# How much does your teenage son eat?



## Whisper (Jul 12, 2002)

My 16 year old son is always hungry. And he is usually complaining that there is nothing to eat.

This means that when he opens the fridge a four course, piping hot meal does not float down into his arms!

But seriously, how much and WHAT do you feed a growing boy that will stick to the ribs?

Most of us in this house are vegetarians. My dh, one dd and ds do eat chicken on occasion.

Also, any tips for what to have on hand that he can just whip up himself without breaking too much of a sweat?







:


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## Lucky Charm (Nov 8, 2002)

My daughter is almost 16 and my son is 13. my little guy is 5.

I know you are vegetarian, but is your teenager?

I keep tortillas in the house with bags of shredded cheese. My kids like those HotPockets....not the best i know, but they do eat a good breakfast and i make a good dinner, so i try not to freak about it, kwim?

My kids also like the kraft macaroni and cheese singles....where you cook an individual serving in a bowl.

forzen burritos are good. i get the bean ones, and keep a jar of chili sauce they can pour over it and make it "wet burrito".

egg sandwiches are good. with a slice of cheese even better and that keeps them full.


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## ComeOnLetsGo (Nov 19, 2001)

My oldest is only 12, but he is the size of many 15 year olds. He is also always "starving". His favorite food that actually seems to keep him full for an hour or two is peanut butter on a sesame bagel. He usually eats it with a banana or some other fruit, but it seems to fill him up for awhile even on its own. The few times we've actually run out of bagels I thought he was going to commit hari-kari!







: I now keep the freezer stocked! He also enjoys those plastic-wrapped cheese sticks and yogurt drinks. He also drinks A LOT of milk.


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## ComeOnLetsGo (Nov 19, 2001)

Sorry...double post for some reason







:


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## Whisper (Jul 12, 2002)

My son goes through phases. Sometimes it's cereal. He'll eat it al day and night. Then it's PBJ. Now it's ice cream.

The tips everyone has shared are great. I do have a lot of these foods already but now he wants something new.

I told him he needs to be specific. If he can be.

I told him I'll make anything but hamburger/steak or any other type of cow. If he wants that, he needs to find it elsewhere!

He is very athletic, always on the move. Very thin, but not scrawny.

Occasionally (like after he works out







: ) he drinks a protein shake. Milk with protein powder, sometimes with bananas and/or strawberries.

The thing is he recently saw something about intestinal parasites and thinks he has them. Because he is always hungry. Could this be or is he just *growing*?? How would I ever know?


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## mamawanabe (Nov 12, 2002)

My brother used to come home from school and eat for snack what my mom planned to make for dinner for a family of five!

I remember him eating dinner everynight and then immediatly making a stack of sandwhiches.

My boyfriend has a story of how he made french toast one morning in high school and used an entire loaf of bread and carton of eggs!


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## Sierra (Nov 19, 2001)

My 15 year old is in the 75 percentile for height and is also fairly thin. He eats like crazy, and we've decided we need another fridge to put in the garage to restock the fridge in the kitchen after he gets through. Otherwise we end up shopping every day or close to it.

By the way, we are all vegetarians, but lean more toward the vegan side in comparison to our teen, who eats lots of dairy.

He also eats in phases, eating one item nonstop for days and then moving on to something else.

We buy granola that he munches on a lot for snacks, but it gets expensive, and even without granola he ends up drinking a gallon of milk in one-three days.

He loves bags of mini-carrots. He is also a total fruit eater, so I started shopping at Costco (blech!)...I buy him a five pound bag of plums, and he will go through that in a couple of days, so I need to get several at a time. He will go for chips and salsa if we remind him it is there. Sometimes he'll grate cheese on the chips and bake them for some nachos, and if he is feeling especially motivated, he'll add beans and sour cream. I try to keep cheese for sandwiches and crackers handy. String cheese is evil but has become a must-have...and that's not even one of his favorites.

He loves yogurt with fruit, but he goes through that too quickly for us to keep up with the supply without going broke (a large container in a day), so we buy it less now. I am blessed in that he loves V8, which at least is more healthy than other canned drinks. He'll drink four or five cans of V8 in a day. He makes lots of smoothies, but I hate that mainly because it uses so much fruit and then there is none for the rest of us. Lately he has fallen in love with fruit leather for a sweet treat/dessert type thing, and luckily I found that Costco sells them in bulk (still pretty expensive, though, so we ask him to limit that a bit).

Peanuts work okay, and he likes dried fruit, but again, it can get expensive. I tried to get him into hummus (with carrots and various other snackies), but he hasn't gone for that yet. Cottage cheese mixed with jam has been a favorite of late, and cottage cheese, again, is a bulk item at Costco. Pb & J is a staple still. Pb crackers do pretty well. Left over baked or boiled potatoes are often fried the next day. Canned fruit like peaches and pears and fruit cocktail aren't my favorite, but he will go through phases with those. I buy those at a Grocery Outlet we have, where I can get canned goods for as cheap as 40 cents each. If we keep cooked noodles and marinara type sauce in the fridge, he will sometimes grate cheese on top and bake it. Multi-grain english muffins and bagels are hits when we can find good deals on them.

Oh, I should say that one day I got all freaked out because an older friend of mine (whose kids are grown) told me I was letting him drink too much milk and eat too much. I called my dad who is the king of health. He told me that when he was my son's age, he would come home from school and drink a gallon of milk and eat a loaf of bread in a sitting and still be hungry. This is normal!

