My child is constantly hungry. How do I keep her feeling fuller?

Question

I give my daughter lots of healthy foods, including those that have fiber in them. She gets veggies and fruits, proteins, dairy, she has a water bottle with her wherever she goes and yet this week she is waking up in the middle of the night hungry and honestly wanting food as well as needing something to eat almost every hour during the day.

Breakfast often includes eggs, sausage, ham or other such foods (often in an omlette, frittata or quiche. We do oatmeal a lot along with some fruit or a yummy shake and once a week or so we have muffins, pancakes or waffles (which almost always have a little flaxseed thrown in. She loves both the eggs and oatmeal and eats plenty at breakfast.

Lunches usually include a homemade burger (I have a recipe that includes blackbeans, soy and ground beef together I use), deli sandwich and/or some sort of soup or chili (especially this time of year). This is also when I might do what most people in the US would have for Dinner. Stir Fry (again, brown or wild rice or a mixture), Porkchops and root veggies, Meatloaf and mashed potato. We might also get something at McD's or Panda Express if we are out and about (she loves the orange chicken). Almost every sauce I make has veggies in it as well as what she eats on the side. One of her favorite veggies is broccoli so she often asks for half veggies/half rice when we are eating at Panda Express.

Dinner is often a lot simpler and might be rice (I never use white) and beans, a nutty cous cous concoction that is a family favorite that includes a little quinoa with the cous cous and pistachios or something more traditional like spaghetti (without all the extra trimmings though) and a side of veggies such as roasted squash or zucchini, green beans, peas and carrots. . . (you get the idea).

I don't do desert very often, but she does get chocolate milk some of the time (2%), has access to candy (but rarely chooses to eat it - seriously, I don't even tell her she needs to ask anymore) and when we are at the theater often gets the "less healthy" stuff for dinner because we are out OR I'll pack sandwiches with carrot sticks, jicama and fruit and a cup of pudding or yogurt.

She is six, tall and skinny, and pretty active, so this is not an over-eating thing (or an infant thing). I don't believe it is medical because there is no genetic history of such things and we've actually gone through similar periods of time before. The pattern often is that it lasts about a week or so. Then, she suddenly grows some (and we have to pull out the hand-me-downs in the next size) and then her appetite goes back to normal.

In the past, having some extra apples and grapes around (or other fruits) along with some yogurt or cheese and a piece of toast or crackers for her to grab has worked. She also can make herself a peanut butter sandwich at any time really (and I'll help with other ideas if she wishes for them). The getting up in the middle of the night so hungry she can't get back to sleep part is new though. I'm expecting it to pass any day now (and to suddenly need the new PJ's, shirts and leggings I got to put in presents under the tree sooner rather than later) but in the meantime I am starting to get concerned about her sleep.

Any ideas would be greatly appreciated. Pre-bedtime snack ideas that are healthy to try? Tricks-of-the-trade for helping her sleep even after she gets hungry? A Snack that won't be bad for her teeth and gums she can just have by the bed so she doesn't even have to get up and can fall back asleep faster? . . .

UPDATE:

8:30am ate 3 servings of egg, cheese, sausage fritata that also contained zucchini, and summer squash. Along side had a smoothie with yogurt, spinach, strawberries, blackberries and a banana.

9:35 - "Mom, I'm hungry. Can I have some yogurt raisins and an apple?"
"Sure Hon. Do you want a bowl of peanut butter to dip your apples in?" "Yumm. That sounds good mommy."

11:00 - "Mom is it time for lunch yet?" Daddy responds, "Do you want to go get a burger? - Have a little Daddy time?" Apparently she ate all but two bites of her cheeseburger and a sizable amount of fries.

1:30 - "Mom, did we have lunch? I'm hungry." She had a little chocolate milk and a pear with a small handful of crackers and a few slices of cheddar. Half an hour later we added a granola bar.

Just now - "Mom, I'm hungry again."

FINAL Update: without a lot of change, but with a peanut butter and jelly protein shake (and the diet outlined above) just before teeth brushing and bed - she slept Really Well last night YEAH!!!!. The shake had crunchy, all natural peanut butter, frozen strawberries, Greek Yogurt, spinach (I know - but she likes one I make with spinach and pineapple in it and when I was making it said, but mom what about the spinach?) and soy protein powder in it.

