How to stop my child from eating too much
Overeating in Children and Teens
Sometimes it may seem your child or teen eats all the time. It may seem they are eating lots of snacks between meals or overeating at meals. How do you know if this behavior is something to worry about or something normal that will pass? What can you do to help your child keep a healthy weight and avoid overeating?
Path to improved health
A child’s eating habits develop early in life, perhaps between the ages of 1 to 2 years. That’s why it’s important for parents to teach and encourage healthy eating habits. These examples should be started at an early age and continue through the teenage years. Here are some ways you can do that:
- Be a good role model. Choose healthy foods and snacks for yourself.
- Learn what an appropriate serving size is. Most people serve themselves and others too much.
- Have healthy snacks in your home. For example, stock fruits like apples and bananas, raw vegetables like carrots and celery, or low-fat yogurt.
- Include plenty of low-fat proteins, vegetables, and whole grains in the meals you make.
- Offer your child healthy food, even if they don’t want it. Children aren’t always open to new things. But if you continue to offer healthy choices, you’ll improve the chances they will develop healthy eating habits.
- Teach your child how to make healthy choices for school lunches.
- Avoid fast-food dining. If you do eat at a fast-food or sit-down restaurant, choose the healthiest meals available.
- Avoid sugary drinks such as sodas and sweet teas. Limit children to no more than one glass of fruit juice each day.
- Forget the “clean plate rule.” Your child should stop eating when they feel full.
- Don’t use food as a reward. Instead, reward good behaviors with a fun family activity (for example, go bowling rather than have ice cream).
Benefits of physical activity
Encourage your child or teen to be physically active. This offers many health benefits, including:
- Helps the body burn calories instead of storing them as body fat
- Helps keep blood sugar levels more balanced and in a normal range (especially important for children who have, or are at risk for, diabetes)
- Lowers blood pressure and cholesterol levels
- Helps make bones and muscles strong
- Builds strength and endurance
- Decreases stress and improves sleep and mental well-being
- Improves self-esteem by helping children feel better about their bodies and appearance
- Prevents serious health problems that can come with being overweight and obesity
The American Academy of Family Physicians (AAFP) recognizes that regular physical activity is essential for healthy growth and development and encourages that all children and adolescents accumulate at least 60 minutes of moderate to vigorous aerobic physical activity every day.
The AAFP also encourages parents and schools to make physical activity a priority. Prolonged periods of physical inactivity should also be discouraged both at home and at school.
There are ways you can help your child become physically active:
- Limit your child’s screen time to no more than 2 hours a day. Screen time includes playing video or computer games, surfing the internet, texting, and watching TV or DVDs. Set a good example by limiting your own screen time, too.
- Help your child find physical activities they enjoy. For example, your child might enjoy participating in team sports, dancing, playing outdoors, or doing volunteer work.
- Make physical activity part of your whole family’s lifestyle. Take a walk, go for a bike ride, or do chores together. Plan active family outings.
Should I consider a weight-loss diet for my child?
Don’t put your child on a weight-loss diet without talking to your doctor first. Children need a certain number of calories and nutrients to grow, learn, and develop.
When is it normal for my child or teen to eat more than usual?
Sometimes it’s normal for your child or teen to eat more than usual. He or she may do so—and put on some extra weight—right before a growth spurt in height. This type of weight usually passes quickly as your child continues to grow.
Things to consider
For some children and teens, overeating may be a sign of an eating problem. This could include emotional eating or an eating disorder, such as binge eating disorder.
What is emotional eating?
Emotional eating is eating for comfort, out of boredom, or in response to emotions rather than eating for nutrition or because you’re hungry. Emotional eating can lead to overeating because it isn’t usually about a need for nutrients or calories. Your child’s body doesn’t need the food. Over time, taking in extra calories may cause your child to gain weight and become overweight or obese. Overeating can also cause your child to feel guilty or embarrassed.
If you notice signs of emotional eating in your child, talk to them about your concerns. Help your child develop a healthy response to their problems, such as focusing on solutions.
