Filling snacks

[LibbyK]

My 6 year old son has a HUGE appetite. I seriously cannot fill him. For dinner he had chicken, rice and vegies (then ate most of his brother's dinner!) then strawberries and kiwifruit for dessert then four pieces of toast. He would have kept eating if it wasn't bedtime. This is just an example of what every meal of every day is like. Our friends can't believe the amout of food he eats and there is not an ounce of fat on him.

So I am just after some ideas of what I can feed him. Mainly snacks.

I was thinking mini quiche, mini pizzas on english muffins or pita bread, baked beans. Any other suggestions? I try to give him protein based food to fill him up a bit more.

Also, what time do you have afternoon tea and dinner? I try to give them afternoon tea about 3.30pmish and then dinner at 5.30pm. I love it when we all eat dinner together, but then if we all eat at 5.30pm DH and I are starving by bedtime and we can't eat much later than 5.30pm all together as our 3 year old goes to bed at 6.30pm.

Thanks ladies!

[starbuckozzie]

We are headed that way too. DS is 5 and eats enormous amounts (as much as us or more). Our toast is the home made thick kind and he can still get through four pieces! He'll eat a big plate of fruit, four eggs (if we let him) plus toast for breakfast. He doesn't have any fat either.

We do similar afternoon tea and dinner times. Depending on what we are having, we will either all eat together or DH and I sometimes eat later. 5:30pm is fine for me because I am often asleep by 8. Last night I fell asleep on the couch at 7:30pm just after we tucked the kids into bed. I then woke up at 4:30am so never went to bed at all....I was too tired!

I have to be careful what I hand out at 3:30pm as my kids are still young enough to say no to dinner if they've had a big afternoon tea.

[Dorasmum]

I have to go, I'll come back to this tonight, but I am having a similar problem currently, DD2 has gone from a poor eater to a large one....is waking up a 4 in the morning.."gyungyee mum" -..hungry mum.

Em

[emd]

I like cereal as a snack - muesli, weet bix, cornflakes etc but not sugary cereals. It's filling, it's easy to prepare (a six year old could just help themselves), it's cheap. But DH doesn't like me giving the kids breakfast cereal at non-breakfast times :(

Nuts (eg raw almonds) are quite filling, although can be expensive (DH used to eat half a kilo a week but has stopped as he wants to lose weight). Dried fruit is good too - we eat kilos of it every month. A bit sugary though, make sure he brushes his teeth before bed if he's been eating dried fruit after bath time.

Veggie patties are good. Basically just a pancake recipe with mashed or pureed veg, peas or corn etc mixed in. You can cook up a big batch and keep them in a plastic container in the fridge. They're good cold, or nuke in the microwave for ten seconds. Also a good way to use up leftover veggies.

Pumpkin bread is good too - especially toasted with cheese or peanut butter on top. I pretty much put any leftover mashed or pureed veg into a bread mix. The kids don't even need to know it's in there if it's something that doesn't change the colour of the loaf (although I tell them broccoli bread is "Shrek bread" and the green lumpy bits are ogre's boogers).

[earthmummy]

I have the same problem with ds6. Not an ounce of fat on him but eats like a train, breakfast, morning tea, lunch, afternoon tea, dinner, dessert and snacks all day in between as well. I've checked for worms lol, but he has obviously a high metabolism like me. I'm at a loss sometimes to find extra's apart from junk and more fruit.

I like the pancake (veggie patties) idea

I'll be watching this post for more ideas.

[Dorasmum]

Bananas are a good staple here, we probably spend $10 a week on them.
I make a batch of home ground flour pikelets in the morning sometimes and they nibble on those all day.
Keep boiled eggs in the fridge. Would he eat plain cold cooked pasta? my kids love it. Not very interesting, but when they start saying they are starving and "dying" it's easy to grab something portable for them to wander around eating out of a cup.
I give them frozen peas in a cup too.

em

[emd]

I was just thinking "what did my mum do when we were like that?" and had a little chuckle to myself... she used to say "go out and play", and we'd just go raid the vegie patch and orchard.

[peanut2007]

The pasta idea is a good one another you could try is rice pudding K has downs and i can never fill him up but rice pudding i make which isnt too sweet seems to hold him over untill dinner. just a thought