Toddler Growth Spurt?? a Leisurely Grazer Who Enjoys His Favorite Foods? Both?

oh honey...i am sure your little one is a delight and wonderful, he sounds amazing. but i hate to tell you, that he is a typical toddler. enjoy this while you can! i LOVED taking mine to restaurants at this age. everything is new and interesting, and tortilla chips at a mexican restaurant or colors and paper at red lobster are plenty to keep them occupied. it doesn't last! mine is 3 1/2 now and he's so "been there, done that" at restaurants now lol. we LOVE buffets because there is NO wait! lol! he gets super bored. we bring a bagful of toys instead of a diaper bag :)

but to answer your other question, yes, kids this small need lots of snacks. mine still eats about every 2 hours. enjoy your wonderful little man! this is a great stage! :)

My daughter is almost 4 years old and is still a grazer and during growth spurts she eats more then I do in a day because they need a lot of food energy to growth. Grazing is actually healthier then eating big meals because the body is breaking down the food slowly instead of us cramming our stomach full.

We sit down for 3 meals (breakfast, lunch & dinner), my hubby tries to stress eating ALL of the meal in one sitting BUT with my daughter she will eat about half of it and come back 30-60mins later to eat the other half. I give her a smaller portion for dinner and then took something my mom did for me, she would put a muffin tin out on the table (or in fridge) with healthy foods to snack from. Usually it was fruit in two, veggies in two and the last two goldfish/cracker type snack (when it was completely empty it gets refilled, unless it is the end of the day/bedtime then it would get washed).

Daughters average eating times: Breakfast grazing 7:30am eats half comes back around 8:30am to eat the other half, Snack 10am, Lunch grazing Noon eats half 1pm eats other half, Snack 2:30pm, Dinner 5:30pm eats half 6:30pm eats the other half, Snack 7:45pm (bedtime shortly after 8pm). During growth spurts she is ALWAYS eating and never seems full, hence where the muffin tin with healthy food comes in so she can help herself instead of me getting something for her every 30 mins :)

My daughter is healthy, happy, in the 95% range for height, 50% for weight, smart and has a great personality. To me that is what matters, if it works for your kid and they are healthy great :)

My 2.5 year old is the same way and has been since he's been about 1. It takes him forever to eat. I'm not too worried about it though, and it is nice at restaurants. :)

Are you happy? Is he happy? If you are, then you are the envy of all! Don't change a thing!

First of all, as a mother of four, grandma to five, let me say bless you. Bless you for following your instincts and your babies needs instead of some book, formula or pattern. All children are different, have different needs and different paces.

We always called the children in our family like your son our "grazers", they just grazed around all day, nothing big except the variety. Some of the kids could sit for awile, some of them ate "on the go" all the time (food in each hand and on their way).

What all the kids had in common is how much they ate changed all the time. One day they could eat like a bottomless pit, on other days they ate like a bird and one would think they didn't have enough to sustain them. (One pediatrician reasured me with a picky child that they can get by with 3 tablespoons of food while being suplimented with milk at this age!)

My personal observation; when they went through a spurt of eating us out of house and home they very soon needed the next size clothing, right after getting a new size the appetite decreased for a little while.

my duaghter is just over 2, and at times will sit in her chair and spend the entire dinner hour not eating much, and other times, she is the first one done with dinner. She eats 3 meals and at least 1 snack and once in a while gets a second snack in the day. i have a small table for her where I normally am, and so she eats her snack and lunch there, so she can take her time and play with the food and I am not stuck at the table for any amount of time.

She does go through spurts where she eats hardly a thing for days, and then seems to eat all day long and doesn't stop. i do know that they won't starve themselves, and if they are hungry they eat. So he could be going through a spurt of some sort.

If you think he isn't eating much at the meals try limiting the snacks. either removing a snack time, or giving less during the time. I cut out afternoon snack and my daughter eats a much better dinner. but she still doesn't get up from nap until close to 4, so snack time was too close to dinner. If she is up at 3, she gets something small to eat.

The only thing I can suggest is not allowing him to sit for one hour at each meal/snacktime. When you add the time up, he is sitting for 3 or more hours a day. That does not leave a whole lot of waking time for sensorymotor activity that he should be getting alot of at his age. I would limit the time to 15 minutes. If he can't finish in that time then you might want to find out why he can't chew and swallow in a more organized way. Children need all kinds of movement, not sitting. This is what leads to school problems later on. From the schedule you listed he is not being very active, moving his body while he is breastfeeding and sitting and reading. Give him many more opportunties for climbing, crawling, swinging, running, rocking, jumping, rolling, hanging, swimming, pushing, pulling, heavy work, spinning and walking. Everything learned in life is learned through the body first. Gross motor is the most important to get so all the otehr motors can come in like fine motor, oculo motor, oral motor and social/emotional skills. Good luck on your fun journey.

I think you are fabulous to just relax and let him do this--perfect-k