How often do you feed your toddler?

Jess - posted on 06/01/2009

My daughter who is 18 months will eat all day if you let her also. She now eats only five or six times a day. We have one morning snack and either one or two afternoon snacks (depending on how late supper is going to be done). I am sure she has no distractions at the table (no blankie or toys) and I encourage her to eat. If she gets hungry inbetween snack and meal times, I will give her a drink of milk and distract her with a new game. When I started this I found that she would eat more at each sitting rather than just eating little bits all day and she now stays full until each meal or snack.

Jennifer - posted on 06/01/2009

Your schedule sounds a lot like ours and my son is three now. For the actual meals, I try to get some sort of protien down him, that helps the carbs break down slower and the feeling of full last longer. He is tall and lean with a fast metabolism! Mornings are our worst time, he wants to eat continually, but I stick to the schedule and sometimes he cries it out. I also try to let him "choose" the snack and give him some "options" for meals to help him feel like he has some control. I'm not saying I make something extra for him, I just let him on planning, like what side at dinner, or between fish or chicken nuggets for lunch. And for snacks I have a basket in the pantry of acceptable choices and he can pick one at the appropiate time. As far as being finished and wanting to come back to the table that is a pet peeve of mine but we didn't nix it until he was about 2 1/2. Remember thier stomachs are about the same size as thier little fists, so they really do fill up fast and then get hungry again. But when we noticed that our son was aware of the situation, like not eating dinner when he didn't like it and knowing he's be fine because he'd get a bedtime snack, we put in place the leave the table get nothing else rule. We are also those awful parents that require a certain portion of food to be eaten before having "dessert" (which is usally fruit, his favorite!). So if he passes up that then I know he really is full and I let it be. Another thing I learned was he would drink all his milk first thing and be full, so we had to have meals for a while where we had control of his milk until he learned to portion it better himself. We also realized he often confuses being tired with being hungry. Another friend had said her daughter did this and I started noticing it in my son too. He can be just finished with an entire PB&J sandwhich and start whining about being hungry, and I will notice the time and it is nap time. So I am trying to point this out to him so he will learn himself that he's not hungry, he's tired. I will say we have had major tantrums over being "hungry" but he has surrvived and I feel we are teaching him healthy eating habits.

Tina - posted on 06/01/2009

Is he going through a growth spurt? My son wants to snack constantly when he goes through growth spurts. He is 21 months now and seems to eat quite a bit during the day. Perhaps your son just has a quick metabolism and needs more. My son's routine varies but generally he gets about 3-5 snacks per day along with regular meals. He is a tall lean boy and this does change from week to week. He drinks quite a bit of water during the day as well and this helps with the snacking, before he could communicate it we were confusing hunger for thirst. Now he signs/speaks what he wants.