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I am at a loss, and I am not sure what to do.
My ds who is 14, but will be 15 in July....how do I put this....is eating like a "pig". And I don't mean his table manners. He goes into the kitchen when he is hungry and will eat whatever he can find until he is "full", and usually tries to "sneak". Then he doesn't eat much dinner. And it is not bad food, just a lot of it.
For example, yesterday both of the big kids had a dentist appt. So, on the way back home we needed milk, so I stop at Publix. Now neither one of them have been home from school yet, so I pick up a package of cheese, you know the Kraft Cheddar Cheese, so that I can slice it up for crackers and cheese when we get home. Well, I sliced up half of the package, put the baby in her high chair, she got one slice (cut up), and the big kids went to town on the rest....and then my ds decides to cut the other half of the package while I am putting things away....I get back to the kitchen literally 5 min later...and the entire packages is GONE. (And I know the girls didn't eat THAT much)
I ask him...do you eat like this when you are at your Dad's? he says yes but it is peanut butter crackers (you know the six pack of the cracker sandwiches). So, I say well how many do you eat at one sitting?? He says...just one package at a time, but like 10 in a day.
Then he doesn't want dinner last night.
I don't know if I am explaining all of this correctly....this is a hard one to type out.
I know he is a growing boy, and needs to eat.....but he is not eating "smart". And I am not sure how to break this habit.
Seriously, we have to hide snacks, so that he doesn't eat them all at once.....
the funny thing is, sometimes we forget where they are.LOL
Maybe I am just venting...maybe there is no answer....
I should add that he isn't at his Dad's that often...but obviously gets to eat whatever he wants....and I am the meanie so to speak.
Answer:
I have an almost 15 yr old boy, and yes...sometimes he eats gargantuan amounts. I buy bags of mini bagels, and he will sit with a jar of peanut butter and the bag of bagels and eat half the bag. I'd always heard about teenage boy's appetites, and they're right!! So I guess my only advice is if you want to control what he eats is to offer him snacks that you think are healthy, but make sure you have a big serving for him. As long as he's not gaining wt, he's probably not eating too much. So if it's just junk food vs. healthy food, I'd just make sure to offer him healthy (in big quantities) before he sneaks the junk stuff. HTH
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My boys are like this too. I find they are very hungry after school. I've thought about having dinner early, but who wants to eat dinner right after school? I know they look forward to snacks, but they just don't stop and then the same thing - they won't eat dinner. I'm not tough enough to say 'no snacks after school tomorrow if you don't finish your dinner'. They're still small, but man can they throw a fit!! It's harder on me than it is on them and I don't any more broken doors or holes in the walls! And of course the fact that I don't like to cook doesn't help any.
Any ideas for inexpensive healthy snacks? I usually end up buying whatever's on the clearance table at Big Lots (crackers, bars, pretzels, etc). I really need to put some thought into this solution!
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He might need a lb of grapes to counteract all that cheese
How well does he eat at school? Is he not eating much at lunch and devouring the frig when he gets home? Is there a way to limit the snacks before supper until he realizes he needs to actually eat what you are serving for supper. Tell him straight up, no snacking unless you are going to eat supper. What time do you eat supper? A family up the street doesn't eat until 7:00 and my kids would be starving long before then.
Would he eat pretzels, gorp (peanuts, choc chips, raisins), fresh fruit, crackers, oatmeal raisin cookies? Those are pretty healthy and reasonal on the budget.
I had a coworker who had a problem with an obese dd so she didn't buy any of the empty calorie snacks like ding dongs, etc.
Hopefully it's just a growth spurt.
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Well...is he overweight? If not, I'd really let him eat what he wants within reason...we know plenty of people with teen boys that talk about the boys eat them out of house and home! What is 'not eating smart'? I really allow the kids to eat all kinds of things, for us, it's 'everything in moderation'. So he seems normal to me! If you're concerned about it though, you probably should talk to his ped.
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Well, I am glad this seems "normal". Thank you ladies.
Oregano ~~ What I mean by not "smart" is, if I buy a box of granola bars let's say, and he comes home from school, he will ask if he can have one...sure no problem.....well his "ONE" means one box....not one bar. I have told him time and time again...I am not running to the store every other day to get snacks....if you eat it all today, there will be nothing for at least a week.
Answer:
Hmmm...well will he be reasonable or is this becoming a power struggle? Does he understand that it's not really all that healthy to eat 6 granola bars in one afternoon?
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Originally Posted by Bucsnpats
Well, I am glad this seems "normal". Thank you ladies.
Oregano ~~ What I mean by not "smart" is, if I buy a box of granola bars let's say, and he comes home from school, he will ask if he can have one...sure no problem.....well his "ONE" means one box....not one bar. I have told him time and time again...I am not running to the store every other day to get snacks....if you eat it all today, there will be nothing for at least a week.
Well if you don't want him to eat the whole box do you give him direction?? Like with my son sometimes I'll say you can have X amount of that, but then if you're still hungry have an apple. I don't think you can just say the snacks will be gone but then not offer an alternative. My two teens together can go through a box of granola bars in a day without a problem. So I still think the solution is for you to just provide plenty of snacks you DO want him to eat.
Answer:
Originally Posted by aliadam
Well if you don't want him to eat the whole box do you give him direction?? Like with my son sometimes I'll say you can have X amount of that, but then if you're still hungry have an apple. I don't think you can just say the snacks will be gone but then not offer an alternative. My two teens together can go through a box of granola bars in a day without a problem. So I still think the solution is for you to just provide plenty of snacks you DO want him to eat.
Right I understand that. And I didn't mean that he does eat the whole box....just that he would. Also, this is where the "sneaky" comes in...if I am busy with the baby let's say....he will end up with two instead of the one I told him he could have. I do keep carrot sticks and stuff like that here, and crackers and cheese....but they usually won't fix those things themselves....too much work.....so if I don't fix it, then they go without....KWIM?? I will say that I am bad about keeping fruit here...maybe this will be on my grocery list from now on..
I guess I was just venting.....and wondering if it was normal for a teenage boy to want to eat so much....now I am seeing that it is quite normal.
I think it was the whole package of cheese that got me yesterday...