Your 3 year olds food routine

[teekay88]

Asking out of curiosity to see what your 3 year old eats in a typical day. Talking with friends recently I've realized it's so varied how we handle food in our families and as a mum of a 3 year old sho is constantly moaning and talking about food I wondered how you guys structure things. Our routine (which I think I'm going to change is) roughly...

6.30ish - breakfast. 1 weetabix with fruit on top or one slice of toast, sometimes a cup of milk

9ish - snack. Usually fruit or something like those dairylea dunker cracker packs or a bag of those kids crisps

11.30ish (early lunch as he wakes at crack of dawn and has an early nap) - typically sandwich, some fruit or veg sticks, a yogurt.

1.30/2ish - usually hungry when wakes up. Has something small like 1 wholewheat cracker and some raisins

Anytime between 3-4 - snack. Usually fruit or sometimes toast

5.30ish - dinner - usually something like pasta/chicken with veggies or sometimes things like tacos, curry etc when feeling more adventurous

6.45 - small cup of milk before bed

What about you guys?

On a nursery day they have a small bowl of cereal then at nursery:

Breakfast 8.30 ish - cereal
Snack 9.30-10 - fruit
Lunch 11.30-12 - hot dinner
Afternoon snack 4.00 - usually sandwiches/crackers etc and fruit
Dinner 5.30ish - small portion of what we’re having

Mine is a bit younger. He gets up early too but generally later timings.

7am - rice cracker ( whilst I down tea)
8/8.30am - porridge, banana
10/11 - snack. Biscuit
12.30 - lunch. Open sandwich/ cheese/ fruit/ raw veg
3-4pm milk and snack
6.30pm dinner - main meal. Yogurt.

Mine is hungry all morning and hardly eats in the evening.
She has breakfast- porridge and toast. On nursery days she then has cereal there.
Then fruit for a snack
Then maybe some crackers and raisins, maybe a yoghurt
Lunch is tomato soup or scrambled egg and toast or a houmous and cheese wrap, fruit, and maybe a yoghurt or crackers.
Snack in the afternoon, a biscuit or cake.
She loves pasta. If I cook pasta for tea she eats it. Loves veg.
If it is anything else she picks at it. Always wants dessert, though a tiny portion. Ice cream or yoghurt maybe.
She has an older brother and sister. She eats more than her brother and less than her sister. I'm not worried.

Mine is 2.5

Cup of milk on waking at about 5.30
6.30-7 breakfast -2 weetabix or 2 fried/scrambled egg on toast, banana
Snack- tangerine/apple and breadsticks
11.30-12 ish Lunch - leftovers from night before stew/curry/ bolognaise something like that
Snack- babybel and fruit/dried apricots
Dinner 4.30 ish - chicken/fish with veg and rice/potatoes, yogurt and fruit after

6pm - Cup of milk before bed (and sometimes he's still hungry so a bagel or crumpets or something with some cheese!)

He dropped his nap before he was 2 so he goes to bed at 6.30

Yours sounds perfectly fine OP. We’re a bit less structured but have our main 3 meals roughly at 6.45am, 11.30 and 5.30. Snack times vary daily depending on what we are doing and who we are seeing. So yesterday saw a friend who gave her kid a snack so mine wanted one then too so gave it!

Mine is 3.5 and doesn’t nap.

Breakfast at 7ish - plain porridge, fruit.

Snack at 10ish - usually fruit if she didn’t eat it at breakfast (berries, satsuma, banana etc) or one of the baby flapjack snacks or raisins etc if we’re out and I need something portable and mess free.

Lunch at 12ish - soup/sandwich or wrap/beans on toast/dippy egg with veg (cherry tomatoes, cucumber sticks, raw pepper etc) and fruit for pudding

Snack at 3ish - cheese cubes/apple/banana/yoghurt or if we’re out sometimes a sweet treat like a biscuit or cake or ice cream.

Dinner at 5.30ish - small portion of standard dinner food - spaghetti bolognese/risotto/fajitas/stew etc. We’re veggie so it tends to be veg heavy. If we do something spicy she’ll have an alternative like pasta or a jacket potato but generally whatever we have. Pudding is yoghurt, fruit or sometimes a treat like an ice lolly.

Bedtime 1/2 cup of oat milk at 7pm.

I have an early riser but never give breakfast until 7/7.30am
Snack at 10
Lunch at 12
Snack at 3 (sometimes, not always)
Dinner at 5pm with a pudding

Until about 3.5 it was a bottle of milk at 6.30 and bed at 7.