Sierra


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## Suefrog (Nov 19, 2001)

My kids are 17 , 15 and 3 yr old girls and 13 and 10 yr old boys.
My 13 yr old son went to my sisters for a couple weeks and boy do i see a difference in the grocery bill! We even have snacks left until the day before my next grocery shopping day! Never thought it would make such a difference! LOL

Sue


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## applejuice (Oct 8, 2002)

My DS#2 went to college last July.

When he left, I still had my BIL, DS#1 age 20, my DD, DS#3, and DH for the rest of the summer.

DH died in August.

BIL left in September.

DS#1 left in October.

I have not had to buy any food except for fresh produce in six weeks.

Before that, my food bill was $300.00 a week.

Unbelieveable!


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## jannan (Oct 30, 2002)

ds is chubby but not obese. he is about 10lbs overweight. he eats a lot of fruit. he won't eat meat. i don'tkeep microwaveable food in the house. since he equates organic with soy and he hates soy he won't eat it. he eats alot of fruit an d makes milk shakes with fruit. I'm sure at school he eats junk. his favorite food is black beans. he'll eat rice and beans for dinner everynight.


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## Linda in OZ (Sep 14, 2003)

I have been wondering about how my kitchen will cope when the boys hit their teens, as it is at 8 & 5 they both eat more at each meal than I eat all day








Linda


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## Whisper (Jul 12, 2002)

I have not been on board for a while, so I was surprised to see my post still up and running!

My DS has cut down a LITTLE on food. He is also not complaining as much about not having anything to eat.







:

He does spend quite a bit of his own money on junk food, however.







:

And now he is trying to "beef up" for next year's football season. He's always checking those muscles in the mirror.


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## applejuice (Oct 8, 2002)

Ahh!

I think that is the neatest thing - to see your children mature and primp!

How wonderful to have a goal also!


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## homebirthx2 (Jan 3, 2004)

Sierra
There is a thing as SAM CLUB


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## anythingelse (Nov 26, 2001)

My baby is hitting 6 ft tall now with size 13 shoes. He eats like he has four legs to stuff it down into and it is amazing. The thing that gets me is his hair, how fast his hair and nails grow.

I have no idea how much he eats, but he is taking vitamins and extra calcium to help with the leg cramps. Has had to drink more fluids too to keep up with the rate of growth, he turned 15 in november. Shaves every day & has more of a 5 oclock shadow then his dad which to me wierds me out










they do grow up really fast


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## applejuice (Oct 8, 2002)

When I was a newlywed, my MIL would tell me many stories about my DH when he was a teenager. About his eating habits, she said that he would eat dinner at home and then go and visit the neighbors and mooch dinner off of them also.

The neighbors eventually asked her if he ever ate at home.

DH was NEVER fat. He always had a good appetite.

His three sons are the same way. The youngest is today twelve, so I am saving for the hungry days.


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## boobykinmamma (Nov 28, 2001)

I don't have a teenage boy yet (ds is 3.5), but I have a brother, and I remember him being a bottomless pit as a teenager. He was tall and very thin, and active--skate boarded for hours after school and all day on weekends. He'd eat 5 or 6 pieces of chicken for dinner, and be ready for a substantial snack an hour later. I remember him eating lots of protein, especially meat and cheese. He's still a big eater, not as thin as he was then, but in great shape.


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## calgal007 (Nov 20, 2001)

I'm going to invent something I'll call "Teen Chow" that will be sold in 50 lb. bags. That should hold the average 11-17 year old boy for about a week. :LOL


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## barbara (Feb 13, 2002)

I had to smile when I saw this thread! I can't believe how much less food we went through wehn my sons went away to college! Those teenage boys are eating machines!

I found that having lots of fresh fruit around was always good. We also use to keep frozen burrittos and bagles in the freezer that they could pop in the microwave. Bagles and cream cheese were a big favorite for awhile. Now when ds comes to visit he always gets into the tortillas and will make something out of eggs, veggies, and salsa to wrap up in them.

Now my problem is my vegan teen dd. She is very active and wants something in a hurry when she is hungry. We have lots of good fruits and veggies around but she is getting sick of salad and can't be bothered to cook much of anything.


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## wildbozmommy (Feb 18, 2004)

My 14 year old usually eats one of those egg burrito thingys for breakfast, a sandwich, drink, chips, fruit and maybe yogurt for lunch, then comes home and wants to eat another full meal! His favorite snack is tortilla chips and salsa, which I feel is pretty healthy compared with other snacks. He doesn't like most vegetables, but he will eat the salsa, so that's good. I usually only buy the "good stuff" from Trader Joe's ... LOL! I have just recently found that I need to make more for dinners than I used to because DS is always hungry AFTER dinner. He will then eat ice cream or whatever other sweet stuff I have in the house. He is not overweight, but he used to be chubby before puberty. I just wish I could convince him to eat more fruits and veggies. Oh, for lunch he sometimes will eat 2 sandwiches and the rest of the stuff I pack. School lunches (blech!) are never enough for him.

My grocery bill is now our largest expense per month - yikes.


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## layla (Jul 2, 2002)

If I told you how much my children eat, you wouldn't believe me, so I'll spare you. Thank goodness they're all thin! Let's just say our grocery bills are comparable to a mortgage, and we're vegetarian/non-dairy (but not vegan) and my oldest is seven. Yes, seven not seventeen!


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