Seeking Advice on Healthy Foods That Will Fill up a Toddler

As long as everything is o.k. with the doctor then What I do with my boys is give them lots of whole grains, fiber and protein. It fills them up and gives them energy. Hope this helps.
~ D.

Two fruit based snacks my kids love are Fruitabu roll-ups (Costco) and Trader Joe's cereal bars. I love them because they are much healthier than other alternatives, and taste great. Also, if it's just a snacking thing and she just wants to keep her hands and mouth busy...try Gerber Puffs or they also have dried frit and veggies. They hardly have any calories per hundred pieces and my daughter still would snack on them if she could! Both my kids were over 9 lbs, and have always been in the top 90%. Neither one is even close to chubby, but they love to eat! I've noticed my daughter start to taper off now that she's hit 4 years old, but she can still plow it down on occasion!

I wouldn't cut her off. In fact, I would increase the portions she eats at snacks and mealtimes. Since she's only 50 percentile with her weight, it sounds like she would be okay if she gained weight and she might be trying to "catch up" to the other kids. :)

My kids love to snack on Jicama. Nice cruch, sweet taste (and we don't digest the kind of natural sugar in it)and lots of water content. It's mostly a crunchy water stick. My kids love it though!
I would also be concerned if she acts like she is starving all the time (as opposed to just a growth spurt). Perhaps you should check in with her pediatrician about it. Probably just a fast metabolism, but to be on the safe side. good luck!

Try to offer protiens like nuts, peanut butter, turkey, chicken,or h.b.,eggs. Peanutbutter pretzels and dried fruits like mangos. Have you had her looked at by her doc for blood sugar issues? Does she seem thursty often? How is her energy level? Does it change after she eats? What size portions are you offering? Have you started your days on the right foot with a good breakfast, maybe oatmeal. Try making your own granola.Good luck.

Hi P.,
I too have a daughter in the 95 and up percentile. Her weight is very normal for her height. But I have to feed her more protien to keep her going throughout the day and I also try to feed her a snack every two hours. I make sure its small just something to put in her stomache. Like a apple slice with a piece of cheese. I read all the books saying a tablespoonful for year of age. My daughter would be starving. In fact I started it that way but she would be very cranky then I figured it out, she's still hungry. We have opted to keep her on formula until she's 2 because of the nutrients, she may be lacking in her diet. I am very blessed ,she likes everything. She eats quite a variety of foods. You might give her, every 2 hours a snack. Also make sure she's not allergic to dairy or wheat products that could really affect her weight. Its ok to feed her more than you would a 50 percentile child. She's growing. And a little baby fat is ok and normal.
Have a great day. Blessings,D.

Get the Super Baby Food book. It's a purple paperback full of nutrional foods, recipes& snacks. It also has craft ideas, the seasons for fruits & how to make non-toxic cleaning products.

If her doctor says she is ok than keep alot of health snack ready for her at any moment. My oldest daughter was that way and still is....(now 7). If she was hungry as a toddler she was horrible to deal with....I always had something for her to munch on. Now the first thing she says to me when I pick her up from school is ..."what do you have for me to eat Mom?.... Now she loves all kinds of food and enjoys cooking with my husband.
As long as fruit, veggies, yorgurt, dried fruit, pritzels, cheese and other healthy things are ok with her.. I am thinking she will be fine. (and look at the good eating habits you are instilling in her)...
If she is like my son who loves everything with sugar...you could be pulling your hair out with saying no to the bad snacks..... good luck....

You might try checking out "nutrient-dense" foods. Many of the foods we eat today, even the ones that seem healthy, are light on nutrients, and so we (or our kids) constantly feel hungry. I got into nutrient-dense cooking about a year ago, and I've been so happy with the results. The book I rely on is called Nourishing Traditions. Hope this works for you!

Hi P.,
Have you asked the pediatrician about this? Is she one of those that eats little & often & on balance has an OK diet? Obviously, kids have growth spurts but that passes in a few months. You are obviously paying attention to good nutrition so I am concerned at the imbalance between her height & weight. That doesn't happen overnight so this seems to be an ongoing problem.
Not to alarm you, but I would suggest asking about diabetes or some digestive issue where the nutrition is not being absorbed. Get referrals to specialists if necessary.
Good luck, S. (Granny)

Hi, we need a little more info otherwise it's just speculation. Some things to think about: When is she eating her meals and is she eating well at mealtime? When are you giving snacks? If she has breakfast at 6am, then she'll probably need 2 snack times before lunch and so on... Also, how long and active are the events and are they running close to snack time? Does or did she use a pacifier, suck her thumb? Maybe she needs a security thing.

