Anonymous wrote:He had a basic checkup with our new pediatrician in august, who didn't flag anything. No sign of puberty except he can get a little stinky after exercise, but honestly my just turned 10 year old DD seems closer to puberty (breast buds, stinky pits, the start of pubic hair).
He doesn't seem hungry a lot---we do try to get him to eat and have laid off on being as healthy as we would like in favor of getting calories in.....he eats for breakfast a large bowl of cereal or a frozen waffle; weekends we try pancakes waffles, muffins etc, he will eat a bit more, but then claim he is not hungry for hours. He hates eggs unfortunately but will sometimes eat turkey sausage. sometimes he does oatmeal with bananas.
lunch I will pack him an orange, carrots a bag of pita chips, a z bar and a sandwich or leftover pasta with meatballs or slice of pizza (he'll eat the latter). He will often come home having eaten half the lunch, maybe the fruit and the 'main.'. He will eat goldfish or something for a snack. He certainly has a sweet tooth and will have cookies and milk, for example, but I try to keep it to after meals, since otherwise he won't eat dinner.
Dinner-he will have a turkey or regular burger, salad, veggies and maybe a small dessert. Or pasta with turkey meatballs but one bowl, not two. He will eat 3 slices of pizza, since he loves it, but if we have tacos, he will have a tiny one with rice and beans only. He's a lot better about his food aversions, which were strong when he was young, but this seems more like appetite in general.
He does martial arts 2x/week and swimming 1x/week.
I estimate he is getting around 1600 calories a day. My 10 year old daughter eats more (and more variety) than he does (she also weighs more than he does...).
What you described isn’t even close to 1600 calories, especially if he is only eating half of his lunch. You need to look into getting him to eat more caloric foods. Nut butters, avocado, full fat dairy, etc.