If your children have ‘tea’ at after school club / nursery...

[Enigmasaurus]

...do you feed them again before bed? My youngest has ‘tea’ at nursery at 3.30pm and bedtime is not until 6.30/7pm. The others have something at after school club which tends to be more of a meal (though still earlier than we would normally).

At the moment we end up having to top up with toast or bits of leftovers or cereal but I’m keen that they get something a bit healthier.

So what does everyone else do? I’d be keen to hear examples of what works for other families

but this business of too much food in the afternoon is very tiresome.

It's not tiresome though for the parents who can't collect their DC until 6:30pm and whose DC are then ready just for a bath & bed by the time they get home.

I do tea time at 4.30pm (usually hot food sometimes sandwiches depending on after school commitments), then little ones have cereal/toast and milk before bed, after they are tucked up we have another meal, which I call dinner or supper depending on my mood and what the food is,m). On special occasions we all stay up for something like a roast chicken, whereas other times it's just a quick round of cheese on toast or a ready meal.

Yes we give DC a full tea at home at 6pm, as she's hungry and the food at after-school club is substantial but still somewhere between a snack and a light meal.

Yes mine have cooked lunch and lighter tea (pasta, spaghetti on toast, bagels etc) and then what I would call a ‘substantial snack’ at home, all sorts- cheese and crackers, fruit, cake, yoghurt, sometimes a bit of our tea.

Yes mine have cooked lunch and lighter tea (pasta, spaghetti on toast, bagels etc) and then what I would call a ‘substantial snack’ at home, all sorts- cheese and crackers, fruit, cake, yoghurt, sometimes a bit of our tea.

It was always the same here. Although the food at nursery was pretty good DC still had 'milk and snack' about an hour before bedtime.

Even years later it's stuck as a glass of milk and a snack before bed.

To be honest if I didn’t give my dc a hot meal in the evening it would mean they had no hot meal at all!!...so it’s a definite yes here!!

Mine have 'tea' at nursery and afterschool club, they are 3 and 5. They hav snack food again at home about 5.45pm.
Usually fruit, yoghurt and then toast/cerial/wrap and also sometimes a mini roll or biscuit.
They dont need a full meal.

Yes, DC's get a snack at after school club at 4pm. It's normally pasta or a sandwich. They have a hot meal at lunchtime, but portion sizes are small (esp for 10 year old DS) and they are keen to play with friends so may not finish it. 7 year old DS is very picky and will often just eat the carbs at school so needs topping up at home with heated up leftovers, quick stir fry, egg or beans on toast around 6pm.

Usually just a snack. like fruit & yoghurt, toasted tea cake, crumpet, cucumber sticks & hummus, toast, usually followed by a cake slice, soreen, or biscuit.

I don't understand how you can possibly not feed them again after nursery tea - they give DS 'dinner' at nursery at 4, if I didn't give him another meal when we get home (which I do, he eats dinner with us at 6/6.30) he wouldn't eat for 15 hours until his breakfast at 7 - how could a toddler possibly go that long without food? I wouldn't like to and I don't have a toddler's little stomach!

I can't really fathom why nursery give them dinner in the middle of the afternoon, but it seems to be weirdly standard.

It's not tiresome though for the parents who can't collect their DC until 6:30pm and whose DC are then ready just for a bath & bed by the time they get home.

Actually I find it really tiresome if I pick DS up at 6 because he's still going to need dinner at home because he last ate at 4 and it is indeed a rush. If they fed him at something actually approaching a meal time it would make it much easier!

Yes, school tea is things like pork pie and baby tomatoes, or quiche & salad, so ds has a hot meal at about 7. Has done since he was 5.
Doesn’t seem to put on any weight though.

Yes, when my youngest was at nursery she had two dinners.

Cooked lunch at noon, cooked tea at 3, afternoon snack at 4 (all at nursery) and then cooked dinner at home at half 5 with her sister.

She was, and still is. a bottomless pit.

Yes. It is so, so annoying. The food they are given at after school club is fine but there is barely any of it. They come out starving then I have to do another tea. I would much rather pay more for the care and they actually fed them a bigger portion. At our ASC the kids always ask for more food and are just told there is none left . Massive hassle. I tried giving them a snack after and they were still ravenous so have accepted I know have to do a proper meal. Don’t know why they bother feeding them at all tbh.

Thank you to everyone who had given helpful answers (and examples are great too).

Youjustdoyou no need for judgement. If you read the OP you’d see I do feed them again - Just trying to get healthy ideas of what to give

Yep we have either regular family dinner or depending on shifts just kids dinner at 6.30

DS3 has ‘tea’ at nursery at 3:30. Usually wraps, bagel, crudités and houmous etc.

At about 5:30 he either has some of our tea, cheese omelette. beans on toast or frozen tomato or cheese pasta ( I cook enough for about 8 portions at a time and freeze it, plus a yogurt or fruit.

DSs nursery do decent teas at 4.30 (eg bagels and mackarel, baked beans etc) which he always eats and often asks for 2nds of.
but by the time DS gets home at 6 he usually wants dinner too, and then supper (usually banana and a biscuit) at bedtime.

He's always moving so is fairly slim despite all the food!

I was but now just giving him some milk as I think he was too full as was previously spitting his milk out so think he was too full (little boy is 18 months old)

He has tea around 4pm at nursery

If mine have childcare tea at 4pm (usually crackers, or soup, or something on toast) then they’re never hungry enough for another tea at 5.30pm. Both will eat a bowl of weetabix or readybrek before bed on their 2 childcare days.
I’m not too concerned as they eat so much fruit/veg/protein/wholemeal carbs the rest of the week.

Dinner at 5pm or earlier is far too early to feel full for the whole day venting night until breakfast in my opinion.

DD always only snacked and then are dinner with us at 6.30pm. We always did family meals, I think the idea of doing one meal for the child and then dinner for the parents is bonkers in my opinion.

We always treated it like the old fashioned afternoon tea, so it kept dc going until our dinner time. So they just had the same as us, portions varied depending on how much they'd ate/ what was on the menu at nursery or school

Ds almost 2 has tea at about 4.30 at nursery, it's usually something like beans on toast, and he can have extra if he wants it. He gets home about 6pm and we offer him something but 9 times out of 10 he doesn't want it. Given that hes usually in bed by about 7 it would be a rush if he needed to have a meal before bed. He does have milk before bed still, and hes a big lad, 91st percentile still so I dont worry if he doesn't eat in the evening.