as everything she eats healthy (mostly fruits and veggies, then whole grain, dairy, and meat) I am not going to worry about it. I really do not think a small child will overeat, or on the opposite end of the spectrum, starve.
I also think it promotes good eating habits to let the child regulate themselves- they need to feel full/hungry, etc to learn what is best for their body.
What everyone else has said!
If you are feeling your LO healthy foods that aren't altered to make them unusually tasty (extra salt, for instance, or many other modifications on pre-packaged foods), then she knows her hunger far better than you can. If she's hungry, feed her. She will stop eating when she is full.
I couldn't tell in your post, but make sure she's getting enough FAT in her diet as well. Protein, fiber, and carbs are very important, but so is plenty of fat.
(I don't mean feed her whatever she asks for, I mean if she's hungry, offer her two or three choices of healthy foods. You could certainly limit each individual food ("no, you may not eat half a pound of cheese!") but offer other options ("how about an apple with peanut butter?") if she's still hungry.)
thanks, everyone. i didn't mean to imply that we usually cut her off at some arbitrary point we choose... we usually do give her some other healthy something as a choice if she's asking for more. (and we know she's just playing us if she rejects the new healthy choice(s) and is really just clamoring for more bread, for example.) she does get a fair amount of fat, so i think she should be satiated on that front.
i still don't feel totally convinced that it's always about true hunger, though. maybe i'm just projecting adult behaviors onto babies, but sometimes it really does seem less about hunger and more about just the... fun and entertainment of eating. point taken, though, as long as the food offered is "good," it probably doesn't matter too much.
You are absolutely doing the above bolded. Kids at that age are hungry when they're hungry, and only eat when they're hungry. Sometimes they don't eat at all. I don't think you can say that she's not hungry, definitively, and I definitely would not be comfortable doing so with DS. So I feed him when he's hungry. He's not playing me, manipulating me, whatever...the kid wants to eat. I'm his mother, so I'm not going to deprive him. And, since when isn't bread healthy? DS will eat a piece of potato bread plain, and that's fine with me.
Yeah this. If my kid is hungry I feed her. End of discussion. I'm not fighting a battle where there isn't one. Unless like Crash said she wants goldfish 10 minutes before dinner.
I have a kid who likes to eat all day long too. Whether it's broccoli or fruit snacks she doesn't care. So be it. It's who she is. H and are I huge grazers too, so I'm assuming she is as well.
I generally agree with the approach that you can't overfeed such a young child and some days they will just eat non stop, so you should let them eat until they're done . . . .BUT there's an exception to every rule. As a newborn, my daughter drank breastmilk until it was coming out of her nose while the lactation consultant would recite her line of "you can't overfeed a breastfed baby" and now that I have a toddler, I find that my daughter frequently eats until she vomits, so some kids, even newborns, do overeat. That's not the norm though, so if your kid isn't vomiting the food back up, I'd keep offering it if he says he's hungry.
If your son's like my kid, then I try to give her a little break so she can see if she truly feels hungry - so I might offer more water, take her out of the highchair and try to read a book with her (=her current favorite activity). If she's still asking for food at the end of the book, then we'll walk over to the kitchen together and I'll give a couple ounces of milk, etc etc etc - I just try to help her pace it out a little.