What does your elementary schooler eat on an avg day?
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Anonymous
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My son's dr mentioned we should start watching what he eats as he was 87% BMI at his 7yo visit. I'm not planning to starve him or anything but certainly looking closer at cutting the junk out. My other concern is that he eats 2/3 of his calories at night. He either has a bowl of cereal or eggs in the AM but many times he doesn't finish the lunch that I pack him. The fruit is often left over. I think he then eats more at night to make up for the day as he's too busy playing with his friends when at school. He's also fairly active when given the opportunity at recess.
I'm interested in seeing what other kids are eating throughout the day if you're willing to share. Also to get some meal ideas that are kid friendly and packable for lunch! |
Anonymous
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Breakfast: Oatmeal, pancakes, waffles, or cereal, and occasionally a turkey sausage link. Water or OJ.
School snacks: Apples, carrots, green pepper, pretzels, Goldfish, Apple/Veggie Straws, or crackers. Lunch: -PBJ, coldcut sandwich, soup, leftovers in a Thermos, or school lunch on pizza day. -packed snacks include rotation of above snacks, yogurt, a couple cookies. -Water or juice Dinner - Normal family meat, veggie and grain. Water or juice. Snacks at home: Popcorn, fruit snacks, Pringles, any of the above mentioned snacks. |
Anonymous
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Switched out empty calorie treats (eg juice, white bread, goldfish, chips, etc) in our diet and replace with higher nutrient/lower glycemic foods when I had her. (Ezekiel or other sprouted grain bread & wraps, crunchy veggie slices, hummus or refried beans). I read labels and just don't bring anything into the house that's a mindless temptation - by that I mean the ones where handfuls go down without thinking - and save treats for quality items. (A good batch of homemade cookies, for example). DD has always been 20% or lower for bmi and is active, and I've always been careful about her nutrition as she's unfortunately at a higher risk for diabetes.
When you say that he's eating more at night, do you mean that he's having a large dinner or that there is additional eating happening? We only eat at mealtime in our house, including an afternoon snack on non-school days (dd gets a school snack so waits til dinner to eat on those days). We have fruit for dessert every other day and then a "real" dessert on the other days. School has a no dessert policy, so I don't send any sweets for lunch. Has your son said why he doesn't eat his school lunch? My dd mentions how rushed they are sometimes and I know that she gets really chatty with her friends too. Maybe if you plan his lunches together or talk with him about why it's important to eat there too? |
Anonymous
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Breakfast:
Egg, fruit, cheerios with whole milk during the week (sub homemade waffles/pancakes/biscuits during the week) Lunch: PB&J, greek yogurt, carrots, fruit Uncured salami, crackers, carrots, fruit, cheese stick Dinner: protein/starch/veggie/fruit They have a snack after school. Right now, I am working on making the snack healthier. I have already gotten away from sweets. I would start with drinks - a lot of people drink a ton of calories. Just don't buy any juice (not even orange or apple) or soda. If he asks for it, you just don't have any. My kids only drink water and plain milk 99% of the time. They can have juice or even soda if it is offered at a party. I no longer drink soda so we no longer buy it - I stopped cold turkey after they started asking for sips. Another thing is to have a set snack plan - fruit, veggies and hummus, greek yogurt topped with fruit, cheese, etc. No mindless, nutrient free stuff. If he eats peanut butter, make it the kind with no added sugar. My kids do eat treats regularly, but they know what a serving is and stick to it. |
Anonymous
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Not great. We eat too much candy and treats.
Yesterday, cheerios, milk, and fruit for breakfast. My eight year old didn't eat any of it. Then we went out of town to visit some friends and went to a specialty donut shop nearby and had donuts. For lunch, they had pretzels or popcorn, cheese sticks, oranges, PB&J, and a candy cane. They all took other snacks when we got home from the trip...anything ranging from a christmas cookie to an orange. For dinner we had spaghetti with a meat and veggie sauce and chocolate pudding with green apple slices for dipping. Right now, they are all healthy and active enough, but I need to get all of us on a better diet. |
Anonymous
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OP here. Thanks for the suggestions. A few things to answer prior questions above.
1) He only drinks juice or chocolate milk 1 or 2x each week when we're actually out at a restaurant to eat. Usually it's water/milk only. 2) I try to cook and eat most meals at home, but he does get a snack at school at extended day which I can't really control. He'll sometimes eat nothing or eat 3 packages (100 calorie packs) of goldfish if they have it! I know self control also needs to be learned. I'll try to have more conversations about portion control in general. 4) lunch wise, whenever I ask about leftover lunch, he always tells me he just ran out of time. I know it's prob because he was playing around at lunch. If he asks for a snack before dinner, I'll just have him eat the left over fruit or whatever is in his pack. 4) We eat a dessert 3-4x a week. Usually a small pack of the halloween candies and maybe 1x a week a slice of cake/ice cream. Otherwise, each night for dinner, we're having protein, veg, and carb. 5) activity wise he normally plays a couple sports during the spring and fall season but as most boys now, they love their video game time. I will say that some of the easier pack options he's not keen on. He's not a fan of lunch meats, hummus, or cheese! He likes vanilla yogurt but not the plain one. He'll also only eat 3-4 kinds of cooked veggies and not the raw veggie types like carrot sticks. I guess all those things I could get him use to eating eventually but slow moving there. Sample daily foods. I would estimate he eats about 1600-1700 calories a day. He's 62 percentile in height at 83% in weight. Breakfast: 2 scrambled eggs or bowl of wheaties with milk Lunch/snack - 4 dino nuggets or sandwich bread with nutella (not a fan of peanut butter), but I only give a light covering on 1 slide of whole wheat bread. - 1 fruit (clementine, apples, banana) - snack bar like fiber one bar - 1 -1.5oz of chips (pita, potato, potato sticks, tortilla) - water Extended day - guessing nothing or up to 400 calories of junk food. Dinner - broiled chicken/dumplings/meatballs/hotdog - bowl of rice/noodles - broccoli/spinach/beans Snack after dinner - apples/watermelon/clementines or another fruit - sometimes yogurt if he's still hungry And to top it off, my 4yo is 30% in BMI who just doesn't like food as much as my older. 
