Serving Sizes

My kids just turned 2. I pretty much always cut everything in half for them to share - a half of a sandwich, a half of a nutrigrain bar a half of a string cheese, a half of a banana,etc. I sometimes wonder if I would do this if I only had a singleton instead of twins. They don't usually finish what they are given for a meal, but I'm sure if I gave them a whole nutri grain bar or something like that they love, they would eat the whole thing. I just want to make sure they save room for other stuff too. Although when they're being picky they'll still leave everything else anyway. My daughter lives on milk, fruit, crackers and air and manages to be in the upper percentiles for weight and height. My son is a great eater in comparison, but is in the 7th percentile for weight and avg for height. The dr. isn't concerned, since he actually just graduated from the 5th percentile, but I'm just curious how others feed their two year olds.

Do you feed them in halves?

 

I do, and I consider it a bonus of having twins, because they rarely eat a whole whatever-it-is anyway (except maybe bananas -- but we have to ration bananas due to constipation). Even with snack bars, where they do often eat a whole one, I start by splitting one in half. That way, if it happens to be one of those times where they each take two bites and then hand it back to me, at least I've only opened one.

 

I usually do because that's as much as my kids will eat. Very rarely will one of them finish a whole banana or eat a whole sandwich. I used to wonder this myself until yesterday at a playdate and my friend fed her 2 year old a half of sandwich and she ate the other half. I think it just goes by how much you know your kids will eat. Now my kids are usually pretty good at letting me know they are still hungry, so if they tell me so, I'll get them something more. But usually a half seems to do them good.

 

I do for the most part, but fruit snacks, they get a whole pack. Bananas, it's up to Alice to share, so usually Royce gets a much larger or a much smaller piece than Alice. Cereal bars and the like, I start with one, if they want more, I open another one.

My bestie has a singleton and she usually has in ziplock baggies, 1/2 banana, 1/2 cereal bar, 1/2 of everything.

 

I don't quite belong here yet, but this is actually one of the things I'm loving about twins vs singleton. With my oldest DS, there was always so much waste because he'd rarely eat a whole sandwich, or nutrigrain bar, or whatever. I'm excited with the twins there won't be as much waste (or holding the other half until tomorrow). I'm super-excited about meals out, because the children's portions are so huge for my DS, I think it will be perfect for the twins to split it all!

So far, it's been great - splitting things in half seems to be just the right amount.

 

I agree; I was just marveling this morning about how I made 1 piece of peanut butter toast for the boys' breakfast (served with fruit and milk) and that was just right; by the time they came to the last bite they weren't really interested. I thought how much more waste would there be if there was only 1!

My guys are 20 months and 1 children's meal at a restaurant is *still* too much food for both of them! :laughing:

 

For some things yes, some things no. They usually only eat half a sandwich, so I usually cut that in half. But once in a while one of them will want more when done with the half. They get their own banana, own breakfast bar...it really just depends. Sometimes they split a kids meal, sometimes they don't. At this point, we can kind of judge how hungry they are.

 

It often ends up that way, and it makes good sense - a whole [whatever] is often too big a portion for a 2 yo. Very convenient!

 

Mine get half of everything too, except cereal bars as they always ask for more otherwise.

 

Yep, sounds like what I do.