Do you feed your child after nursery?

[Fruitgums]

Hi all,

Just wanted to find out whether people generally feed their child after a full day at nursery. I was talking to a friend of mine who was absolutely horrified that I feed my DS after picking him up from nursery. Her reasoning being is that he has his tea at nursery therefore he shouldn't be having anything more than fruit once he's home.

Just out of interest my DS gets the following meals at nursery:

fruit snack at 10am
Lunch at 11.50am
Tea at 4.15pm

I usually pick DS at 5.45pm and then we head home. He usuaully has a meal with me in the evenings between 6-6.30pm.

Is she right? Am I overfeeding him?

[Lionstar]

I do. DD sits down to eat dinner with us. Her nursery tea is at 3.30. She has dinner with us at 6 and bedtime at 7 to 7.30.

[cyteen]

I generally give DS snacky stuff when we get home e.g. yoghurt, fruit, scone, sandwich etc. He is a bottomless pit for food, and since nursery tend to do tea at about 3.30 I assume he will be hungry again before bed.

[stinkypinky]

I do. DD 3 - has snack only at nursery at about 4pm. I collect by 6, dinner with family, but do not mind if she is not very hungry - depends what snack was. Up to bed at 7pm.

[Bettymum]

Sometimes do, sometimes don't. DD (2.2) has tea at 4pm at nursery, if she says she's hungry when we get home then I give her fruit, or yoghurt, a slice of bread and butter, or a bit of cake if I happen to have been baking. Certainly not a full meal - but then I don't pick her up till 6 and we start bathtime at 6.30 so not much time for eating. She has a full cup of milk just before bed.

[naomilpeb]

DD (1.5) also has her nursery tea at 3.30, so I assume she'll be a bit peckish when we get home, which is usually about 5.30. I always offer her some fruit and a piece of toast or small amount of pasta or rice, and she'll generally then ask for more. If she still seems hungry I'll give her a yoghurt too. And then she has a full cup of milk at bedtime (7 - 7.30). So she's a bit of a piglet! I've always assumed she wouldn't eat it if she wasn't hungry. She burns off so much energy there anyway...

Oh yes, and sometimes they'll tell me that she hasn't fancied what they served her and hasn't eaten much all day, so then we'll make her something more substantial when we get in and DP and I eat it with her.

[Effjay]

I do too. We have our evening meal at 6.30pm and the kids (both at nursery) sit at the table and have a snack with us. Sometimes, it's a bit of our tea - last night they had some naan bread with mango chutney and other nights it may be a bit of fruit bread or something like that. I like to give them 'tasters' of what we eat as it helps expand their range of tastes and the foods they eat. Neither of them are fussy eaters ...

[MrsZuko]

We feed DS after nursery. He has tea at 3.30pm but it's usually only snacky stuff like dips or tea cake so he often has another proper meal at 5.30pm. And he has a bottle of milk at bedtime.

[Fruitgums]

Thanks for your replies ladies.

It seems that the majority of the kids have snacks as opposed to a full meal. This puts my mind at rest as sometimes I do not time to cook the evening before and then he's got nothing ready at 6pm the following evening.... and I start cooking our meal and he has a late night.... and I feel like I'm a bad mummy!

It's good to know that I can get away with giving him snacky food without feeling too guilty!

[DecorHate]

I used to give dd something like a banana and yoghurt. And if she was still up when we were having dinner she would have a little bit of what we had.

[angeljd]

Wish I didnt but have to :-)

D1S has issues with food (no bread, meat,soup e.t.c) so doesnt eat tea that nursery gives at 4.15. Sometimes he doesnt even eat lunch. So have to cook what he eats in the evenings.

DS2 is opp. Eats anything but Tea that is offered is too small for him :-). tends to be smal pizzas, sandwich, soup e.t.c. Light food for him.

So full meal with fruits and yogurt every evening. Plus choc milk before bed.

If I am luck & tea was baked beans which DS1 loves then, I can get away with light snack or just fruit & yogurt for dinner

[Missus84]

Nursery tea doesn't tend to be a hot meal anyway - something like crumpets or sandwiches, fruit and maybe a cake or yoghurt. It's too long for them to go from that at 3/4pm til breakfast the next morning.

[LieutenantPigeon]

Yes. But nursery 'tea' consists of sandwiches and fruit at 3 o'clock ish.

So DD has evening meal with us, and is usually v hungry (judging by how much she eats).

I guess she either doesn't eat much at nursery or spends a lot of time running around / playing out.

[preggersplayspop]

Nursery tea for my DS is a full cooked meal and pudding at about 4pm so I generally offer toast and milk as a supper when he gets home. Maybe crackers or cheese or something like that if he doesn't fancy toast.

If he hasn't eaten his nursery tea I will generally offer more, but I never cook another meal, it would be more snacky type foods but just in larger quantities.

[MiniTenrec]

I give mine a snack at bedtime - usually pureed fruit (she is still toothless).

Her meals go:

Breakfast 6.30am at home with me.
Snack (fruit) 10.30am
Lunch 11.30am
Tea 3.15pm

She generally goes to bed around 7pm, so I give her a snack when we get home at 5.15pm or its a long time til the next meal and she'd drink more milk than she really needs just to fill up a bit. She is not putting on vast quantities of weight, so I'm happy with that.

[IMoveTheStars]

I do. He has a main meal for lunch at nursery, and then sandwiches and salad for dinner at 4pm. Usually at home he wouldn't eat until 5pm ish, so he'll have a slice of toast or a bowl of cereal when we get in. He always eats it so he must be hungry.

[Rockbird]

Do here too. They have a main meal at 11.45, then a sandwichy tea at 3.30 so by the time we eat at 7.30 ish DD is starving.

[BornToFolk]

yep. They have a cooked meal at 11.30, then tea (sandwiches, or something on toast) at 3.30 so he needs a bit of something by 5.30 when we get home.

What he has depends on his appetite. Last night he just had a banana, sometimes he'll have lots of bits and pieces (fruit, oatcakes, cheese etc or a bit of cake if he's not had any cake or biscuit at nursery). He has a bottle of milk before bed too.

[SPBInDisguise]

I do (they have tea at 4.30)
I do tend to cook the stuff he's not so keen on then, and am happy for him just to have snack/fruit /cereal instead

[Undercovamutha]

On the occasions that my DD is in nursery all day I always give her food when we get home. The nursery 'tea' is a really small snack (e.g. 2 little sandwiches and a piece of fruit) and they have it at about 3.15.
I guess as far as you are concerned OP, it depends on whether your DC is still hungry and what and when they serve at your DCs nursery. I wouldn't worry about overfeeding - unless you're stopping at McDonalds on the way home each night !

[Fruitgums]

Thanks you all for taking time to reply to my post.

I think that I will carry on giving him his dinner in the evening and I echo what some of you said - some evenings he eats so much that he MUST be hungry.

xxx

[UniS]

I don't think you are over feeding him, Tea at nursery is often only a light snack. DS aged nearly 3( on similar timings to your DS) was always hungry after nursery because he wouldn't eat a cooked lunch and "tea" seemed to be sultanas and breadsticks. I got good at planning a very fast to cook meal for nursery days. pasta and pesto seemed popluar.

[mamayaya]

DD is starving after nursery! At home I give her dinner at 5.30 pm, at nursery they have it about 4pm and it's sandwiches .... if I don't have grapes / berries / dried apricots / choc buttons if desparate in the car there is big trouble! And she normally asks for a bowl of "bekfast" ie cereal once home. I give it to her as otherwise she wakes up in the night hungry. Don't stress about what other people say, as long as you're feeding him healthy food it's fine!!!