What is binge eating disorder?
Eating disorders usually develop during the teenage years or in early adulthood. Binge eating disorder is an eating disorder in which a person regularly consumes large amounts of food in a short time. People who have binge eating disorder are often embarrassed by the amount of food they eat.
They may hide food for binges. People who have this disorder often try to diet without success, or they promise to stop eating so much. They feel they can’t control the urge to eat large amounts of food. As a result, they tend to become overweight or obese.
If you’re concerned your child may have an eating disorder, watch their behavior and talk to your family doctor. Your doctor can evaluate your child and recommend the best way to help.
What are the health risks of overeating?
Overeating can lead to weight gain.
Children who are overweight or obese are at risk for serious health problems as they get older, including:
- Heart disease
- Diabetes
- High blood pressure
- High cholesterol
- Asthma
- Sleep apnea
- Some types of cancer
Binge eating disorder can also cause stomach problems and is associated with symptoms of depression.
Questions for your doctor
- What should I do if my child won’t eat anything healthy?
- My child is hungry between meals. Should they be allowed snacks?
- Is it okay if my child doesn’t eat meat?
- My teen doesn’t like to eat in front of anyone. Should I worry?
- My teen is always dieting, and I’m concerned. What can I do?
Resources
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention: Improving Your Eating Habits
Copyright © American Academy of Family Physicians
This information provides a general overview and may not apply to everyone.
Talk to your family doctor to find out if this information applies to you and to get more information on this subject.
10 Reasons Your Child Eats Too Much
When your child eats too much it may concern you.
What’s behind this? Why do kids eat too much?
The truth is, there are several reasons for overeating. And it’s not just because they’re hungry.
I outline these in this article, along with ways you can help.
This post was updated on October 29, 2019.
What You Will Learn about Overeating in Kids:
- Why kids want to eat all the time
- The reasons behind overeating in kids
- What you can do about the child who eats too much
10 Reasons Why Your Child Eats Too Much
- Hunger/Hangry
- Exercise
- Peer influence
- Sensory stimulation
- Boredom
- Parties!
- Emotions
- Restriction
- Erratic meals
- Enjoyment
Help! My Child Wants to Eat All the Time
In a perfect world, your child would eat for the right reasons: true hunger, health and nutrition.
In my years as a pediatric dietitian, I have come to know that we are all triggered to eat for a variety of reasons.
Health and nutrition aren’t always the main drivers, especially when it comes to kids.
Sometimes our kids (and we) over-indulge– and even succumb to excessive eating, whether we intend to or not.
Just think about how hard it is to control your eating at a party!
When it comes to kids, you might worry that your child has a big appetite.
Or you notice she’s a big eater.
Or maybe you wonder why your son eats everything in sight.
Feeling confused (and frustrated) by your child’s desire to eat, and tendency to overeat, you may feel yourself getting pulled into the role of the food cop.
In this article, I’ll discuss the causes of eating too much food in children and what you can do to help (without making things worse).
Aside from the obvious evidence of overeating, there are other, more subtle signs that make parents concerned about their child’s eating habits.
Over the years, I’ve heard stories about moms finding empty candy wrappers hidden in their children’s rooms.
Stories about kids who are eating too much food when they’re at a birthday party, especially sweets and treats.
Tales of children who don’t seem to have self-control around unhealthy, indulgent foods like candy and chips.
And, even accounts of kids who are addicted to sugar.
Have you felt embarrassed when your child goes bonkers for sweets at birthday parties?
Have you felt annoyed by the constant questions about when and what is being served at meals and snacks?
When a Child Eats Too Much
First, let me just say, you’re not alone in your concerns about your child’s eating.
When kids seem to want to eat everything in sight, it can be disturbing.
This issue of self-control around food versus loss of self-control with eating has been one of the most common frustrations I hear from parents like you.
Many parents are frightened by this when it happens with their child.
They don’t understand the underlying reasons that may trigger kids to eat, or why their child participates in excessive eating.
Often they think overeating is a food problem. But, I’m here to tell you, oftentimes, the reasons are deeper and perhaps, multi-factored.