By bed she was SUPER tired anyway, and she has awoken with visibly longer legs (when viewing where the cuff falls) than the ones she started the day with yesterday morning. Can't really tell if its anything we did differently or if it was just time, but I'm keeping all the ideas in mind and getting some great ones on the cooking site too. I'm sure it will come up again.

Answer 1

As mentioned in your comments, perhaps giving her a high-protein snack pre-bedtime. An egg maybe or even a protein shake. You could make a pretty awesome high-protein, pre-bedtime smoothie with peanut or almond butter, yogurt and/or milk and a fruit of some kind.

We know that eating protein helps to sort of stave off hunger by increasing the hormone that is responsible for suppressing our appetites. Since carbs are digested and metabolized rather quickly by the body, Alice probably doesn't have a whole lot of fat stores for her body to fall back on once its burned all its carbohydrate fuel. There are some pretty good foods that are easy to throw into your dinner plans that don't include necessarily adding meat (which I know we struggle with because meat is sometimes tough on growing jaws): legumes (we like red beans and black beans around here) which work great in chilies or with rice, quinoa is a somewhat-new favorite around here and can easily replace a grain. The texture is a little weird and can take some getting-used-to. Cheeses are obviously easy to throw into most dishes. Plus, throwing some nuts and seeds into her snack-time repertoire could help too. Especially since it's the holidays and getting your hands on macadamia nuts, cashews, and the like is super easy this time of year.

It certainly sounds like she's going through a growth spurt, and you're probably right, she'll probably get through it in a few days. Let us know how the added protein helps.

ETA: I was cruising around looking for other information about foods that help you feel fuller longer and I ran across this article. The article discusses a study performed in 1995 where a researcher in Australia created "A Satiety Index of Common Foods". Using a 240-calorie portion of white bread as a baseline, the researcher gave 240-calorie portions of various foods to volunteers in the study and then asked them to rate their feeling of fullness every 15 minutes over the next 2 hours. White bread had a satiety score of 100 while potatoes (they don't specifically mention which kind of potatoes. I'm guessing red potatoes) had a score of 323. Anyway, the article goes on to discuss various other food types known to help with that feeling of fullness (whole grain!). Be aware though, the article is clearly written for companies in the food manufacturing industry and devolves pretty quickly into a discussion on various additives that companies can add to their new products to help their consumers feel fuller longer. Anyway, I imagine if you bulked up her whole grain intake (making spaghetti, for example, with whole wheat pasta) and added a little more protein to dinner she'd be good to go.

Answer 2

Looking at her diet it is actually too healthy! Children should get half their calories from fat, and have high protein levels as well. They should get their veggies to be sure, but stoke her up on high energy, long-lasting stuff that "sticks to your ribs" as my grandfather said. Chuck some cheeseburgers and fries her way!

Good dairy fats are something easy to work into a diet. Try giving her full-fat greek yogurt with a spoon of jam, honey, or agave nectar in it for flavor. Cheese is good, so work that in with some home-made macaroni and cheese with some meat and veggies on the side.

On the carbs side long-lasting carbs would be good as well rather than processed ones. Real oatmeal made with full fat (whole) milk is a good breakfast option as it is slow-release. Home-made or artisan bread made with flours like rye, spelt, oats, etc are much better than the artificial junk that masquerades as bread in the supermarket these days as they are far less processed. Brown rice rather than white.

Really it's just getting the balance between fats, protein, carbs, and fruits and veggies right. Once she's full up and putting on some weight you can work in less fats. It doesn't matter what time of the day she eats them, as long as she gets the right calories sometime during the day she won't wake up hungry.

Answer 3

If she is always hungry try giving her boiled eggs. These take four hours to digest. If you mix them up with butter or even a little olive oil, pinch of salt and some pepper they are delicious and she will like the taste in no time. So she isn't constipated use the oil or butter freely. One of them should fill her and they are good for her health. I can't digest a hard boiled egg. But since I do like them I usually mash them with olive oil or softened salted butter. I can get them down easily that way.