Kids demanding food all the time

Is food a massive issue in your house because it seems to be this huge deal in ours. My boys are food crazy. They just want to eat all day long and go balisitic if food is denied to them. Currently ds2 is in a half an hour long temper tantrum because I won't let him have biccies so close to lunch time. I am not super strict on food times for the kids, they have there snacks between meals but I do like to leave an hour or so before their major meals so they are not full up on snacks when the time comes but that hour tends to be fraught with screaming and tantrums from both boys. The first words I hear out of ds1 at any time is I am hungry. Last night after eating a full dinner and desert he had a meltdown because I wouldn't let him have chocky biccies before bed. He couldn't have been hungry and yet these kids buzz around me all day looking for food. I feel like I am raising vultures instead of children... anytime anyone has anything to eat they are buzzing around even if they have just eaten. Whenever we visit anyone, even if it is someone they don't know the first thing they ask for as they enter the house is for food. It seems all our battles are over food. It drives me completely crazy... is this normal or are my children just vultures.

My boys are the same, if we are out and i put back pack down they are in it looking for food and pull everything out till they find what they want.

Drives me nuts when you give them something then they dont want that and chuck it on floor!!

Can be a pain here but I started to do lunch at 11am and it seems to have helped. SO they have breaky about 7am, snack about 9.30am. Arvo tea is at 2.30/3pm and then dinner at 5.30. It seems to be a massive amount of food in the morning and then less as the day progresses. I let them choose one snack from the pantry for the day and they get to choose when they eat it - so tiny teddies or the like but the rest of the snacks are fruit/yoghurt/vege etc. I found giving them control/choice or the illusion of it has helped. Maybe boys are different tho? xx

Mine eat a lot too, I refuse to give in though and they are offered fruit if it is within one hour of a main meal, take it or leave it. They then have the offer of a bikkie etc if they are still hungry afterwards. If it is consistently before main meals maybe think about moving the time? We have brekky at 7, toast around 9 ish, fruit around 10:30-11, lunch at 12, mid arvo snack and dinner is at 5:30.

Have fruit & vegies available all day, in a container on the bench or table and if they say they don't want it tell them that it's that or nothing. If they are really hungry they will eat it. Also get them to have a drink of water between meals as well as just after their meal. Sometimes a drink is enough to fill the gap.
Many children get into the habbit of asking for food even if they don't really want it.

If I had a dollar for every time I heard 'Mummmmmmmmy I'm huuuuuuungry!!' I'd be rich!!

:

---

Can be a pain here but I started to do lunch at 11am and it seems to have helped. SO they have breaky about 7am, snack about 9.30am. Arvo tea is at 2.30/3pm and then dinner at 5.30. It seems to be a massive amount of food in the morning and then less as the day progresses. I let them choose one snack from the pantry for the day and they get to choose when they eat it - so tiny teddies or the like but the rest of the snacks are fruit/yoghurt/vege etc. I found giving them control/choice or the illusion of it has helped. Maybe boys are different tho? xx

---

I've been doing meals at the 11am and 4pm tantrum. Seems to be helping here too!

I feel like I'm saying 'if you don't want a sandwich you can't be hungry' a dozen times a day! Drives me nuts!

My DD would go through stages (still does) of either eating very little or eating me out of house and home. Usually followed by a growth spurt a week or so later.

I do second the idea of having healthy snacks readily available (fruit, vege sticks, cheese etc) rather than bikkies, if they're really hungry they'll eat it, otherwise they're just after the munchies because they taste nice, not because they're hungry.

Boys tend to need more protien in their diets and girls carbs....cant remeber where i read this...also remember something about breast milk being higher in protien when nursing a boy... ahhh wish i could remember where i got that from...

anway, in this house its true DS is horrid if he isnt getting enough protien, carbs just dont fill him up! I also brought dinner time to 4.30pm as the kids were filling up on afternoon tea and dinner became a battle. I also make yoghurt for sweets so they think that are getting a treat but its that protien hit before bed rather than sugar.

All of my kids have to have either 2 or 3 breakfasts everymorning. (seriously - bowl of cereal, couple of peieces of toast, yogurt and fruit): if they miss even one breakfast I don't hear the end of it "mum, but I only had one breakfast this morning". If they do get all three breakfasts I 'might' get a half hour or so break before they complain they are hungry again. They are all little vultures.

We tend to have a few things they can eat at (nearly) anytime of the day (not if we are going to have dinner in the next 1/2 hr though). Things like fruit, chees slices, yogurt, sultana's. And then we have other snack food for 'meal' snacktimes (ie, morning tea, afternoon tea). Things like rice cakes, bikkies, airpopped popcorn. And then our mealtimes (bread, cereal, pasta, rice, stirfry's, etc). And then of course occaisional treats (either for one of the snacks during the day or for desert after dinner), ice-cream, slice, jelly, chips, chocolate, lollies, etc.

I have written almost the exact same thread here. I hear your pain!!

At least I know I am not the only one lol. I do generally say it's a piece of fruit or nothing. They always accept it lol. Maybe I need to work on more protein for them though. Neither of the boys are great meat eaters and ds1 won't even touch eggs because of the consistency of them. So might work on more protein for them see if it makes any difference.

Sent from my HTC Desire using Tapatalk

Yoghurt? Cheese? Nuts?

This thread makes me feel normal. Dd has just come through a veeeerrryy hungry phase... She seriously was eating adult portions of meals and snacks.

:hug:

Lets bet in a few months we will all meet in another thread saying "i cant get my kids to eat anything" LOL

Dd1 is eating so much I can't keep up! She is having cereal and fruit for breakie, she has yoghurt and more fruit for morning tea followed by cheese and vegemite sandwiches for lunch. She just seems to keep going all morning. She will slow a bit in the afternoon but then she is having a big dinner. She is still a skinny little thing though.