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Anonymous
| Can he eat a healthy snack/meal as soon as he gets done with school? My DD also leaves her lunch untouched because she's too busy taking, and this is what we have started to do. She eats a small healthy meal right after school. Our concern is more that she's underweight. |
Anonymous
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I don't think he needs a snack bar, and chips, in addition to sandwich or nuggets at school. Sandwich, fruit/veggie and chips should be plenty. Or switch to popcorn a couple of days a week instead of the chips.
Nutella is not great either, even though its on whole grain bread. See if he likes sunflower butter, or almond butter. Mine likes sunbutter with honey instead of jelly. |
Anonymous
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My 7YO usually has 2 eggs and a small bowl of cheerios/milk, sometimes a sausage too for breakfast. Then some unknown thing at before care (oatmeal? cereal? who knows!)
Lunch is a peanut butter sandwich (used to be 1/2 of one, now is a whole one), some pepper or carrot or apple slices. Sometimes a yogurt or smoothie if I think he needs some protein. Occasionally a cookie. Snack in the afternoon at aftercare - chips, fruit? Not sure! Dinner is noodles or rice with a meat or bean protein, cut veggies, and some cooked vegetable. Sometimes eats seconds of the noodles or rice. To me, 1600 to 1700 calories seems like enough for an adult - how do kids compare? Maybe my example above adds to that. I'd ask the daycare people to not let him have more than one portion - maybe send in a vegetable snack to add if he's really hungry. I have two kids that more or less eat a similar diet, though one is at preschool still (which offers catered snacks and meals, so more varied) - one is probably 80% the other 25%. As long as they are eating healthily I think it's ok. We do course correct occasionally, like after this holiday season where we've all indulged in many servings of cookies!  My older kid seems to act badly if he's been eating too much junk, so then I just try to load him up more on veggies and protein.
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Anonymous
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My 10 year old isn't a huge eater but this is typical day:
Breakfast-- peanut butter toast (2 pieces though often he eats just one or a bit more), banana, skim milk Lunch-- pb and j sandwich, fresh fruit, yogurt, water, or leftover chili or taco salad with tortilla chips in place of the sandwich Snack- a piece of quick bread or cookies (2) Dinner- protein starch and veggie usually with some fruit as well, and skim milk. Dinner is often light as he is pretty picky. He eats well on nights we have tacos, spaghetti, chili, salmon, or grilled chicken. Bedtime snack-- 2 cookies or a pop sickle or something like that. |
Anonymous
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My kids- breakfast oatmeal with mostly water, a few chocolate chips or Cheerios with milk. They sometimes have a second bowl of one or the other
Lunch- either sandwich or beans and rice, sometimes with a quesadilla. Dinner: normal protein, starch, veg Their problem is going back for seconds. They've always been on the higher end BWI- wise, but also very tall- 95th % or higher. We try to keep them active. Karate, swimming, gymnastics |
Anonymous
This doesn't seem like much food at all for active kids. |
Anonymous
As an adult, I eat about 1500-1600 to maintain my weight of 120...but seems like kids burn a lot more calories that us adults. http://www.livestrong.com/article/317675-recommended-daily-calories-for-a-seven-year-old/ The U.S. Department of Agriculture's Dietary Guidelines for Americans 2010 gives an estimate for children's caloric requirements based on gender and activity level. A 7-year-old sedentary girl would need 1,200 to 1,400 calories compared to the 1,400 to 1,600 requirement for a moderately active girl. Eighteen hundred calories is the max recommended for active girls. The guidelines for sedentary and moderately active 7-year-old boys are the same as for girls. An active boy should get between 1,600 and 2,000 calories per day. |
Anonymous
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Does not seem bad to me ...
I would just modify the lunch that looks like a bunch of snacks more than lunch IMO. Ditch the chips, lots of empty calories; keep the fruit; replace the rest with a meal (cooked veggies, a little brown past/rice/quinoa, and maybe a little fish/meat....) if you do a sandwich do it with avocado or cheese rather than nutella... Otherwise keep the kid active
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Anonymous
Truthfully, they sometimes go back for thirds too for each meal so they can eat a huge volume. |