If you are giving her more than enough food in your opinion, my other thought was she may be just used to having a snack before an event. Without knowing it, you may have conditioned her to expecting a snack on an outing. Start by having a snack at home then leave for the outing, explain to her cuz you know she can understand, that you'll bring water only. Then at the outing explain again, only if she asked for a snack, that you'll have one at home and barring any medical conditions, you'll know the answer.

I wouldn't worry about how much she is eating unless she's overweight, which looking at her percentiles she is definitely not. Let her eat as much as she wants of healthy foods. If she is begging for more chips or cookies, no, but more fruit, dairy or whole grains, yes. I wish my son had a good appetite. He grows like a weed but hardly eats. Consider yourself lucky.

yes, thats hapenes, my sister is that way, she is that way too, but eventually the weight of her body will catch up. But one way is to give your child a healthy and filling mean is to give her some carrots and other vegys with ranch dressing after some of that it will help. Anouther idea is to fill her jump with meat, like steak, and mashed potatoes [with the skin.] My sister even eats jello, she eats about 3 in a sitting! I hope some of these idea's will help you :)

My son, now 6, has always been in the 95% for both height and weight. He is a very, fit and active boy. He was/is always hungry. Sometimes, depending on what is being served and how much he has played, he will eat 3 servings!! When I asked his doctor about it, she said feed him. If he says he's hungry let him eat. If he's just asking for multiple servings of deserts and sweets that would have been one thing. But he was asking for more fruits, meat, vegetables, milk, it didn't matter. So, I let him eat. And he's fine.

So my suggestion to you is let her eat. Confirm with your doctor, but I would let her eat.

Rice cakes, all different flavors! Plus fruits & veggies. My son is off the charts in weight, but he loves to eat. He is not fat, just a solid little man. He loves rice cakes and when he has that with some fruit and his sippy cup it sure fills him up till his next meal. Good luck! =)

To address your initial question, complex carbohydrates combined with healthy fats like whole grain bread and fish will help a child feel full. So will a glass of milk with each meal. You may also want to try and make sure she is hydrated, one can mistake thirst as hunger at times, especially a child.
On a secondary level, have you considered letting your daughter eat until she isn't hungry anymore? Food deprivation at a young age is a Pandora's box of mental, emotional, and physical problems down the road. She may actually focus more on food, even possibly obsess over it, if she feels like you will take it away before she eats enough.
If three meals aren't working perhaps you could make her snack packs for the day so that she can "graze" whenever she feels hungry. She may actually eat less that way instead of trying to "gorge" at one or two meals. Ultimately, I think taking the emphasis off food would help everyone, fewer fights, less guilt. You and your family are in my prayers, take care.

This might sound elementary, but is she drinking enough water? Sometimes when we're thirsty our brain registers it as feeling hungry. Oh, I see that someone else already had that same ida. This is my first time on the site and I don't really know how to get around very well. I will put my thinking cap on and come up with something else :)

According to ayurveda, there are 6 tastes necessary to balance our bodies, if one is missing we keep eating, searching to be satisfied, so consider adding one or more tastes: sweet, salty, sour, pungent, bitter, astringent. e.g. sweet - cinammon, astringent, cucumber etc.

My daughter is just behind yours in age and is also hungry all the time! She like Odwalla Bars at snacktime- they are soft enough for her to bite without crumbling, but they disintegrate easily enough that I don't worry about choking so much as with the dry granola bars. They are easy to carry, and come in a wide variety of flavors. I usually give her a half of one with a cup of milk or water at snack time (on Odwalla days- not an everyday snack!). See also likes graham crackers with peanut butter or cream cheese.

I see you have a ton of responses already and for the most part I think everyone is right on -- if she is hungry let her eat. But in quickly reading through the responses no one mentioned veggie burgers and cottage cheese so I thought I would contribute this... I have two little girls -- both love to eat. My five year old is/has always been tall and skinny and my 17 month old is/has always been tall and thick...both eat all the time. two of my toddlers favorite snacks/meals are veggie burgers. I cut them up into bite size pieces that she can feed herslef. The other thing is low fat cottage chesse mixed with apple sauce (or I also sometimes use some stage 2 baby food fruits to add some variety). Both of these are low fat, high protien foods. Also, as others have said, make sure she is hydrated. Making water a part of her diet now will carry over as she grows up and it is one of the most important components to a healthy diet. But I do know that my kids also do love juice, so I just dilute it with water -- most jucises, even those with no added sugar still have a high sugar content -- make her juice cups half juice, half water. Good luck...here's to happy eating!

