Son starting nursery - not sure which way to tweak mealtimes?

[gretagrape]

Hi - son will be starting nursery 2 days a week soon, and will be exactly 12 months when he starts. At the moment meals are as follows:
6.30 - milk
8.00 - breakfast
11.00 - milk
13.00 - lunch
15.30 - snack
17.30 - dinner
18.45 - milk

When he goes to nursery, we'll be leaving the house at 8.15, so I can either bring breakfast forward a bit, or push it back to 9.00 once he gets there. Then dinner will either need to be 17.00 at nursery, or 18.15 once home. I'm assuming at some point I will be separating the last milk from bedtime a bit, so would you bring dinner forward to 17.00?

Can you give me an idea of when your 12mo eats/drinks?

[JiltedJohnsJulie]

I'd take him downstairs for breakfast at 6.30 and drop the morning milk, he will only need 300ml a day from 12 months. I'd also let him have dinner at nursery, 6.15 is late and he will probably be very tired on nursery days, plus other children will be eating.

[Happydaze77]

I would opt for the earlier dinner at nursery, so you haven't got to rush about in the evening making dinner and then cleaning up, as well as doing bath and bed. The downside of this is that you won't eat dinner as a family (and you'll still have to sort dinner/supper for yourself later) but, as you've said, it's only two days per week. The other danger is that he may fall asleep on the way home if his tummy is nice and full.

If he has his morning milk at 6:30am I would have thought that he would be hungry enough for breakfast before you leave.

Lunchtime for dd had always depended on when she napped really. When she had two naps ah those were the days she had lunch around 1ish. However she dropped to one nap at 11 months so our day looked like this: (and still does at 15 months)

Bf at 7:30am,
Breakfast at 8:30am
Snack at 10:30am
Lunch at 11:45
Nap: 12:45-2:45
Snack 3pm
Tea 4:45pm
Bed at 7:15pm

I hope that's useful for you.

[catkind]

What time does your nursery serve meals? Are you sure they serve dinner at 17.00? Most nurseries I've come across do it earlier as 17.00 is getting towards the end of staff shifts, some children being picked up already, not really a good time for them all round. But if that's when they have tea and your child is there I think he'd feel a bit left out and it would be awkward for the staff to not give him any?

Our nurseries finished serving breakfast by the time we got there so we had to make sure they had breakfast before we left. So it was (still is) get up and milk at 7ish, breakfast 7.30. They would have a light tea at around 4-4.30, so we just offered DS supper with us when we usually ate at 6.30ish, but didn't worry if he didn't want much. DD's current CM does similar timings, though we now eat a bit earlier with DS at school. She doesn't always want much dinner but that's fine.

My two were/are bf so milk and its timing would depend on whether I was there or not! They always had some on waking up, and when I got home if I was working, and at bedtime unless I was out.

They're pretty flexible at that age really! I'd do what works best for you and adjust if required. You can always offer a banana or cereal or something as a bedtime snack if it seems too long a gap from tea to bedtime.

[catkind]

Meant to say, you don't need to worry so much about separating milk and meal times as they get older, the milk becomes more of a drink and doesn't fill them up. DD (just 2) can drink milk all evening and she'll still be hungry if she doesn't get something solid. Tried it this week as she accidentally dropped off before tea time, she woke and wouldn't resettle till she'd had a plate of pasta at midnight!

[gretagrape]

Thanks for all your input - I'll need to speak to the nursery about when they serve dinner. I'd sort of assumed I could go in at 5 and sit with him while he eats something before we go home so I'll see how they would want it to work (I guess they might not want me to do that).
I know they give them a mid-morning snack, so I guess if he has a big breakfast at 6.30 that would be fine - could try to stretch it out till 7 but as he's usually up from 5.30 he might not take to the idea of mooching around for an hour and a half before he gets fed!

[NewJobNewLife]

I would did out what the nursery do in terms of timing and type of food.

Our nursery will serve breakfast if you provide it, but only between opening (7am) and 8am. So if you arrive after 8am then you need to have fed them.

Snack is at 9.30am and is small - handful of cereal and/or some fruit or similar.

Lunch is at 11.45am ish and is a cooked meal.

'Tea' is at 3.30 and is small. A small sandwich or a bagel or a small cake etc.

When I signed them up I glanced at the daily structure and thought 'great, breakfast, lunch and tea'. In reality, they need dinner once we get home, as tea is just a snack and 3.30 is far too early for the last food of the day.

If it is possible to have nursery give breakfast, I'd aim for that. Your mornings will be much easier if you can just give milk but not get into the mess and palaver of full breakfast. I would also plan for dinner at home. Do you live an hour away from nursery? As the choice of 5pm at nursery or 6.15 at home implies a very long journey?

[gretagrape]

Well, it's only about 8 miles but traffic is hideous and it can literally take anything from 20 minutes to an hour - just pot luck really! So, I've based it on getting home by 6 on average then 10 mins to get tea ready.
From what I can remember the mid-morning and mid-afternoon snacks are quite good - veg sticks and hummus and the like, but yes we'd still need to give him dinner. I'll get a copy of their menu and work it out from there.
As it's only two days a week, I'm sure he'll adapt to whatever happens, so we'll try out different things and work out what suits us all best.
Thanks