We aren't very structured, especially with snacks etc, and she just eats what we eat the rest of the time (we're veggie), but as a rough idea:

Between 07:30 - 08:30: Cereal, wheatabix, toast, pancakes, croissants, crumpets etc (whatever we have!)

Lunch anytime between around 12 - 2pm: Varied. 3 times a week she eats at the nursery and the rest of the time it is whatever we are eating (sandwich, gyoza, falafel with hummous, or whatever else).

Dinner usually around 6-6.30pm: Varied (pasta, quiche with veggies, lasagne, bolognaise, etc etc)

We don't have set snack times, just if she asks, but it is usually whatever we have in the house like fruit, cucumber, plain yoghurt with fruit, raisins, babybel, cookie if we have been baking, etc.

Forgot to add, she drinks a lot of milk! Including a bottle before bedtime. Otherwise, just water and the occassional orange juice.

Are you saying your 3 year old is still sleeping regularly during the day ?
That could be why they wake early in the morning.

Mine is 3 and 10 months

Breakfast is cereal bar, raisins, breadsticks or crackers, fruit smoothie, water

Doesn't normally have a morning snack anymore. But would have been something like crackers or toddler 'crisps', maybe some mini cheddars

Lunch around midday. Could be anything. Arancini, risotto with bacon, fish fingers, chicken, beans on toast, meatballs couscous etc etc

Sometimes has an afternoon snack or fruit or something

Dinner is about 5ish. Would be same as lunchtime

DD is nearly 2

Breakfast: porridge/eggy bread/beans on toast/omelettes/fruit and yoghurt/pastries

Lunch:
cheese/salmon/chicken/nut butter/ham sandwich/roll/wrap/pitta.
Veggies (any combo of peppers, pickled onions, gherkins,olives,cherry tomatoes, beetroot, celery, carrots, radish etc)
Cheese if not in sandwich
Small biscuit/chocolate/fruit for something sweet.

Dinner: whatever we're having. Current favourites are prawn and noodle stir fry, casserole, beans on toast or tuna steak and vegetable rice.

Snacks: a combo of 2 or 3 a day of fruit, crackers, rice cakes, yoghurt, crisps, biscuit, pastries, Seaweed, boiled eggs, breadsticks and hummus etc.

Drinks: water or milk.

My toddler has suspected ASD, so food can be more complicated, but generally as follows:

7.30 - porridge - he reliably eats this, so I add banana, low sugar peanut butter, flaxseed & berries. Then at least I know he's had a nutritious start!

12pm - packed lunch at nursery, usually egg or ham sandwiches, babybel, berries, yo-yo & some sort if toddler oat bar or puffs.

He'll have fruit & breadsticks at nursery.

5pm - he'll generally have chicken sausages & veg, mini pizza w.added chicken or tuna & veg, fish fingers. He never eats the veg! If I feel his intake of veg has been too low, he'll have one of those fruit & veg pouches for pudding.

I'd like to expand his dinners - but I think he has a generally balanced diet, so I'm not going to put too much pressure on myself.
Snacks are apples, breadsticks, oatcakes.

DD is 3.5. Her ideal would be to snack through the day but she’s used to nursery old schedule.

7am breakfast 1: usually porridge/shredded/crumpet with fruit offered
(Eats all to none).
8am breakfast 2 at nursery- depends on whether already eaten/what it is.
10am snack usually fruit and a carb eg rice cake plus milk.
12 lunch- cooked meal at nursery with dessert (eats it all of pasta or fish, if they insist on curry she eats some rice)
2 pm snack usually fruit and toast/crackers
4 pm nursery tea- soup and bread, baked potato ect
If didn’t like lunch has snack on arrival- crackers and cheese/fruit/ham. Starts chugging milk as doesn’t like water and nursery insist on it. Usually has 3 cups between 5 and 7.
5:30 dinner- what ever we are having eg risotto, pasta, steak and chips. May eat lots or nothing.

Very hit and miss here. I try not to worry but she has days when she eats like a horse and then doesn’t seem to anything for days.

@Dazedandconfused28

My toddler has suspected ASD, so food can be more complicated, but generally as follows:

7.30 - porridge - he reliably eats this, so I add banana, low sugar peanut butter, flaxseed & berries. Then at least I know he's had a nutritious start!

12pm - packed lunch at nursery, usually egg or ham sandwiches, babybel, berries, yo-yo & some sort if toddler oat bar or puffs.

He'll have fruit & breadsticks at nursery.