Protein protein protein! (and fats). The problem with toddler snacks is that most are carbs (like cereal and crackers), but carbs don't fill you up. Protein and fats fill do... so we carry around a vareity of cheese, nuts, milk, sunflower seeds, and pumpkin seeds in our 2.5 year old's diaper bag. Also peanut butter odwalla bars (although they have carbs... they are filling) are a HUGE hit. Good luck!

Hi P.,
There are a few possibilities, but what I thought of was that she might be allergic to gluten in her diet, this can be so damaging to the gut that she is not getting ptoper nutrition and that is why she is always hungry for more, there are easy tests on the market to see if she is a celiac(name for people who are allergic to gluten), check with your doctor.Good luck with finding out, C.

P.,

I agree with Christine... You need to talk with her Pedi to rule out any medical issues that would trigger constant hunger. A Child that cries about not getting food on a constant level is cause for concern on different levels... If it's a med. condition... it won't matter how much you feed her... and she may not be overweight now... but at one pt. or another she will quit growing up and start growing out... If it's for other reasons... as suggested... getting attn etc... well that behavior could easily carry into the rest of life... and she'll again have a weight issue to battle...

And it could be super simple... she's going through a growth spurt... and needs more calories... at that point I would personally recommend FIBER - ie complex carbs!!! in the way of fruits and vegies... these are very filling and not full of fat and corn syrup... Will she snack on carrot sticks? Steamed chilled brocolli? How about some avocado. Or a bag of grapes... you get the drift...

You can give a toddler a lot of fruit and veggies..they are low in calorie and also fills you up..Sometimes animal crackers help too.. Mainly the reason she is hungry is that she is growing. I've seen that a lot with my boys especially..then after awhile they sort of taper off..but if your toddler is a busy one..not a couch potato..then giving them a little extra is not going to hurt her.

Oh my goodness! My daughter was the same way! I would feed her all day long and she was acting like she was starving!

Things I would let her eat as much as she wanted were: CHEERIOS, raisins, ricecakes (non-flavored but lightly salted) and water.

You could also try carrot sticks (I buy the big bag and cut them thin myself) milk and juice can fill her tummy too but I always limited my kids' intake of both. Yogurt was a good one too. You can bring one little package of yo-baby which uses whole milk. Ritz makes a whole grain cracker that my kids love and sometime I'd even cut a few sliced of cheese to bring.

My DD is now 3 and my son is 19 mos and TO THIS DAY I still have to pack a huge lunchbag full of snacks for the both of them wherever I go. I enjoy though and just know that they love to eat. BTW my DD is 97 for height & weight and my DS in only in the 40's but they both LOVE to eat! When we are home I make sure they get plenty of veggies to compensate for all teh carbs-lol

Sorry to write so much but just so you know that our children grow faster in their first 3 years that they ever will. They burn a lot of energy and need to constantly replace it. Their tummy's are also quite small.

Good luck!

You may want to check with her doctor to make sure she's okay physically. If she's fine, then maybe she's just going through a growth spurt. Here's a link which give snack ideas for toddlers: http://www.mommysavers.com/Articles/healthy_snacks_for_ki...

Here's another link which helps with what is appropriate in terms of snacking...when, how much, and what to eat:

http://www.kidshealth.org/parent/nutrition_fit/nutrition/...

Both links seem helpful. Take care and good luck!

P.,
In my opinion if your daughter is hungry you give her unlimited healthy food until she is no longer hungry. YOU do not decide when she is full or hungry. Her body knows this best. I gave my son tons of avacado (sp?), which is loaded with healthy fat for brain growth--so vital, every kind of fruit and vegetable I could get my hands on---he loved melons and apples in particular--quesadillas with whole wheat tortillas.. He also ate cottage cheese, applesauce and steamed carrots virtually every day the second and third year of his life for lunch. If your daughter is in the 98th percentile for height she needs plenty of good food to support that growth. My son, who is now 7, still knows best when he is full or not. This mechanism and innate body decision making, is unfortunately turned off in many children today by the age of 4-5--probably contributing greatly towards the childhood obesity epidemic. I wish my own body turn off switch worked as well as my son's....

