As any of you who are parents of toddlers know, predicting what and how much they will eat at any given meal is somewhat akin to picking the lottery numbers.

And of course we have all been told about the cardinal sin of eating leftovers from your kids plates - its a way to pack on those pounds. But OH the waste! It is enough to drive a budget conscious mom crazy. You really COULD feed 10 starving people on the stuff thrown out at this house.

So here it is....the Toddler Diet.

Figure out your maintenance calorie level: for this example lets say 2000 calories a day. Add 0 calories if your child is a notoriously picky eater, 200 if your child is an ok eater, and 400 calories if you have a "good eater" ( a phrase I despise).

Every day plan above # calories of meals and snacks.

Let your child go first

Eat what is left.

Your caloric intake for any given day will range between 1000 and 2000 calories. Its like the no-thinking wendie plan!

For parents of more than one toddler, the math becomes more complicated, but you too can have leftover free dieting in your home!

OK, I am not really serious about doing this but as my son sat on my lap inhaling my lunch after turning his nose up at his own....I can tell you it isnt the first time it has crossed my mind. The thought of soggy toddler saliva covered cheerios is about the only thing that has stopped me.

Ennay that made me laugh outloud! did ya hear me???

LOL - you could probably publish this in a book and do the talk show circuit! It makes more sense than many diets I have seen!

That was very funny!

My 4 year old actually only eats once a week. He is like a python. On the day he eats, he is insatiable. The rest of the time he just looks at his food.

I often wonder how I go fat when it seems I have no time to actually eat!! Though it's not just a toddler-assisted diet that would reduce one's calories. I picked up a chicken and bean burrito on the way home from a full conference day on Thursday and my 7 year old ate half of it. She saved me from half the calories!

THat's my daughter too! We went out to dinner one night to Macaroni Grill and she ordered the kids meal pizza. Well that was a 10" pizza and a HUGE bowl of ice cream and she ate it like it was nothing. I calculated when I got home and it was 1300 calories, and she had eaten a good breakfast and lunch that day. But most days she eats less than my 1 year old. Somedays she eats nothing at all.

ds is supposed to be on a higher fat diet but will ONLY eat what is on my plate. Hmmmm.