Let me clear up that confusion.
The following are 10 of the most common reasons your child eats a lot.
1. Too Much Hunger (He’s Hangry)
Hunger is the signal that tells our bodies to seek food and eat. A child’s appetite is closely tied to their growth.
Since children are in an eighteen-year growing process, hunger will always be a primary driver for eating.
You will naturally see greater hunger during the baby and teens years (the adolescent growth spurt).
These are the two high growth periods in childhood.
How You Can Help:
Don’t let your child get too hungry.
Stay ahead of hunger by setting up a regular eating schedule, offering meals and snacks at regular times of the day, generally every three to four hours.
These eating intervals are opportunities to eat, not mandated eating times.
Better yet, make sure you’ve got a balanced meal plan in place–it helps quite a bit!
2. Exercise Stimulates Hunger
Active kids burn calories when they exercise. They get hungry when they’ve burned through their calorie reserves, signaling the brain it’s time to refuel.
That kicks the hunger signals into gear.
Depending on the intensity and duration of exercise, hunger can be a real driver of eating.
How You Can Help:
For recreational exercise lasting less than an hour, stay on a routine of timely meals and snacks.
There is no need to provide extra food.
For the athlete exercising longer than an hour, offer a small pre-exercise snack and an after-exercise snack, making sure both provide some quality protein and carbohydrate.
Need more help with feeding your athlete?
You’re in luck! I have a nutrition class for young athletes called Eat Like a Champion and a companion book for parents.
3. The Influence of Peers & Media
In the school age and teen years, the influence of peers is strong. This is so developmentally appropriate, so I always tell my families to expect this.
Translated: Children and teens want to eat what their friends are eating.
This is often influenced by commercials and advertising kids see on TV and the computer. This alone can be the reason for junk food requests.
I interviewed the author of Kid Food on the podcast and she sheds lots of insight into food marketing to kids — take a listen!
How You Can Help:
Don’t get too restrictive with sweets or junky, processed food. When you do this, kids tend to want those sweets and treats you are trying hard to control.
Rather, find a way to work reasonable amounts of these foods into the diet, emphasizing that these are treats for occasional eating.
I encourage you to adopt what I call the 90 – 10 Rule for Sweets and Treats.
It’s a balance of 90% nutritious, wholesome foods and 10% sweets or junky foods (aka Fun Foods).
4. Foods Turn on All the Senses
The smell and appearance of food can make a child want to dig in.
Additionally, research shows that prior enjoyment of a food can trigger a desire to eat delectable foods when they’re seen again.
Fond memories can do the same.
How You Can Help:
Make healthy food look and taste good!
Studies suggest that kids and teens are more inclined to taste a food if it looks good.
The sensory appeal of food can encourage your child to eat it. Makes sense!
Read: 10 Smart Ways to Serve Vegetables to Kids
5. Your Child is Bored
Kids learn to eat when they’re bored. Typically, this occurs between ages five and nine.
The phenomenon is called Eating in the Absence of Hunger.
There’s been plenty of research conducted on this topic.
In a nutshell, kids get bored, and they don’t know what to do, so they eat.
Over time, they learn to turn to food when they are bored.
Overeating due to boredom may occur when there are a lack of strong boundaries around food and eating.
How You Can Help:
There are many ways in which you can create stronger boundaries around food.
For one, you can close the kitchen after meals and snacks.
Other ways you can help ‘tighten the ship:’
Ask your child to ask first before he helps himself to snacks or extra food.
Plan and serve structured meals and snacks.
These three boundaries can help you combat eating due to boredom.
6. Celebrations & Party Food are Triggers
I think we all eat more at celebrations. I know I certainly do!
It’s part of the party mentality: Dig in, indulge, and let go.
The challenge with kids is that there are many opportunities to celebrate: Birthday parties, holiday celebrations, end of sport season, and on and on.
The multitude of parties to which your child is exposed makes it hard to help your child eat for hunger rather than the common food triggers that are present at the party scene.
