And Why Checking Their Plate Often Starts with Fixing Yours
By Paul Evans Registered Nutritionist & Nutrition Consultant across the UK. For clarity or more information reach out to me at paul@thenutritionistuk.com
By Paul Evans
I regularly hear this in clinic: “My child never clears a plate. How do I know he’s getting what he needs?”
While the diet conversation usually begins with children, it often ends with a parent realising that the whole household runs on the same fridge. So, let’s tackle both angles: a quick, evidence-based screen for under-fuelling kids and a reminder that mum or dad’s own nutrition habits shape every bite that lands on a lunchbox.
Spot the warning signs
1. Sliding growth line – Centile charts in the red book (or the NHS Growth Tracker app) should rise smoothly. Crossing down two centiles over six months means under-fuelled, not “slim”.
2. Serial snack raids – Normal grazing is fine; relentless cupboard raids an hour after meals show main plates aren’t calorie-dense enough.
3. Afternoon energy dip – Kids should be tired from football, not wiped-out by 4 p.m. Mood crashes signal low fuel.
4. Clothes tell a tale – Baggy waists while sleeves still fit equals weight drop relative to height gain.
5. Recycler of every cold going – Energy and immune function are linked. Slow recovery or endless infections can be an energy-gap clue.
Rule of thumb: If your child is active and continues to track their usual centile line, they’re likely eating enough. If weight stalls while height climbs, add 200-400 kcal daily and reassess in four weeks.
Quality calories, not empty ones
A typical primary-schooler needs 1600–2200 kcal; a football-mad ten-year-old can torch 400 extra by teatime. Extra energy should build bone and brain, not spike blood sugar. Think dairy fat, nuts, seeds, oats, avocado— foods that carry protein, calcium, good fats and micronutrients adults often skimp on, too.
Slip one or two in each day and you’ve quietly added 250– 300 kcal without a fizzy drink in sight.
How to do it without mealtime warfare
• Add, don’t nag. A spoonful of butter melts invisibly into soup; rapeseed oil goes on after cooking.
• Small but mighty portions. Dense mini-lasagne beats a mountain of fat-free pasta no one finishes.
• Liquid calories count. Smoothies and kefir deliver energy plus nutrients; water alone won’t plug large gaps.
• Model the behaviour. Kids copy what parents normalise. If we still treat butter like it’s 1995, they will too.
Notice how many of those principles solve adult nutrition hiccups as well? I see plenty of parents who trim their own calories so aggressively the family menu loses its backbone. A child who under-eats is often living in a lowenergy household.
When to get expert help
• Two months of enrichment and no growth rebound.
• Whole food groups refused.
• Digestive red flags: ongoing diarrhoea, severe constipation, unexplained vomiting.
Ask your GP for a paediatric dietitian referral or drop a registered nutritionist, like me, a line. Early, targeted guidance prevents “picky” sliding into malnutrition, and we can tune the family’s meal rhythm in one sitting.
Pantry power-ups
• Oats: cheap, versatile, stealth-calorific.
• Cold-pressed rapeseed oil: sprinkle like olive oil, supporting local farmers.
• Cheddar: one kid-sized grate = more calcium than a glass of milk.
• Salmon trimmings: stir through mash, add 100 kcal and brain-boosting omega-3.
A word to the grown-ups reading this
If the checklist above made you think, “Actually, I crash at 4pm. Too,” it’s not a coincidence.
Children and adults thrive on the same foundations: balanced calories, quality fats, slow carbs, protein you can chew. Tweaking the larder for them is the perfect excuse to sort your own energy levels, weight plateau, or postworkout recovery.
I spend most of my week helping parents who arrived worried about a child and left fixing their own nutrition — slimmer waistlines, stronger immune systems, calmer evenings around the table.
Bottom line
Kids grow on energy, not thin air. Watch the growth chart, the mood at homework time and the looseness of trousers. If the warnings pop up, enrich what they already love with nutrient-dense calories: milk with its fat left in, nut butters, cheese, avocado, oats, rapeseed oil.
Your child’s immune system, your own energy levels and, frankly, family harmony will thank you.
