We've had two friend with daughters who if you had looked at what they ate when they were younger you'd think they'd be morbidly obese by now, but thier not by far!! One of them ate a whole package of hot dogs on her first birthday along with the cake, ice cream, ... Now, she's 11 and looks like a bird, and eats all the time! However, it's a little bit here and a little bit there of mostly healthy items. The other little girl at a whole roasting pan full of baked beans on her first birthday. Her stomach looked like she had swollowed a basketball by the time she was caught finishing off the beans! Now, she's 5 and also looks like a bird!

Well, both my kids want to eat the MINUTE they walk in the house after school - which I don't understand, since they've had snacks regularly and dinner will come in 20 to 30 minutes at the most. So I often wonder if they just want to be entertained by food at that time of day.

One funny thing: when my son was 3, he decided he had "lanes" from his mouth to his stomach. The healthy food lane always filled up very quickly, but the dessert lane had infinite capacity.

I think it's not until they're much older do they eat out of boredom. They're too young to have that additional layer of complexity beyond meeting their basic needs. Unlike older kids and adults!