How You Can Help:
Feed your child a regular meal or snack before heading out to a party or event.
Monitor your child’s eating during the day.
Not so you can tightly control eating too much food, but so you have a sense of her eating patterns and food balance.
That way, you can adjust what you offer at home.
Staying on track with meals and snacks before attending a celebration will lessen the likelihood of over-indulging (hopefully!).
To learn more tips for handling parties and celebrations with your child, read How to Handle Kid’s Eating at Parties .
7. Emotions Spur Eating
When kids are eating too much it may be a side-effect of learning how to deal with uncomfortable or negative emotions by eating food.
Comforting or soothing a child with food may teach him that eating is the thing to do when faced with feelings of sadness, loneliness or unhappiness.
For example, if your child is sad because he didn’t get invited to a party, you may offer to make cookies.
Or, when your daughter doesn’t make the team, you ask her if she wants to go out for ice cream.
None of these are bad reactions, but they may encourage an association with food as a comfort mechanism rather than other, healthier behaviors.
As mentioned above, researchers call this Eating in the Absence of Hunger and it is tied to higher weight and poor eating habits.
How You Can Help:
Encourage your child to communicate about her feelings and work through them in healthy ways, rather than turning to food for comfort.
Teaching your child about mindful eating and how to practice it can be helpful for the long run, as well.
Listen to my podcast that investigates The Science of Emotions and Eating with a psychology expert.
8. Restriction: You’re the Food Police
If kids have experienced an overly restricted food environment at home (ie, no sweets, no junk food, or no second helpings), they may be seeking these forbidden foods when you aren’t around to monitor them.
In other words, restrictive diets and tightly controlling your child’s food choices, or the amounts he eats, may backfire, leading to food seeking behavior and overeating.
Making any food forbidden or scarce can cause more problems and probably isn’t helpful.
Learn more: Forbidden Foods on The Nourished Child podcast.
How You Can Help:
Expose your child to foods like candy, sweets and fried foods on a regular basis so they aren’t novel.
This doesn’t mean to load them up in the house and say yes to every food request.
Use my 90/10 Rule to get started with a framework that will help you be in a better balance with food (above).
Also, having a sweets strategy your family can live by can be useful in normalizing your child’s relationship with them.
I challenge you to dig into your feeding style and see how that may be influencing your child’s eating, too.
And, last, review your knowledge of parenting food — it’s a key to feeding kids well.
When your child has a ravenous appetite and tends toward excessive eating, the timing of meals and snacks may be the culprit.
Hunger can build up when the time between meals is too long, leading to food-seeking behavior and overeating.
Also, when meals don’t contain enough food or aren’t nutritious and satisfying, children can desire more food later and become too focused on food.
[Listen to Healthy Snacks: Satisfy Hunger with 3 Key Nutrients]
When the focus on food is high, the likelihood for kids to eat too much is higher.
How You Can Help:
Turn your focus to diplomatic feeding (formerly called authoritative feeding).
Stay on a regular meal and snack schedule, and offer a balanced plate of all food groups: protein, grains, vegetable, fruit and dairy foods.
Implement food boundaries, and appreciate where your child is in his developmental path.
10. Your Child Enjoys Eating
Eating is an enjoyable endeavor for many children—the process of eating, the taste, the smells, and community with others—all together making eating an exciting and pleasurable endeavor.
If eating is enjoyable for your child, congratulations, you’re halfway to really nourishing a healthy child!
We should all be striving to have children who enjoy eating, who light up when it’s time to come to the table.
And, just because your child enjoys eating, doesn’t mean he’s overeating.
What You Can Do:
Hold steady with plenty of food variety. Create a positive meal environment.
Stay on schedule with structured meals and snacks.
Put food and eating in its place—at mealtime or snack time and at a regular location.
Understand the Child Who Won’t Stop Eating
If your child is eating too much, understanding the root of the issue (if there is one) will help you correct course and feed your child with love and limits.
Learn how to really raise a healthy eater.
Parents find there’s a lot more that goes into it than they expect!
