4yo and crazy appetite?

[♥ms.pacman♥]

Wondering if this is normal. Ds will go a week with basically not eating dinner (eating a bite or two and that's it)...i can't even bribe him to come to the table. Then suddenly he turns into a bottomless pit. This week it seems ds eats more than I do. We went out to thai restaurant last night and he started acting out at first, impateintly waiting for the food. i had given him a snack but the kid acted like he was starving. as soon as the food came the kid was downing corn patties, chicken satay, as well as my curried veggie s and rice ..it was crazy. Then when we got home, the kid said he was still hungry!! I was afraid to give him something else as i thot he'd get sick.

but seriously anyone else's kid do this? i always hear of kids basically going for days eating nothing, and while DS does do this often, there's other times when he eats everything in sight. also, i notice he tends to really act out more bc he gets so hungry so much. it's so hard to stay on top of though.

[BabbyO]

I think we are dealing with this exact same thing. My 4 yo will barely eat anything for days then he doesn't stop. Yesterday he basically ate non-stop from 7:30 am to 11:30 am, Cereal, banana, breakfast sausages, oatmeal, fruit, spaghetti - there's more, I just don't recall all of it. Then he took about a 2-2.5 hr break and started up again about 2:30 - pretzels, pears, almonds, granola bar, hamburger, a full plate of veggies, chicken nuggets, another pear...

Additionally, yesterday at about 10:45 am he had a complete meltdown, throwing toys, yelling, etc. When he calmed and I asked what was going on, why he'd thrown his toys, he said he didn't know. Then said he was hungry...so he had lunch at 11 am....

I don't know that I have any advice, but I can definitely commiserate. Oh, and both my boys can eat more in one meal than I do most of the day.

Right now we're focusing on smart snacks and keeping his blood sugar from getting too low. I'm wondering if this is also leading to some of the behavior issues we're seeing at school lately.

[IansMom]

DS has been doing this off and on for the past few weeks except for not eating dinner, he refuses breakfast. He will be 5 in a few weeks. He actually woke up at 3 am last week and begged for pasta! So, I have no advice but I am dealing with the same situation.

[scrooks]

Exact same thing going on here! We didn't experience it with dd but ds1 won't eat and then out of the blue will eat HUGE amounts! A couple of months ago my MILs jaw dropped as he ate a 1/3 burger for dinner and then some! We went out to eat a couple of weeks ago and he had 2 big chicken strips, a mini burger, a cup of mandarin oranges, some soft pretzel and a few fries...plus dessert (I swear we don't eat like this all the time but we were out to eat):bag And he is a completely normal sized 4 year old. I don't know where the kid puts it!

[BDKmom]

My DS turns 4 on Sunday, and he is doing the same thing. I remember describing his appetite as a roller coaster to the ped at his 3 yr check up, so I guess it has been going on for the past year. He will go weeks picking at his food and hardly eating anything, then eat non-stop for a few days, then level out for a while, lather, rinse, repeat.

[Simon]

Sounds very normal. We always just keep offering/supplying food until they say they are done, although we do space out food (timing) and offer less appealing foods so we're sure they are still hungry and not just craving then overeating a specific food.

[hellokitty]

This has been the pattern for my two youngest boys, and I think that it is b/c (tmi alert), that they are both more prone to constipation. So, on days where they haven't gone, they could go by barely eating much of anything. On days where they finally go #2, they eat and eat and eat to catch up. I also think that it is part of being a finicky 4 yr old. My oldest one was never like this, but he's also extremely regular and has never had constipation, so this is why I kind of wonder if it is related to their bm schedule.

[HannaAddict]

Totally normal!