[marigold]

Hi all, need some advice! One of my boys, (who has been with me for over two and a half years and is here to stay) has developed a new issue. About two months ago he started waking up in the middle of the night and getting into food. I have tried almost everything short of locking up all of the food in the house!! He was severely neglected and abused in his previous home but has no other food issues any more, no hoarding and we have even got his overeating under controll. The problem is the amount he is eating like 10 poptarts or a whole box of fruit snacks. I have put up food and laid out appropriate snacks, but I am not sure how much I want to encourage any night snacking. Talked to his therapists about this and they just say to lock up all my food. I really don't want to do that!! Anyone else here deal with this? ANY suggestions welcome! Oh, by the way, he is three almost four.

[greenrobin]

Well, I've heard folks say they get a small plastic box with a secure top and put a stash of snacks in it and then let the child have control of the box. Yes, they'll eat everything, but you can control the kinds of things he gets into that way. When it's gone, fill it up again.

For whatever reason, he's having issues with it--he might welcome some control.

Bubba's gorging to the point of vomitting ended when he came to realize that there would always be more. Of course, he came here with that issue. He was 4 then.

If you don't want to lock up the food, would you consider a door alarm on his bedroom door to alert you to his getting out of bed? It won't address the food issue, but it would wake you so that you could monitor what and how much he ate.

[arbuckle17]

We are just starting to see light at the end of the tunnel as far as obsesive eating. Last night was the first night that our oldest actually slowed down, though dinner prep as always still involved consistent check ins from him.

I heard about the stash boxes or drawers too, I suspect that would work as long as it doesn't become a problem with health. I would try filling it with gorp (kinda like a home made granola/cerial, nuts, rasin mix used by many backpackers), it is really cheap to make and very filling.

You might also push water on him, it tends to be rather filling as long as you don't have bed wetting probs.

Another great option is nuts, they are fairly healthy and are also filling in small doses. I don't like sweets so the poor kids that land in our place are limited to fruits, veggies, nuts, and baked crackers.

Finally, if you can get him to drink a glass of warm milk, when he wakes up, it is filling, healthy, and has a side effect of meletonin creation which is the hormone that tells our boddies it is time to sleep (tryptophan in turkey is another source of it).

These are just some of the little ditties I use when i wake up with late night munchies.

[peregrinerose]

Originally Posted by marigold

Hi all, need some advice! One of my boys, (who has been with me for over two and a half years and is here to stay) has developed a new issue. About two months ago he started waking up in the middle of the night and getting into food. I have tried almost everything short of locking up all of the food in the house!! He was severely neglected and abused in his previous home but has no other food issues any more, no hoarding and we have even got his overeating under controll. The problem is the amount he is eating like 10 poptarts or a whole box of fruit snacks. I have put up food and laid out appropriate snacks, but I am not sure how much I want to encourage any night snacking. Talked to his therapists about this and they just say to lock up all my food. I really don't want to do that!! Anyone else here deal with this? ANY suggestions welcome! Oh, by the way, he is three almost four.

Has he had a medical evaluation for sleep apnea? If he's overweight, that may be a part of the reason that he's not sleeping through the night and getting up. Treating that, if it's a problem, might help him stay asleep and avoid the snacking that way.

Given that obesity and food intake that young can set him up for severe health problems, I'd either lock up the food, or have an alarm of some type on his bedroom door so that you can get up with him and guide him away from food or to an appropriate snack (an apple or something else healthy) then get him back to bed.

[chevyjewel]

I have to throw this out there, could this not be food issue related at all?

My bios now ages 5 and 6 can and will put down a box of yummy poptarts or fruitsnacks or entire bowl of candy if given the opportunity. On the flip side of that they've never had any food issues, are of a healthy weight (actually a bit on the thin side due to genetics) and they eat well proportioned balanced meals and snacks daily...seriously up for eating just about everything and they never turn down a veggie or fruit and always finish their milk. Junk food is yummy, and kids do overdo it sometimes if given the chance. All young kids struggle with learning to limit their junk food intake especially at that age.

