Portion control?

crescentmoon99 · January 2011

Okay, my apologies to the ladies from Skirk's post below but Liam is a hearty eater. Sometimes after a meal, he will have an applesauce cup, or 2 or 3. DH is telling me I should limit him to 1 applesauce to start teaching him portion control. I'm all for portion control (overeating, and a variety of eating disorders run in my family), I'm just not sure what age to start enforcing this?

So far, I've been pretty much letting him eat until he's full, as long as it's something healthy (the applesauce we buy is the no sugar added kind, so it's just pureed apples).

Thoughts?

For those of you who haven't met Liam, he's a big boy, not chubby (he's actually never had a roll of baby fat), just tall and solid, like his Daddy.

crescentmoon99 · January 2011

To clarify, it's not like he has 3 applesauce cups after every meal LOL. Usually he just finishes what's on his plate, or not even. The night we had the discussion, he had finished his trout filet, collard greens, black beans and corn, and then ate 3 applesauce cups. He was really hungry that night LOL.

NatPhoto09 · January 2011

I'm so jealous

I think I would try not to worry. I think he may just have a hearty appetite. It is not like he is eating junk food and eating out of habit. He is probably eating b/c he is hungry. I would probably work on portion control once he got closer to 5 years old.

AngelPack · January 2011

I am trying to be of the thought that they know how to ration until we teach them otherwise. So when we start making them finish their plate or making them stop when they are still hungry then they start losing that ability because they aren't reading their own body cues anymore.

I don't think he is a big boy, and I would know a big boy. My nephew has weight issues because he is a hungry boy too but instead of applesauce they let him eat cereal bars or pop tarts.

It sounds to me like he is about to have a growth spurt!

jenwill · January 2011

I think portion control to a point. A will do the same thing, continue to eat if I let her. I just think though that her stomach is only about the size of her fist and can't accomodate all that food. Plus, she's the type that will eat and eat until she makes herself sick (and has before). So I do limit her portions to a point but nothing overly drastic.

starz080 · January 2011

If he was overweight then I'd be more cautious about overeating. It just sounds like to me that he has a large appetite. He's a growing boy and I think it's probably very normal. Just wait until he's older and really eats you out of house and home! At least it's just applesauce and not 3 twinkies after dinner. LOL.

VivianLee · January 2011

I'm with everyone else. I wouldn't worry too much about it right now. Connor is constantly hungry (has been since we had his tonsils out). He eats all the time. He will finish his dinner and be starving 45 minutes later. We let him have yogurt or a fruit cup or something along those lines. I would be more worried about it if he was eating all junk and not seemingly healthy stuff. I agree with pp, he's a growing boy, they burn a lot of energy and calories during the day and I'm sure their metabolism is way high right now.

akspriss · January 2011

Yeah, I wouldn't worry to much at this point, I think they are still learning how much to eat, etc. Just remember how much he is on the go all the time so he's burning it so fast. I think as they get older they will start to grasp portion control plus they slow down a little bit as they get older so they aren't burning it as fast as they do as toddlers. I too wonder how they get so much into their lil bodies. I am in your group on the good eater vs. the others in skirk's post. Jack will eat and eat and eat and I have no clue where he puts it and then 45 min later is asking for a snack after he ate almost as much as I did at a meal. THey are just active growing boys!

crescentmoon99 · January 2011

AngelPack:
I am trying to be of the thought that they know how to ration until we teach them otherwise. So when we start making them finish their plate or making them stop when they are still hungry then they start losing that ability because they aren't reading their own body cues anymore.

This is my general philosophy too, but I just wanted to make sure I was on the right track. I mean, I do limit his snacking between meals and try to make sure it's something healthy when he wants seconds. When he asked for thirds of yogurt at breakfast the other morning, I suggested we go play instead, and he didn't complain.

He is up 3 inches since he turned 2, so I'm guessing it's all going into growing right now

akspriss · January 2011

I meant to say this before but when i first read the title of the post I swore it said poison control and after reading yoru post at first I was like what does this have to do with poison control and had to look at the title again!! Too funny what our eyes do to us sometimes!

crescentmoon99 · January 2011

akspriss:
I meant to say this before but when i first read the title of the post I swore it said poison control!

I actually thought the same thing, and I'm the one who wrote it LOL!

Portion control?

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