Don’t go it alone.
If Your Child Wants to Eat All the Time, You May Want More Help
The Nourished Child Blueprint is my online program for parents who want to learn about nutrition and food balance, effective feeding, and healthy habits for a lifetime.
It is the blueprint for raising healthy eaters who live in a healthy body and have a healthy relationship with food.
You can find this and my other nutrition classes, workshops and guidebooks over on TheNourishedChild.com.
Check it out!
10 ways to wean your child off sweets
Miracle milk and cookies in the morning, a chocolate bar in the afternoon, juice and a handful of sweets in the evening. If your child eats the same number of treats, he most likely loves sweets, but not delighted with healthy food - vegetables, fruits, cereals, which children need to grow up strong and healthy. The publishing house "Mann, Ivanov and Ferber" has published a novelty "How to wean a child from sweets". These tips from the book will be useful to everyone.
Today's children eat too much sugar, which is very unhealthy. Manufacturers add it wherever possible. Sometimes parents do not even realize what a huge amount of "sweet poison" their children eat. According to scientists, this is about 23 tablespoons of sugar per day! Physician Jacob Teitelbaum and baby nutritionist Deborah Kennedy have developed a step-by-step program to rid children of "sugar addiction", which helps to quickly make the diet more healthy without depriving the child of their favorite treats.
So what should be done? nine0003
1. Allow one sweet a day
Let your child choose when (for breakfast, lunch or snack) and what kind of sweet he will eat. Of course, your control will be needed in order not to cross the line of reason - you can’t choose a whole cake. And in order not to leave the child hungry, prepare a surprise: a healthy snack. For example, chicken toast, dried fruits (only delicious!), fruit mini rolls or berry smoothies.
2. Prepare healthy breakfasts
It is not at all necessary to take away all the sweets in the house and throw them in the trash for show. Spy tactics are what you need. Keep track of what your child eats for breakfast and discreetly slip him the "right" foods. Give your child protein every morning by simply adding it to their regular breakfast. It can be anything: eggs, chicken breast, turkey, peanut butter, hard cheese, legumes. Having eaten at breakfast, children are less likely to eat junk food outside the home.
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3. Do not keep juices and sodas at home
The main source of added sugar is sugary drinks: juices, sodas, energy drinks, miracle milk, and even bottled water with different flavors (strawberry, lime, etc.). You cannot completely control the child's food outside the home, but the house is your territory. Do not buy sweetened drinks: spend one time on a juicer and make natural juice. Milkshakes can be made in a blender with fresh or frozen berries added for flavor. nine0003
4. Dilute sugary drinks
Switching to healthy juices will not work right away, if only because the child will be against it. Be smarter. Dilute juices and soda with water. Gradually, taste buds will get used to such drinks. But be careful - you should never be noticed!
5. Give more fruits and berries
Even if you think that your child is not addicted to sugar (which most likely is not) and he will easily tolerate the withdrawal from the diet of ice cream, juices and pies, still you need to have a backup.
There must be a replacement. Fresh fruits and berries are the perfect solution. Due to the fact that fruits are high in fiber, they are difficult to overeat. Have you seen anywhere that a child eats 3-4 apples in a row? But drinking 3-4 bags of juice is so easy. Fiber tells the brain that the stomach is already full, so there is no risk here. nine0003
6. Don't say "you" but "we"
To prevent the child from feeling that he is being forcibly deprived of treats, say more often not "You should eat less junk food", but "We don't eat this" or " Our family doesn't like soda — it's terribly sweet." The more emphasis you place on the fact that this is your way of life and that adults also live this way, the less alienated children feel.
7. Prepare healthy desserts
There are a lot of so-called PP recipes on the Internet: these are recipes for proper, balanced and healthy nutrition. Sweet is not always harmful if you know what to make a culinary masterpiece from and what proportions to take.