If you're concerned about it OP I'd say remove junkfood from the house completely for awhile and then bring it back slowly. Either that or the junk food you do have at home keep up and away where he can't get it.

I agree with the poster that suggested keeping a drawer of food just for him. Kids hit growth spurts at this age frequently and I'd rather feed my hungry midnight muncher healthy snacks to get them over those hunger pangs rather than just restrict everything completely. Things I've kept out for my kids to access are raisins, bananas, granola, whole grain cereals such as Cheerios etc. Something that'll fill 'em up fast but that's easy to access and eat without choking.

I agree locking up food is not the answer.

[soupnazi]

Yep a 4 year old in a growth spurt can out eat grown men. I have seen one eat 4 hot dogs an apple & 2 bananas in one sitting. He was a skinny kid too!

I would move the junk higher & the good food within his reach.

[marigold]

Hi, thanks for all the replies. My son is not overweight, he is just right for a three year old. He acctually had severe sleep apnea but has since had his tonsils and adnoids removed and is now MUCH happier and does sleep better. I do keep more than junk food in my house. He has ate entire boxes of raisens and taken bites out of four or five apples at night. I have put away the snack/junk foods, but then he started opening up bread, cereal, even getting into (though I don't know that he ate any) uncooked pasta and other boxes in my pantry. It doesn't seem to matter how high I put it either, a few nights ago I woke up to find him putting a step stool on a chair to reach the top of the fridge where he had seen me put some boxes. I think it is all a control issue. I have tried giving him a snack at bedtime but it doesn't seem to matter. He does have RAD and PTSD diagnoses. I just don't know what else to do. When I leave an appropriate array of snacks out he either eats or wastes all of it. Door alarms have to be approved by my agency and we haven't reached that level yet. All advice is welcome.

[chevyjewel]

Does he respond at all to positive reinforcement? Sticker charts, allowance, marble jar, that sort of thing like during the day for anything else?

If he's on board for anything like that maybe you can start that up separately for this issue too?

I'm thinking something like marble/button/cotton ball jar - every night he either stays in bed completely or gets up and only eats an appropriate snack he gets a marble/button/cotton ball. After he accumulates 7(?) marbles/buttons/cotton balls you take him to DQ. Since this is food related and you're asking him to give up foods make the reward food related so he's gaining a yummier food in return is the route I would go - unless he's totally obsessed with like Thomas the Train or something and you could barter with him about getting a little related toy for his reaching the desired number. You would know best what might trip his trigger in that sense.

Keep in mind though that you might have to start small, see if he can go like two nights in return for a sucker or something and work up to that 7, or longer. You don't want him to get too discouraged right off the bat that he gives up on the idea altogether, the idea of course being this is all positive in nature, just encouragement and reward all the way.

[DPline]

You might cross post this on the Special Needs board. There are many people there dealing with RAD and PTSD and I know I have seen food issues like this come up on there before.
Good luck!

[joskimo]

My daughter is 4 and has adhd and si and will wake up at 4:00 starving. You didn't say if your fellow is on meds for his condition. My daughter is and the meds really mess with her apetite. The middle of the night is when she's most unmedicated so when she gets hungry, I let her eat. I keep a few baggies of food on her night stand. Dry cereal, trail mix, cashews. I know I should worry about pests, but really I'm so dang happy to get some food in her.

[soupnazi]

Are you sure he's really awake?

My husband will eat an entire loaf of bread when taking ambian. Won't remember a thing & swears it wasn't him.

[marigold]

Wow, what medicines will do! He is not taking any meds for behavior, but he does take melatonin to help him sleep. This was used to help him fall asleep and maybe avoid some night terrors. Though the night eating has seemed to replace the nightmares.

[soupnazi]

I found this which may be helpful...

Night Eating Syndrome-Recurrent Need to Eat During Sleep - Associated Content - associatedcontent.com