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Parenting

How many of you give your child 4 meals a day?

51 replies

ButterfliesAreWeird · 07/11/2017 21:38

I know it's not the most common but I'm curious how common it is?

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Desmondo2016 · 07/11/2017 21:39

I've never heard of it. What are they, if not breakfast lunch and tea?

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greensnail · 07/11/2017 21:42

Mine get breakfast, lunch, tea at after school club (something like soup, sandwich etc) then dinner with us at home.

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WhirlwindHugs · 07/11/2017 21:43

Nope.

What are the 4 meals?

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whyareusernamessodifficult · 07/11/2017 21:44

Ours get breakfast, lunch, dinner and supper but breakfast tends to be quite light and supper is just a snack rather than a proper meal.

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madamginger · 07/11/2017 21:47

Mine have breakfast at 8am, lunch at 12:30, dinner at 5pm and then supper at 8pm. But supper is usually just toast or cereal and a glass of milk before bed not a meal as such.

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ThisNameNow · 07/11/2017 21:48

I think I did this with mine when they were little but one meal was small. Other people might call it a snack. 🤷🏻‍♀️ Meals were breakfast, lunch, after school meal (light meal), evening meal (full meal)

I tried to avoid giving endless snacks to my DC as I thought it better to just eat properly at meal times. If you just feed your DC proper meals rather than snacks then it's much easier to feed them healthily.

I wasn't really draconian with not giving snacks but most days the kids would only eat at meal times. I found four meals worked better when they were little.

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Marcine · 07/11/2017 21:50

Yes - breakfast, lunch, after school snack, dinner at 7.30/12/3.30/6

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IamAporcupine · 07/11/2017 21:57

We do breakfast, lunch, 'merienda' (after school snack) and dinner.

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Bewiser · 07/11/2017 22:01

Currently I do breakfast, lunch, afternoon snack, dinner (1 year old) and when she starts nursery soon for a few days a week, on those days she'll have breakfast, morning snack, lunch, afternoon meal then a (presumably small) dinner at home before her bath.

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starzig · 07/11/2017 22:02

I had a preclub snack when i done sports

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LiveLifeWithPassion · 08/11/2017 11:38

I suppose I do.
They have breakfast, lunch, something after school like a filling soup, omelette, wrap and then dinner.
They’re hungry after school and I got fed up of them constantly snacking so I give them something meal like. If I give them their dinner after school, then they’re looking for lots of snacks later.

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BroomstickOfLove · 08/11/2017 11:46

I also do breakfast, lunch after-school snack/afternoon tea and dinner. The afternoon snack tends to be fairly substantial, eg rice pudding with stewed fruit or hummus, pitta bread and veg sticks, or a sandwich and an apple, or soup and a roll.

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EatsFartsAndLeaves · 08/11/2017 11:47

On days he goes to nursery he gets breakfast, morning snack, lunch, afternoon snack and dinner. Doesn't usually eat much dinner!

Only breakfast lunch and dinner when he's with me all day, plus sometimes a small afternoon snack or bottle of milk.

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BamburyFuriou3 · 08/11/2017 11:48

We do breakfast, lunch, dinner, supper. Supper is often fruit and a biscuit, or breakfast cereal. But they sleep better with a full tummy :)

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WellTidy · 08/11/2017 13:48

We do, at weekends. DS is 9yo now, and likes to stay up a bit later on Friday and Saturday nights, when he goes to bed at about 9pm. On those days, he will have breakfast, lunch, large snack at about 5pm and dinner with DH and I at about 8pm. Or dinner at 5pm and large snack at 8pm or so.

Examples of large snack - cheese and biscuits, tapas type stuff.

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Migraleve · 08/11/2017 13:54

I’m confused by a snack becoming a meal Confused

I give mine 3 melas a day, but they also have snacks, which are not meals.

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TeenTimesTwo · 08/11/2017 13:56

What age?
When DD2 was 2.5 she had 9 separate eating occasions per day...

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BroomstickOfLove · 08/11/2017 14:05

The "snack" is generally bigger than breakfast, and sometimes roughly the same as lunch, so I count it as a meal.

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DixieNormas · 08/11/2017 14:08

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

Ttbb · 08/11/2017 14:15

We do. Breakfast, lunch (at nursery), early dinner as soon as he gets home and, supper just before bed.

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Me264 · 08/11/2017 19:40

Ds (20 months) gets first breakfast at home (banana usually, and a corner of my toast), second breakfast at nursery (cereal and toast), hot lunch, cold tea (early) and then a snack on the way home from nursery. He doesn't seem to go more than about 2 hours without eating Blush

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ButterfliesAreWeird · 08/11/2017 20:02

I guess it's not so uncommon after all 😄 Good to know. We call our meals breakfast, lunch, tea, and dinner. Sometimes tea and dinner are the same food though just 2 platefuls at different times

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BroomstickOfLove · 08/11/2017 20:30

The school dinner portions are tiny, with the same size of servings for 4 year olds and 11 year olds, so when mine hit tween growth spurts they pretty much needed an extra meal after school.

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formerbabe · 08/11/2017 20:32

Breakfast, lunch, dinner then something else just before bed...(toast, crumpets, yoghurt, fruit etc)

So yeah, I guess 4 meals a day! Explains why I spend so much time and money in supermarkets!

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Yika · 08/11/2017 20:35

I consider that my DD gets 5 meals a day: breakfast, morning snack, lunch, afternoon tea, dinner. Now age 7 I can't really consider the morning snack a meal though as it's not a proper sit down occasion as it used to be. Tea and dinner are both proper meals though. Tea is a cold meal (sandwich, milky drink, fruit for example) and dinner is a hot cooked meal.

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