Feeding Your Toddler

That's a perfect eating schedule! Kids needs snacks to hold them over in between meals. Plus she's proportional if you look at her height/weight percentiles. As long as her meals and snacks are healthy ones, no worries! :)

I feed my 18-month-old as long as he wants to eat. He has breakfast, snack, lunch, snack, and dinner. He is in the 60th percentile for weight. At this age, as long as you are feeding healthy, nutritious foods, your daughter should be able to self-regulate and let you know when she is hungry and when she is full. Have your hubby talk to your pediatrician about this, to put his fears to rest.

The BEST way to gain weight is to restrict food (sets the metabolism up for a starvation-mode cycle, where all calories are saved instead of used for growth).

That said... feeding on demand worked so well when our son was an infant, we've just continued it. It's been fun watching his eating patterns.

In GENERAL over the past 7 years (since switching to solids, kiddo is 8), he eats 6 small meals a day. Which I think is hilarious, because that is EXACTLY what nutritionists recommend that we ALL do.

He also get SUPER chubby about a month before he hits a growth spurt. We're talking rolls. Then 2 months later (in the middle of the spurt) you can't just see all of his ribs, you can count all of his vertebre! Then for about 3-4months he just looks "normal". I have to own that as he gets older the "chub up" phases are harder for me to deal with emotionally, just because of society, but I bite the bullet each time... and it's been worth it for his body to continue to develop in it's normal and very healthy pattern.

As long as she's progressing on the growth curve at around the same place, I'd keep following her cues like you're doing. The book "Child of Mine, feeding with Love and Good sense" by nutritionist Ellyn Satter was very helpful to me in learning about child nutrition - one thing she learned in her practice is that typically young children/toddlers will eat and grow according to the body types that nature created them with, and well-intentioned attempts to try to get a child who's naturally on the lower or higher ends of the growth curves closer toward the middle by trying to force them to eat more or less usually creates more problems than it solves.

Your pediatrician will tell you that a child's weight is not a concern (with rare exceptions) until around 2 years-old.

Both of our kids were chunks as babies. I apparently had super milk. We fed our son on demand. He's always been a snacker and still prefers several snacks throughout the day vs. meals. Our daughter is different. She'll eat a meal and snacks if we let her.

Our pediatrician's advice was to let them be the guide. Children don't know how to overeat - it's something we teach them by telling them they have to clean the plate, eat 5 more bites (which I admit we do), etc.

At your daughter's age, she needs the fat for proper brain development. After age 2, your pediatrician may start advising you. For the first time, at our son's 4 year well-child visit, they calculated his BMI.

According to the CDC, 1/3 children born today will be obese and have type 2 diabetes. They are the first generation not expected to live as long as their parents. Scary. It's up to us as parents to make sure what they are eating is healthy and in moderation vs. allowing them to eat a lot of processed foods high in fat, carbs and sodium.

Good luck! For now, I'd tell your husband to relax.

Oh gosh, tell your Husband that being concerned about her being 'fat' will only give her hang-ups, later... about food, about her appearance, about eating etc. Which is NOT what you want to do, to a girl.

She is so young.. .and they ebb and flow with growth and weight and eating... which is normal. During growth-spurts, they eat more and more often.

I breastfed my daughter exclusively until she self-weaned... when she was a baby, she was 'chubby' just on breastmilk.. but she was so healthy and grew like a weed and she now is a SLENDER 7 year old, with a very hearty appetite and eats frequently. She needs it. And, both my kids were and continue to be, in the 97-98th percentiles for height and weight. Since birth. They have NO problem with 'chubbiness'... they are lean, tall, kids. Very healthy, and eat like starving horses. Still, since birth. And they eat more at growth-spurts.

A child, per their growth, will chub out, then lean out, and it always changes.... because they are changing so much, physically and developmentally.

I was a chubby baby.... and a hearty eater since birth, but as I grew up... I NATURALLY got very lean. And my sister who was a PICKY eater and hardly ate, was the one that got "chubby."
So you see.... how your child is now in physique... has NOTHING to do with whether her figure will be 'chubby' or not... later. She is a baby now. That is how they are.... she is normal.

But do NOT give her hang-ups about eating/her looks/her figure/food.... that is harmful, to a girl. No matter what age.

