Help My Son Doesn't Want to Stop Eating!

He's 18 months and more active. He needs to eat. As the others have said, offer healthy food and balanced meals and snacks. And let him eat.

I agree TOTALLY with the other posters who have talked about young children actually knowing how much they NEED to eat.

To think about:

My son doubles to triples what *I* eat whenever he's about to go through a growth spurt. He'll then eat bites and nibbles (ie next to nothing) for awhile. Most o'the time though he eats about half as much as I do.

Longitudinal Studies (looooooong term) in countries with socialized medicine (so the studies can literally have hundreds of thousands of people), as well as smaller studies here in the US have shown that only 2 groups of people tend to have NO WEIGHT ISSUES/STRUGGLES whatsoever (overweight, anorexia/buliema, etc...I haven't read any reasearch on underweight individuals, so I can't tell you those trends) : Ectomorphs & people who as infants/children/AND adolescents were NEVER put on a diet. Interesting, neh? It's hard here in the US though, especially if you have a child that "chubs ups & then shoots up".

My own son does this...in a 6 month period he'll chub up to the point where I'm getting "looks" from parents, and then shoots up INCHES with all of his ribs and spine showing. Then he chubs up and shoots up again. That's actually REALLY common. Their body is preparing for some major work.

The REALLY sad thing though is about adolescent girls. Girls tend to gain 10-30 POUNDS right before they hit puberty. Those same studies have shown 2 things: 1) If you/they do NOTHING it MELTS AWAY with no effort over the next 3 years, and stays gone for good. 2) If you/they diet or try and lose the weight it triggers something in the body that makes it kind of "reset" it's idea of it's optimal weight and the body TRIES to stay 20-30 lbs heavier until menopause. At which point it's 50-50 as to whether it melts away then or not. Hmmm...3 years versus 30-40 years. Yikes.

Something to try:

A snack drawer or shelf on the fridge that "belongs" to your child. Fill it with healthy food they can have whenever they want. Grapes, cheese, yogurt, crackers...what have you....AND the leftovers (if any) from their meals. It teaches them self sufficiency, & their bodies that there is "plenty & abundant food supplies" >>> which helps promote a healthy metabolism.

Good Luck

Hi L.,
Your son sounds a lot like mine. My son was a real eater and still is, if you hand him a cracker, he shoves it in his mouth while he is holding out his other hand for more! Its maddening. :D

My son was in the 99% for height and weight from 6 months on and at 2 1/5 yrs old, he's still 99% for height although now 75% for weight. Frankly speaking, I also felt my son didn't seem to realize when he was full, though my doctor felt the same as yours, and said not to worrying about. He said, since my son was growing so fast, its possible he WAS always hungry.

At 15 months, at my doctors recommendation, I switched him to nonfat milk, like we drink. It's great you're looking at your son's food choices, I also made sure whatever my son ate was healthy and filling, since I didn't have to worry about him getting his calories in.
So I didn't give him any sugar snacks and juice as a rule. If he happily eats fruit everyday, I see no reason to give him juice, which is less filling and more sugar. The few times we gave him juice, while out, we always added water.
I agree with the recommendation that if he asks for more, give him veggies or cheese slices etc, hearty foods that you really can't binge on, veggies or protein, not crackers and biscuits. If he's eating veggies, its because he is really hungry.
Just fyi, as my sons growth slowed down at 2 years he does eat less now on his own.
I also found when he hit 2, he had more activities he liked that distracted him. Also he was running around even more so that burnt calories.
He still is rather solid though, the size of a 4 year old, and gobbles his food... sigh.. hehe
The other thing that worked for me, I found, was that if he had a real set activity schedule throughout the day (bathtime, reading time with mommy, drawing time, blocks etc.) he wasn't asking for food as often.
Instead, since he knew exactly when I was going to offer him his meals and snack, (I would announce them: It's fruit time! It's milky time!) he would eat and then happily went back to or started another activity.
Last thing, I wanted to point out, it really is a blessing your son eats so well, I have friends at their wit's end trying to get their child to eat. I think that's much harder to deal with.
Use your son's taste to your advantage, introduce him to new foods! My son loves avocado sushi rolls best of all, in fact I roll up any sandwich and cut them up like sushi for him because it makes him so happy! But he also likes fritattas, hummus, vietnamese, indian, mexican, thai etc. Its wonderful to see little children willing to try anything!

Hi

well there are a few things I hoped you talked to your doctor about, one, thyroid, two a slow metabolism or he just could be going thru a growth spurt. You may have to do the out of sight out of reach for the kitchen. Keep him active with anything that does not show food products. Puzzles, books etc.. Please make sure you have your doctors run test and keep up with the healty food.

Kids aren't like most of us adults, they actually know when they are full and will stop! Unless they have been trained to eat while watching TV or eat while they are bored, then you have no worries. He most likely is hungry!

If you are feeding him healthy foods and he is getting out and moving then do not worry!! My son is 3.5 and eats a lot too. I give him 3 healthy meals a day, plus snacks in between. I'd say he eats about every 3 hours.

Best wishes,
M.

Allow him to have extra servings at meal times or snacks of vegetables only. If he eats those then he probably really is hungry and needs more food. When I say vegetables I mean ones that are low in starch, not corn, potatoes, peas or beans. Make sure his meals are balanced, that he eats protein, starch, and vegetables at the same time. This can help stabilize his blood sugar which makes a person less hungry.

I went through a similar situation with my oldest child who is now 7. She was always in the 95 percentile or sometimes even off the charts for both height and weight. She loved to eat and seemed to need to eat all the time. I physically had to remove the food from her because she never seemed to feel full. I tried to just provide healthy options like fruit, whole grains, and natural foods. We didn't really give her juice, just milk and water and we switched to skim milk.I remember being very concerned about how much she was eating, but my pediatrician was not. He was right! She eventually grew out of this eating pattern. She's still tall for her age, but in the 75th percentile for weight. In fact, she looks pretty slim now! Our pediatrician was never concerned because he felt her growth was within normal range and followed a curve and we kept her very active. I think you shouldn't stress too much about it. Provide healthy snacks and meals, keep him active, and it will all work out.