Meal/snack times for a 1yo

[TracyK]

What times are your los eating at the mo?
ds has milk and fruit at 7.30am ish, snack at nursery at 10ish, lunch at nursery at 12ish. Banana at 1, rich tea or 2 at 3ish.
But is screaming hungry by 5.
Should I give him a bigger snack at 3 or just be more orgainsed and be ready with dinner at 5??

[lunavix]

Our meal times are different.

Has beaker of milk at 7.30
Breakfast at 9
Lunch at 1
Dinner at 5 (usually 5.30)
Milk at 7

He doesn't need snacks, never cries for them, we just sometimes offer!

[TracyK]

My ds never used to bother with food/milk - could take it or leave it. Maybe he's having a growth spurt.
But thats why I'm not organised for dinner at 5 as he never used to bother. But now he starts off being grizzly (as if he was tired) follows me around the kitchen hugging my legs and within 5 mins is full on howling.
Soon as he eats he is happy and smiling again.
I was making Enids chicken nuggets last night and they take 20 mins in the oven and I had to distract ds for that long to stop him howling!

[Bozza]

Is your DS just 1 or nearer 2? DD is nearly 11 months and is as follows:
6.30 am milk
7.30 am readybrek and maybe toast
9.45 am small snack (eg piece of cheese and breadstick or some raisins)
12.30 pm lunch
4 pm milk
6 pm tea
7.15 pm milk

If its nursery its slighly different:
6.30 am milk
8 am breakfast
9.30 am snack
11.30 am lunch
2 pm milk
4 pm tea
6.15 pm supper
7.15 pm milk

Give her supper because I think the tea is too early to expect her to get through to morning.

[lunavix]

tracyk - try annabel karmels bang bang chicken! Very healthy and rather quick

[Fennel]

dd3 is also very hungry for meals at 8, 12 and 5. she has milk at 7am, 10, maybe 2pm and then 7pm. I have to feed her at 5 and then the rest of us later.

[louloubelle]

My 15mo dd has milk and breakfast at 9ish (luckily not awake til then!), lunch at 12, milk at 3 ish after sleep, maybe with some fruit, then tea at 6pm, milk at 8pm just before bed. Or, if she is ill, as she is at the moment, she hasn't eaten for 8 days til today. Literally, hardly a bean.

[littlerach]

You could give a hot meal for lunch, if you aren't already, then something snackier for tea.

[saadia]

TracyK it might be an idea to give something more substantial at breakfast as ds might eat more first thing in the morning and therefore be less hungry by the evening. My ds has

7.30 milk
8.00 cereal (oats or Weetabix with prune puree)
12.00 milk
1.00 lunch
5.00 milk
6.00 dinner

[anchovies]

I agree with saadia, he might benefit from a bigger breakfast, my ds either has weetabix or porridge with fruit (banana, apple, prunes etc) for breakfast then he has lunch at 1 and tea about 5.30. Perhaps try and give more at meal times and fewer snacks?

[TracyK]

ds gets milk when he wakes up and I don't know if that puts him off breakfast. I do offer him toast and/or fruit/or shreddies as I have my breakfast - but he's not usually interested in it and I don't have time to hang around waiting for him to eat much as we're off to nursery. I spose I could ask nursery to give him some when he gets there but they charge 75p a day for breakfast and if he doesn't eat it then its a waste of money.
Maybe I should take a little bowl of shreddies and ask them to feed him that.

[saadia]

The shreddies is good idea. If he's not ready for breakfast first thing, then at least he's got something in case he gets peckish a little later on.

But it is slightly surprising that he is so hungry at 5, considering that he does have lunch and a snack after that. Do you know if he usually eats all his lunch? My ds gets very bored by eating and if left to himself would stop after the first few mouthfuls so I have to basically nag him till he eats what I think is enough. Could it be that your ds is not really filling up at lunch?

[TracyK]

I don't know what portion sizes they give them at nursery - but they say he normally eats everything. Ocassionally he won't - usually rice things. But when I give him the banana in the car he woofs it! Although one day they said he had 2 helpings of lunch as he was still hungry - so that implies they know when he's hungry or full.

[saadia]

Aahh, then perhaps being very active at nursery builds up his appetite. It is a shame to think of him being very hungry at any point in the day.

But I can't help thinking that if he had enough lunch at 12, he wouldn't be sooo hungry an hour later. Obviously there's nothing you can do about the lunch, so if you want to delay dinner then I do think you should give him a bigger snack mid-afternoon. Also if he's woofing down the banana then he might actually want something more at that time, perhaps a small sandwich. Another point is, do you think he's drinking enough?

[TracyK]

Well I don't know how much he drinks at nursery - but I do let him have water all afternoon and he does drink a fair bit. I used to take water with me for the car and he used to drink loads too after nursery - I'll start taking it with me again.
I know if I haven't eaten much for 5 hours I'd be hungry too!

[saadia]

It is very difficult figuring out meal times for such small children, because they can't tell you what they want, and you don't want to fill them up too much between meals. At the same time, they may really not be able to eat a lot at any one sitting, so they will get hungry frequently.

My ds (now 3) never used to eat much at any one sitting, so, until the age of about 2/2.5, I was giving him a meal, milk, or fruit every 2 to 3 hrs. Which was fine at that age, but now I want him to go longer between meals. But since your ds is still just a year old, it probably is that his stomach can't take very big amounts so frequent feeding might be the answer. It may also be that he has fast metabolism. Would he drink milk with his snacks?

[SkiBunnyFlummy]

Mine was 1 in Feb.

She has breakfast between 8 and 9.

Some milk around 11

Usually then has a nap for couple of hours

Some lunch around 1 -2

then some milk and bit of fruit or biscuit during afternoon (5 ?)

Then supper about 6 or 7

Milk at half 7

then sleep again 8 til about 8

[TracyK]

He sometimes does have milk with his snacks - but for a while he wasn't eating much at meal times so that when I cut out his milk at snacks - he upped his quantity at meal times iykwim.
I do try and give him something every couple of hours - even if its only a handful of raisins. (or a bit of my biccie if I'm having a cup of tea!)
But I think you're right - they have got little tummies and can't eat too much at one sitting.

[Papillon]

Ever since my dd started walking her appetitie is HUGE. As well as three meals she has morning and afternoon tea.

she has porridge in the morning and normally a banana mid morning. I give a hot lunch of veges... soup.. split pea with veges today all pureed up.
She like rice crackers, yogurt, lentil sprouts and I really push fluids, such as juice or honey tea (normally herbal or rooibos)
For dinner she has pasta, rice, potatoes, quinoa... something more substantial.

also likes grapes, marmite in a waffer type cracker. She is slow with teh teeth.