Some men, can be so 'worried' that their daughter will be 'fat.' It is a real fallacy and myth... that you can predict that just on how they look, as a baby. Tell your Husband, relax. You do NOT want a daughter, to be hung-up on these things... or to think her Dad.... thinks that of her.
Very harmful.
That is how, young girls, develop Anorexia... even as young as 8 years old.

all the best,
Susan

So cute. I think she is normal. Is she walking? once my baby started to walk the weight SHED on her and she was in the 21% for weight. The doctors were tell me to let her eat whatever she wanted and even suggested some unhealthy choices. As long as you are teaching her to eat HEALTHY you are ok. At this age quanity is not an issue. kids dont overeat. ..they stop eating when they are full. Its the parents that teach them to overeat by letting them eat candy and cookies all day.
Every kid is different too..just because my baby at 12 months was in teh 74% for height and 21 % for weight doesnt mean that in 6 months it wont be flopped. Right now your baby is in transition and learning to walk/run. Tell your hubby not to focus on that because your daughter can be sensative about those things when she gets older and then develope and eating disorder because "daddy thinks Im fat". If he is worried, then he needs to help her exercise. go on walks, if she cant walk then he can bicycle her legs. dance with her while listening to music. he needs to love her, not worry about what she looks like at 13 months.
all the best

No, she is suppose to have the snacks in between the meals, just make sure they are small portions and nutritious such as fruit, crackers, peanut butter etc. With just B L D she wasn't getting enough food. And since she is getting a light snack right before bed I would remember to brush her teeth. You're doing good.

That's totally normal eating. Personally, I would worry about your husband's weight obsession effecting your daughter in the future. I don't mean that as harsh as it's written, but fathers sometimes don't realize the importance of their role in how their daughter will grow to see themselves.Your husband should go next time you take your kid to the pediatrician and let him ask the doctor his issue. Let the doctor handle it. Having a healthy appetite and eating is the best way to maintain a steady metabolism. It's the skipping meals and low calorie intake that will negatively impact that child. For example, studies have shown a child who skips breakfast doesn't learn in school as well as a child who eats a good breakfast.

I have a 4 yr old girl and 22 month old boy. They eat all the time....breakfast, snack, lunch, snack, dinner and an occasional dessert and sometimes an extra snack here and there...as much as they want. At the same time, they are very active inside the house and out. I always try to plan some type of physical activity for the day.

So, if your daughter likes to eat then good for her! As long as she is eating healthy meals most of the time and she is active then she will be okay. Many moms would love to have good eaters

I say feed them as long as they will eat (LOL). A toddler is usually so picky that when you find one that does eat, it's a treasure. I would recommend you feed her more healthy snacks (grapes, orange slices, etc) versus the pretzel and cheerios (which has a lot of sugar). Feeding in little increments versus 3 full meals will not let them gain too much weight. Even if she is chubby now, she will be mobile soon and need all that fat to burn...

Sometimes my son eats all day, almost literally. He can eat a full breakfast and eat another one an hour later. Other times, it's all I can do to get him to eat more than a snack all day. As they get older, they go through eating phases often. As long as she'll eat and is hungry, feed her! Since she's young, you choose the foods that you want her to eat. You can make sure to choose really healthy options for her, but don't give a thought to her weight- this is certainly much too young to even think about it!

she is fine! As long as you're not feeding her foods high in fat or sugar all the time, eating many small meals throughout the day is VERY healthy for you. It keeps your metabolism going.

Sounds to me like what you are doing is perfect! If we give kids healthy things to eat and don't interfere too much, they will naturally eat a healthy diet and not overeat. She sounds perfect with having her height and weight on similar percentiles. At this age they are moving around so much they are hungry all the time! My son ate just like your daughter at that age and then started eating less when he approached 18 months to 2 years. It's totally normal and she's doing just fine. The best thing is to let her have healthy food choices and let her decide how much to eat and it sounds like you are doing exactly that!

I hope your husband can stop worrying about this - I think if you make food into an issue, it may become a problem for her later on. Keep in mind too that a little one's food choices may not seem balanced on any given day (like one day she only wants fruit, the next day grains) but they usually will even out over the course of a week if you let them make their own choices. This is a hard one for me! I'm always trying to sneak in more veggies, but if I leave my guy alone, he always ends up having a huge bowl of vegetables for dinner one night.

I think what you are doing is just fine.
My son is kinda similar.
He just turned 2 and has ALWAYS been at the top of the charts. He's tall & slender, but weighs about 30-31lbs.
All kids are different. Mostly because look at their parents...I'm 5'8 with broad shoulders & my hubby is 6'2-6'3. So our child is NOT going to be little :)

Food wise: my son eats breakfast with me. then up untill a few hours before dinner he has a bowl that has cheerios, goldfish, crackers etc in it. He is always eating or snacking on something. Then he eats his dinner with me & his daddy. Some nights he even wants more food after dinner.

If your daughter is healthy don't worry about it :)