Some of our favourite words, right? Not really.
Each day parents are faced with making and supplying breakfast, lunch and dinner for their children. Some days it's a challenge to get them to eat, other days you can't seem to fill them up.
There's plenty of factors to consider when it comes to 'satisfying' our childrens hunger. A rainy day, boredom, thirst, growth spurts, too much fruit, too many processed foods, too much carbohydrates, too much sugar, too much salt, gluten intolerance, candida/bad gut health. No wonder mums are feeling more overwhelmed now than they ever have before, with so many things to consider in just their children's food intake alone.
Well, I truly hope I'm here to help. Here are some considerations I believe should take place if you are in shock or questioning your child's 'hunger'...please read them all!
1. Rainy days = boredom.
They're going to be more hungry because they're not running around or keeping busy with their general day. If they're a little cold this adds to the hunger also. Instead of giving in and handing over another snack, turn the focus to something else. Sit with your children and paint, draw, mould, read books, do some exercises together. Or set them up with something fun to do independently. Of course, there's always the idea of getting them in the kitchen and getting help with prepping lunch or dinner or healthy creations. (Remember the early toddler years play havoc with hunger and familiarity, it's comfortable, it's something they can do on their own so they want to do it often...then they get to a certain age and they're too busy to eat)!
2. Thirst
Is your child drinking enough water? It's easy to think they are. If you're getting the 'I'm still hungry' between normal eating times try offering drinks more often, or if your children are old enough ask them the last time they had a big drink of water. We know this one works on ourselves all too often. Forgetting to drink water happens too much unfortunately. Notice I mention water here. If your children are drinking packaged juice, soft drink or milk drinks, they'll be less hydrated and the sugar in the drinks will make them more hungry. If the packaged drinks (excluding coconut water) aren't making your children crave more sugar or carbohydrates yet, it's coming, believe me.
3. Too much fruit
Too much fruit can't be bad can it? Well, that's debatable with all the 'sugar' studies out currently, but 5-6 servings a day is well plenty for the body. Fruit isn't always 'filling' so I recommend eating protein (and healthy fats) with fruit, this allows the body to break down the fruit sugars better and helps blood sugar levels. When serving fruit, serve with some nuts or seeds, or sliced avocado or egg. Or spread some nut butter on the fruit.
4. Too many processed foods
Packaged foods and processed foods are often made up of ingredients the body doesn't need with the 'bonus' of added sugar, salt, additives, preservatives and empty calories the body doesn't require. Cull them from the daily menu. Nuts are not considered a packaged food, unless they're covered in yoghurt or honey popcorn or something crazy. Tiny teddies is a packaged/processed food, muesli bars and the like. Majority of the time processed and packaged foods are empty calories. Make the calories consumed fulfilling ones. Processed foods are engineered to become addictive, the brain will actually think you really 'need it'. If we limit these foods or cut them 98% of the time, we really are doing our children (and ourselves) a big favour for the future. The big message: serve real foods with real protein & fats, (lean meats, eggs, legumes, nuts, fruit, vegetables, seeds), complex carbohydrates (with protein & healthy fats), not packets because packets make us want to eat more!
5. Gluten intolerance
You may have noticed I'm not a fan of gluten but there is good reason why. There are some good studies these days on the effect it can have on the body, plus my family is gluten intolerant, you don't want to know the symptoms it causes! I don't expect you to not like gluten, you get to make your own choice. Hunger pains have been linked to gluten intolerance however. This article here is fabulous on gluten intolerance (and sugar)...what's with all the gluten intolerances?
6. Candida - Gut Health
Each and every one of us has a gut and each and every one of us has different gut health. A lot of things determine your gut health - natural vs c-section birth, intolerances, allergies, eczema, colon health, general health from foods consumed, the list goes on. Bad gut health is the primary reason for many weaknesses and sicknesses in the body.
Candida is a yeast infection that invades the body and can invade the gut and cause all sorts of problems. One of the strong symptoms of Candida is craving sugar, carbohydrates, biscuits, pasta etc. Basically, candida is like a little bug in your tummy telling your body you're hungry, craving sugary, processed foods - which in turn actually 'feeds' the candida. It's a fungus. So mushrooms (fungi) and the like also feed candida. It's a very nasty cycle. Candida will make you feel unsatisfied, often hungry (how frustrating right?) Read more here.
7. Make healthy food readily available
Stock your fridge with fruit, vegetable sticks, vegetable dips, eggs, vegetable slices based on eggs, raw balls and fudges, smoothie ingredients. Stock your pantry with nuts, seeds, sulphur free dried fruits, rice cakes, popping corn, nut butter, coconut oil. I think it's always a good test of hunger if your children are willing to eat what's available (don't have the packets of stuff on offer and see where it lands).
Hopefully this post has helped you understand general growth spurt vs hungry vs unsatisfied a little better. I am in no way implying you should deny your child food...but being a mother (parent), intuition plays a major role and if you 'feel' something isn't right with the frequency of your child's hunger, refer back to this post before assuming they have 'worms'. There are more chances the above are happening before worms. Remembering also that a growth spurt would last around a week usually...so if the hunger is more frequent than this, refer to the above.
I know my son can't be hungry for the amounts of times he says he is - yes sometimes he's going through a growth spurt, but often I have to distract, question his fruit to protein ratio/intake... and consider his gut health - he is an eczema & asthma sufferer and will soon be undergoing gut health/candida testing.
Regardless of healthy food intake, you can still suffer candida or have bad gut bacteria. Each body is different. Listen to the signs.
My vibrant, energetic, soulful Master 3, prompted this post. Hope it was insightful.
Live happy through living healthy.
Hayley xo
Master 3 daydreaming xo
Just one of the many fruits he would eat ALL day long...
Working that loving smile!
Raw chocolate slice - cashews, cacao, chia seeds, dates, coconut oil, honey. Something else he L O V E S to LOVE!
