How much does your toddler eat?

[strmis]

spinning off another thread here...

There always seems to be room for cheerios, puffs... crunchy carb type of snacks, but i don't want to fill her up on empty calories or have her get used to it. i'd rather her be hungry and eat some steamed veggies and meat i put in front of her, but she seems to go so long that I just wonder if she gets enough in her diet. I do BF still and she loves to nurse, but I am still concerned.

Anyone else experience this? Should I just go ahead and feed her the snacks if i feel like too much time has gone since she's had a meal?

[dogretro]

Generally speaking, unless your child has a real feeding problem, they will not starve themselves. If she is still nursing w/ enthusiasm, I esp would not worry. One thing you could try is to only offer carbs once per day, like pancakes or cereal for breakfast. Then, at lunch or dinner, you just offer her veggies and meat. For snacks, you can offer yogurt, cheese, meat, fruits, veggies (even salad, my daughter loves it (???)), pudding, whole grain bread, sandwiches w/ whole grain or whole wheat bread, eggs. My daughter has always loved to eat, but recently has cut way back on her eating. She no longer nurses, but she will definitely fill up if she is really hungry or it is something she really likes I have also recently began offering "monkey platters" to her at lunch time b/c this seems to be when she is NOT interested in eating at all and would rather play. I use one of her tri-compartment dishes. For such a young child who has not mastered a spoon yet, she may get apple slices, cheese, & pretzels for example. If she eats it, great. If not, well it was there & it was all food that she likes, so I know she is not starving. It is my job to make the food available and her job to eat it

OH, also, dd will almost always happily eat if she is sitting on my lap and we are eating from the same plate. We sometimes share sandwiches and breakfasts like this.