5pm - he'll generally have chicken sausages & veg, mini pizza w.added chicken or tuna & veg, fish fingers. He never eats the veg! If I feel his intake of veg has been too low, he'll have one of those fruit & veg pouches for pudding.

I'd like to expand his dinners - but I think he has a generally balanced diet, so I'm not going to put too much pressure on myself.
Snacks are apples, breadsticks, oatcakes.

Sounds good to me

Oh and sometimes if she's claiming starvation she has

Supper; toast, porridge, shredded wheat, pancakes etc

@AliceTheCamelHasFiveHumps

Oh and sometimes if she's claiming starvation she has

Supper; toast, porridge, shredded wheat, pancakes etc

Oh yes! I forgot supper. My son will also have marmite toast around 6pm, teeth and bed at 7pm

Lots of people put timings. My 3 fell into this pattern by that age
7 - 12 - 5
5 hours between meals, snacks at roughly halfway points.

My son will be 2 and a half in a few weeks.

Breakfast around 7-8am - Porriage with a little honey/Cheerios/toast with peanut butter or butter/rice krispies

Morning snack around 10am - fruit/biscuit/small cake bar/babybel

Lunch at around 12:15 - 1:15ish

• either a lunchbox from home for nursery with jam sandwiches/cheese and crackers/broccoli and cheese muffins/tuna pasta with sweetcorn/tomato and vegetable puff pasty wheels Then fruit, yougurt, cucumber sticks, babybel and a small tray like a kipping cake. If at home or with Grandparents, then soup with bread/ Quiche and salad sticks/cheese on toast/homemade pizza

He doesn't normally have an afternoon snack unless we are out and going to be late for dinner.

Dinner - 5pm to 6pm ish
Spaghetti Bolognese/Sausages, vegetables and mash potatoes with gravy/tomato vegetable pasta/turkey dinosaurs, vegetables and hash browns/Gannmon roast dinner.

Milk sometimes around 6pm, he will ask if he does want milk before bed.

@AutumnWreath

Are you saying your 3 year old is still sleeping regularly during the day ? That could be why they wake early in the morning.

They wake early? Seems perfectly normal to me, naps never made a diff to wake up times in my experience, but we knew when to drop them when bed times became a nightmare

We have a structure but it’s mainly dictated by school run for eldest and lunch break for DH as he wfh in our dining room

Mine are 2 and 3.5 (3.5 is autistic so has some food particulars)

Breakfast between 7-7:30 - weatabix or toast with a yogurt. Sometimes fruit as well if they ask for it (most days bananas are requested)

Lunch 12pm - either a sandwich (various fillings), left overs or something like an omelette with yogurt, fruit, veg sticks and some crips. Sometimes a digestive or a mini roll

Supper 6pm whatever I’m cooking!

Bed is between 7/7:30 they both have milk before bedtime

Both mine are early risers but we find breakfast works best for us an hour+ later.

No regular snacks but that’s not from an anti snack point of view just doesn’t really factor into our day but I do sometimes think we should have an mid afternoon one

My kids don’t nap anymore 😩

Breakfast - usually cereal, sometimes toast.

Snack - fruit or cheese.

Lunch - usually a sandwich with some cucumber on the side and a yoghurt, sometimes egg and soldiers or left overs from the night before.

Snack - fruit or cheese. Bits of veg while I’m chopping them for tea like peppers or carrots.

Tea - whatever I’ve cooked, things like spag bol or curry or casseroles (love any kind of one pot recipe)
Yogurt or desert depending what’s in.

We love things like cake and crisps but they are not a daily thing. We’ll have them while watching a cosy afternoon film at the weekend or sometime like that.
I definitely wouldn’t be giving things like crisps at 9 in the morning - one weetabix isn’t much, I’d offer two at this age.

Ours is an evening eater.

Wakes 6, has to be coerced into eating breakfast about 9am. Usually some combination of toast and yoghurt, or cereal and fruit

Lunch 12.30, sandwich, grapes, cucumber, cheese etc

Maybe a snack mid afternoon

Dinner about 5.30, whatever we're having but especially loves pasta. No pudding normally unless we've bakes something or got party bag/cake.

Breakfast 7.45am- cereal/ toast /banana

Packed snack/lunch for Montessori- 10.30- tub of strawberries, yogurt , either a sandwich or tic crackers and either melon or banana

Hot lunch 12.30- doesn’t eat much of it

1.30 - small bowl noodles or cheese toasty or spaghetti hoops with an apple or orange

5.30pm - dinner

Sometimes will have crackers , cheese yogurt around 6.30 if my 8 year old having a snack