On kids and eating

SJ has a knack for always being hungry. Unfortunately she's never quite hungry during an actual meal time. But, as soon as you put away lunch/dinner or as soon as you get in the car, she chimes in with, "I'm hungry" or "I want a snack." This is not really a new thing, but it's something I thought she'd kind of grow out of by now and it only gets more annoying. Granted I always have snacks on hand when we go out they usually are ones that are nonperishable and very portable (crackers, dried fruit, fruit strips, or pretzels), not necessarily good eats like yogurt, cheese and cut up veggies.

I think our new game plan is that what ever she has left of her dinner at night becomes her snack if she requests any food before bed. Although last night we put her left over food in front of her, per her request, during her 20 min of t.v. time before bed. Despite several verbal cues (that's part of my PT lingo) she did not eat one bite. Then she proceed to cry and have a tantrum when the t.v. was turned off and we told her it was time to go to bed. "I'm hungry," she cried and pleaded. "I'm sorry, but you had your chance. You can eat breakfast in the morning." She cried a bit before heading off to sleep but I still felt some guilty pangs about allowing her to go to bed hungry.

This morning she asked for breakfast and was given a bowl of cereal out of which she ate about 8 bites before being finished. Then, about an hour later was hungry again. She ate a snack,then 30 min later wanted another snack. This process seems to be repeating itself this whole day. For a special treat she got a Happy Meal for lunch. She complained the whole way home of being hungry. She proceeded to eat 3 french fries and drank 1/2 her milk and that's all. About an hour after wrapping up her untouched cheeseburger she said she was hungry again. Sigh.....I zapped her burger and so far I think she's had 1 bite. Hmmm.... I suspect in an hour again she'll be clamoring for another snack.