To give toddler snacks in the morning

If he is often not having more food when he gets to nursery, then it's not really a snack but his breakfast.

Personally I wouldn't want them to get into the habit of having food twice - at home and at nursery - within such a short period of time.
So if that routine works for you I would make it a bit more filling so it is real meal (and tell nursery he doesn't need breakfast there). It wouldn't take much from what you describe.

It's a school of thoughts though, that children should get used to eat at regular meal time and not in-between meals (the amount of snacks my kids get at nursery makes me cringe a bit lol). At that age you want to get them used to not eat for 3-4h at a time. Not everyone agree with this obviously.

Are you seriously saying that your husband disagrees with giving your child fruit and yoghurt? I don’t know anybody who will be upset about this. Unless it’s a case of snacks meaning biscuits, crisps and/or sweets. My friend was talking about the same issue with her husband but it transpired it was chocolate biscuits every morning and her husband was not happy about it.

OP I do the same. DS gets breakfast at nursery but that’s a long time away from when he wakes up. He often asks for milk and snack. Like you, it’s usually some milk, a piece of fruit with a smoothie or some bread and butter. Otherwise we’d hear no end of the “I’m hungry. Snack mummy” before quickly turning hangry, and I’d never get ready for work or get us out the door.

@FlingThatCarrot

fruit and yoghurt isn’t junk.

op needs time to get ready for work.

what would you suggest?

Is that not just breakfast?

Surely the issue is that you are calling it “snacks” when basically it’s just breakfast food that you haven’t had to cook and won’t make a huge mess.

As long as your kid isn’t having a bar of chocolate and a packet of crisps for breakfast every day then your DH doesn’t really get to comment on how you feed him his perfectly normal breakfast if he isn’t there.

I think it would be unreasonable if your DS had nothing to eat while he's waiting for you to get ready.

My 2.5 year old has similar for breakfast, along with the odd slice of toast, bread and butter or croissant.
And she has that while sitting at the table with her sister and either DH or me (whoever has less to do that morning)

She also has a snack box of dry cereal (cheerios usually) to pick at in the car to drop her sister off before she goes to nursery.

If DH suddenly decided to start questioning what works for everyone and he wasn't involved, he'd soon be responsible for getting the kids sorted to implement his own routine!

Wish I could be as perfect a parent as some on here.

FlingThatCarrot. The fruit and yoghurt isn’t junk. I’d not be keen on maltloaf as a main part of breakfast though. I think some quiet screen time is fine, nursery is a long day and a bit of time watching CBeebies is fair enough imo.

Why don't you hust give him a real breakfast instead of snacks? You can prep it the night before- like overnight oats or something.
And toys instead of screens. Just sounds a crap habit to start the day with TV and junk food.

Surely this is just breakfast?

Isn't that just breakfast? We recently visited relatives in the UK and my daughter had malt loaf with butter for breakfast some days (treat since she was on holiday). At home she mostly has banana on toast. At nursery they have a snack at 9 a.m. which varies wider each day - could be anything from a second breakfast (scrambled eggs, pancakes) to fruit or vegetable sticks and cream cheese.

This is the sort of small parenting decision I get the other person doesn’t get a say in when they aren’t there.

Ours always have fruit while we’re getting ready. Tea at nursery is at 4pm, they get fruit/toast/yogurt when we get in at 5.30pm. I wouldn’t want them going from 5.30pm to 8am breakfast the next day without anything in them.

It sounds totally fine - is your husband usually such a twat?

When my dd was very little, I think about 18 months, she used to have blueberries (just what she liked at the time) and milk every morning pre nursery so that I had a few mins to get ready. Then actual breakfast at nursery.

Yours sounds more like a breakfast so maybe it’s the word snack that’s causing the issue?

PS - she’s almost 16 now and very slim with great healthy teeth so hasn’t caused any problems!

How old is he? I’d feel uncomfortable leaving a young toddler eating alone.

I do the same thing and I wfh so can't imagine trying to get out the house for work, I get ready as though I am though but it's not as stressful

Fruit and unsweetened yogurt plus a bit of unsweetened granola or dried fruits sprinkled on top is fine, it's breakfast. But not packaged snacks like malt loaf before breakfast

I wish my toddler would sit and eat nicely in the morning!
How helpful for your spouse to make comments about the morning routine when his routine is to just get up and leave the house 😏

I wouldn’t call fruit a snack and think that lots of cultures eat fruit and yoghurt for breakfast - just look at hotel breakfast buffets. As long as you do his teeth, I would call that breakfast.

Young childrens' metabolisms don't tolerate fasting as well as older children/adults. The last thing they ate was at, say, 5pm the night before, 14h before a 7am waking - they need something to eat! You've got a good system going there, meeting both peoples' needs

Sounds like a good set up to be honest, works for you and DS which is the important thing, and it's not like he's eating freddos and wotsits first thing in the morning.

We do exactly the same otherwise it would be mayhem and toys being pulled out etc. It's CBeebies and a jam or peanutbutter sandwich here. if your DH wants to look after him while you perform the basic task of getting yourself ready for the day / personal hygiene then he can start work a little later 🤷‍♀️

My 2 year old wakes up starving so always has something to eat and then has breakfast in nursery. Totally normal.

My 3 year old gets similar. She wakes anytime from 6.30 and breakfast at nursery isn't until 8.20 or so. She gets 2 snacks usually something like raisins, soreen, blueberries, or maybe if we're feeling lucky on a Friday a belvita bar.