Banana pancakes, fruit smoothies, pumpkin muffins, diet chocolate, granola - the choice is huge. And you will need the simplest products, which is also important. Once every two or three days, choose a new recipe and cook something delicious. Variety is never boring! nine0003
8. Watch science TV shows
The older the child, the more evidence they need. As if by chance, watch popular science films on the topic on weekends, buy books (but don't force your child to read - let them just be in plain sight), look for examples of stars who have not eaten sugar for a long time. It's even better if they are idols - then you won't have to persuade for a long time.
9. Give your child vitamins
Your child will need healthy vitamins and minerals during the weaning period. It is better to take multivitamins, where there is a lot of everything at once. Life hack: make sure your vitamins are sweet and tasty. So you kill two birds with one stone - and take care of your health, and allow your child some sweets.
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10. Don't take it all at once
Understandably, your child may not share your enthusiasm for weaning off sweets. He really likes cakes, sweets, muffins and McDonald's soda. Moreover, he is used to them. In recent years, dozens of studies have appeared that confirm that sugar addiction is similar to drug addiction - both there and there the pleasure centers in the brain are involved. So if you ban everything sweet at once, you will only get tantrums and scandals in response. Act wisely and gradually. And then your child will definitely grow up healthy and be insured against serious illnesses. nine0003
If at dinner we cannot force the child to obey certain rules and at least occasionally eat healthy food, then only he will pay.
For more helpful tips and a complete program for eliminating sweets from your diet, see How to Wean Your Child From Sweets
How to wean a child from overeating?
The situation is very sad. There are two children - 9 and 11 years old.
The younger one is slender, responsible, neat, attentive. The older one is just a disaster. The fact that he is always a dirty, wrinkled and greasy lazy person is not the worst thing. But here's the food - it's just kapets! With a height of 145, it already weighs 56 kg, and the weight is growing. nine0075 Despite the fact that there are no fat people in the family, there are no buns with butter and cakes. All the same, he manages to eat up kilogram after kilogram, despite persuasion, exhortations, requests and punishments. Not just to eat - dragging food at any opportunity, you can not leave anything. Well, how it drags - lay in the refrigerator, for example, butter and boiled chicken. And the children were left for lunch - soup, porridge with meatballs (only warm) and then tomato paste lies, then sour cream is on salads. We come home from work in the evening - we ate soup-porridge, as it should be. The butter is half full, there is not a crumb of bread left, sour cream on the bottom, even the tomato paste is eaten.
nine0075 And he drags like a pig - more than once he wrote out on the neck for being caught dragging goulash from the pan with his hands, or from pilaf.
Watching for days is not an option. It’s useless to swear - yesterday she just scolded me for having eaten all the chops, although she knew that she had fried it for each one, went to the store to buy something for dinner, while she came - an empty can of corn in the refrigerator, an empty bottle of milk and cut into less than half of the vegetable salad is left...
I haven't had junk food at home for a long time - no mayonnaise, no sausages, no sausages. I try to cook at once - if I immediately fry a pot of cutlets, then by the evening there won’t be any left, they’ve already passed (((I can’t stop buying sugar and bread at all, and so I replaced bread with grain and black, my husband doesn’t want to chew spinach and broccoli without bread There is nowhere to cook less - and it happens that while the meat is in the pan, it will be half as long as I go out into another room.
0075 I’m silent about the fact that you can’t buy sweets-cookies at all (and the smaller one asks for either candy for tea or cookies, I can’t feed my whole family only with chicken breast and dietary zucchini) - the package of sweets will disappear at the moment, and the papers will also be under lying on a table....
We visited an endocrinologist, a psychologist, a psychiatrist... Everyone noted that he is healthy, just try not to give a lot to eat...
And how not to give if he drags everything himself? They signed up for two sections - I didn’t lose weight at all, only my appetite broke out, apparently. nine0075 That's how, WELL HOW? How to wean slurping directly from the pan, climbing there with your hands and eating everything that came to hand?
How to stop this terrible beastliness? I’m afraid to imagine what will happen in a few years - firstly, the weight is already terrible, secondly, the habit of acting like a pig is getting worse, I see it, I can carry soup, spill it on the floor and move on, or even bones from plums throw it on the floor.