Feed her! :D Kids at this age only eat or ask to eat when they are actually hungry. She's not trying to pull a fast one on you, especially if she's asking for food when you are doing other things like playing. She can eat fruit until the cows come home; avocado; mini bagels with cream cheese or peanut butter (if you're comfortable introducing that); yogurt (steer clear of the kids yogurts - they're full of sugar!); string cheese or cheddar cheese; crackers (goldfish, graham crackers or sticks, etc.); and always bring water or milk. Sounds like my oldest - 6.5 years old and tall, barely over 50 pounds and out-eats my husband at breakfast almost every day! We say he has a hollow leg!

How lucky you are to have a child who wants to eat. Usually its just the opposite. Peanut butter ( protein )and celery is a good way to snack. Raisins and apples are also good energy food.Cherrios and saltine crackers are also a good filler.
I found that giving them a small zip-lock bag of Honey nut Cherrios seemed to keep them happy. They have found that girls at the age of two are learning the fine art of manipulation, maybe she just wants your attention or control of a situation. Being the 3rd child. Don't worry you know you are not starving her.
N. : Mother 3 grown boys and 2 grandkids

Hi P.,
My daughter is nearly five and eats more food in one day than I do. I'm not exaggerating. She was 95% for both height and weight. The pediatrician says she's within the healthy weight guidelines so not to worry. We think she has a hollow leg. (Now I'm exaggerating.) She didn't lose her "baby fat" until this past year around her fourth birthday. FYI: I think we're like many families - we eat fairly healthy but could do better.

My son is completely the opposite. I worry that he doesn't eat enough. He's only 50% in height and weight. Again, doctor says same thing.

I remember reading about an acrobat who was hired to mimic a baby (who could crawl but not walk) in some kind of energy study. The acrobat couldn't keep up with the baby and became exhausted within an hour. My daughter eats more than I do, but she burns more energy each day than I do too.

Talk to your pediatrician. I used to never believe my daughter could still be hungry. She was hungry. Now we're both happy.

Good luck!

So many parents can't get their children to clean up their plates! She may just be getting ready for another growth spurt. One friend's daughter would eat like crazy, get a little belly, and seemingly overnight that would disappear and she'd be taller. Or perhaps she just has a really high metabolism.

Just some thoughts.
1. It takes the stomach a little while to realize you're eating and then to realize it's full. How quickly does she eat? Is she chewing her food well? If so, be sure to include lots of satisfying chewing and crunchy foods.

2. Try having her drink 6 ounces of water before eating; that's an old diet trick to help you feel full. Maybe she's just dehydrated!

3. How often does she eat? Perhaps she needs to eat a little, more often. Fruit digests quickly on an empty stomach, so it might not last long.

4. Hopefully she is not developing a "food as comfort" thing. But if that seems like it may be happening, you could try spending a little extra snuggle time when she says she's hungry.

Remember, too, that a balanced diet with the proper percentages of fats to carbs to proteins is important. And fats will help slow the digestion of carbs, which lengthens the full-feeling-time. (So a little peanut butter on crackers will digest more slowly than just crackers.)

My daughter had a similar problem. Since she previously ate much smaller portions, I would have thought it was a phase except she had bad diapers too. She ended up having a micro-organism called Guarrardia or something (I forgot the actual name). It's easier to get than most people think. Regardless, you may want to confirm that she doesn't have something similar (a tapeworm etc), especially if she has been eating excessively and is still hungry. It can't hurt to be cautious.
However, my friends child eats a ton more than my child and he is in approximately the 75 percentile (solid but not overweight). Some kids just eat more than others. You know your child better than anyone, so if they are very active, maybe their body is just replacing the "fuel".
Hope my advice helps

Is your daughter drinking enough fluids. Dehydration can be mistaken for hunger.

I suggest you talk to her doctor about this, maybe there is a problem with her metabolism/thyroid. If you are with Kaiser, and any disorder is ruled out, you can ask your pediatrician to refer you to a nutritionist. It's of course possible that she just needs more small meals during the days, instead of the 3 large ones that seem to be more socially acceptable, every body is different. Or she may be going through a growth spurt (95% is very tall), in which case her body is going through a lot of calories fast. Again, her doctor will be able to advise.

Toddlers are natural grazers. It's their nature to eat all throughout the day & not eat at set meal times like us adults. It's actually quite normal behavior for her to be eating/snacking all throughout the day. Without knowing a bit more about her digestion and health history its hard to say if she is thoroughly digesting all that she is taking in. I do highly recommend the Weston A Price: Nourishing Our Children Campaign. Their website is http://www.nourishingourchildren.org/ They offer great nutritional information that may help. I hope this helps.

J. Stevens, L.Ac.
www.yourwholefamilywellness.com