Reception child hunger - what do you feed them in the evening?

[tigerrr]

My son started reception this week and comes home absolutely starving. He has a hot meal at school and an afternoon snack so my plan was to give him "tea" (eg sandwich, fruit, yoghurt etc) in the evenings.

However he keeps asking for more more more. Yesterday he had pasta, a crepe, yoghurt, an apple, and then wanted more snacks so he had a pear, healthy flapjack, breadsticks and Philadelphia, cucumber sticks and raisins! We were running out of ideas by the end!

What do other people offer their reception aged child after school?

Whatever you cook after he's in bed, make an extra portion and put it in the fridge to re-heat when he gets in the next day.

He'll probably also need to take a snack for afterschool club, if one isn't provided.

Those giving hot dinner at home. What's your timings of the day. I have two year old and four year old who has just started school. I want to try and have dinner together but I can't get my timings right. Both DH and I work full time.

Bags packed night before etc
6.15am adults up and dressed breakfast
6.45am kids up
7am kids dressed and ready to go
7.20am toddler out the house with DH off to nursery. Breakfast at nursery
DH starts work 8am
7.30am 4 year old our house with me
7.45 school drop off for breakfast club
8am I start work
4.30pm DH and I finish work
5pm collect children from childcare.
5.20pm get home
5.30pm kids have 'supper'
6.20pm bath time and wind down they are exhausted
7pm bedtime stories
7.30pm start cooking our tea
8pm eat tea
8.30pm - 10pm house chores etc.

Repeat.

How if you're working do you hahe time to get home and prepare ane cook a full meal that you can eat before 6.15pm????

We batch cook so always have something that takes a max of 20 mins to reheat (only a few minutes) plus do some sides. Or do quick cook meals.

Ots the only way we can manage it with two kids, work and clubs.

For example
Breakfast- toasted bagels with butter, yogurt and fruit

Breakfast club - whatever they have

Morning break - one is too cool for snacks, the other has fruit/veg

School lunch or packed lunch

After school club - packet of mini biscuits and veggie sticks (we send these in)

After school club snack - cherry Tom's, Cucumber and cheese

Dinner - batch cooked spaghetti bol or chilli, stir fry, air fryer chicken breast plus sides, left overs, Stews, curries etc

While dinner is cooking, we do no screen time and are all in the kitchen together. The kid does homework, and the baby plays in his high chair. I cook and float between the kids, or H does the same if I'm not back in time.

They are learning so much and playing a lot more than before. They are also growing and cognitive development is happening at pace. They need the energy from food. Mine are bottomless pits and are very slim, healthy and active.

Dinner table talk is so important for their development as well, same with having meals with you. I don't understand why some parents eat later than their children. Half the fun is hearing about their day over dinner and talking, planning the next days. I wouldn't want to ever give up that time.

Saying that, H and I have to take turns through the week to do this as we both commute and do different school pick ups and drop off but we always try to manage at least 5 days a week where we sit down as a family or one parent ends up rushing in just in time to sit down and eat with the family.

pasta, a crepe, yoghurt, an apple, and then wanted more snacks so he had a pear, healthy flapjack, breadsticks and Philadelphia, cucumber sticks and raisins!

What was on the pasta?
That’s all carbs. Maybe a bit of fat and protein in the Philadephia and yoghurt. Where is the protein?
Give the child a proper meal. It’s a long day, they’re growing and busy.
Also, make sure he drinks enough.

I'd do a hot meal at home. School portions are small, mine often come home hungry. You could give him his dinner not long after he arrives home and a snack later on. If you don't want to eat early then just do him something quick or if he's having what you're having, you could make it earlier in a slow cooker and keep yours warm for later.

What did you give him before he started school? You must have finished work at 5.30 then too?

My kids schools dinners are extremely small portions. Like ridiculously small! So mine definitely needs a proper dinner of an evening.

Give him a proper dinner. Picnic food isn’t enough. School lunches are small portions. Batch cook a few things at the weekend.

School dinner portions are small and if your child is fussy they'll eat even less. Mine has just gone into year 2 and despite infants getting free school meals we've switched to packed lunch as she was always hungry - half a small jacket potato was the lunch portion by the way, 1 fish finger and 6/7 chips, 1 slice of chicken 2 tiny hard roast potatoes and a spoonful of soggy veg - one of the mums is a mid day supervisor and has confirmed these portions and her children have packed lunch!

Mine gets:
Fruit course- melon, grapes, peaches at this time of year, or might be pear, banana, apple
Cheese course - Cheese and crackers
Pudding - I usually make a fruit cake at the weekend so a slice of this.
Greek Yoghurt if still hungry!

Our After school club meal tends to be plain cards and inevitably whatever quick meal I have ready (beans on toast, jacket, sausages) Will be what they've already had and won't get eaten.

Make or prep the night before and cook /reheat when you get home.

Traybakes with chicken or sausages and veg take 35 mins in the oven.
Pasta meals can be ready in 35 mins
Homemade soup and toasties quite filling especially if you put some beans in the soup.
Spag bol, lasagne, curry, etc all easy to reheat or finish the cooking the next day.
Fish cooks quickly can serve with rice and veg - can cheat and buy pre prepared veg for speed.

Give him a cooked evening meal and a snack beforehand if needed (but not so big it spoils his meal). Eating earlier is easiest with young children. Adults late home can then have theirs heated up, and the adult(s) who ate earlier with the children can have a bedtime snack if needed. It’s less work and helps the children get to bed better too. It also makes the evening seem longer (in a good way).

I do an early hot meal around 3.30/4 and then toast or a sandwich around 7.

My kids are (eldest doesn't eat much) eating lunch at 11.30.

If you do yourselves meals which re heat well you'll have a meal ready for the next day when he gets home :)

Or bulk cook some korma/bolognaise/meatball etc pots, add pasta/rice and you're good to go

We're all home around 5:40, dinner ready at 6:15-6:30.

Youngest up to bed at 7 or shortly after with one parent (we alternate by week).

Eldest plays or does reading while other parent tidies up after dinner. Then they go up for eldest's bedtime at about 7:20-7:30.

Everything done shortly after 8, except maybe for some laundry folding (or work).

No way would we have the energy to do a second dinner after bedtime.

I'd always hoped to give a light meal but DS needs a big meal after school. He has a snack after school, then a proper meal at 6pm once we've all finished work. We'll have it at 5ish if everyone is home earlier.

Start cooking it as soon as you get home? So taking your list:

5pm collect children from childcare.
5.20pm get home
5.30 start cooking tea, kids with tv
6pm eat tea
6.30 bath time and wind down
7pm bedtime stories

etc.

Tea on these days needs to be v quick and easy, with anything that can be pre chopped done the night before.

Or, for quite a few years our kids went to a childminder who gave them tea. That worked the best. It was a proper evening meal but at 5pm ish so they’d usually have a banana or something before heading up to bed.

I did the same as you at first. Then a dinner lady told me that the portions are tiny, and most of it is uneaten because they don't like it. I started making hot dinners again.

What time does he go to bed? He definitely needs a proper meal. Maybe the same as what you have. If his bedtime is 8pm then you could have dinner 6-7pm.

Not being snarky, but if you eat later, what did he have for dinner and when before he was in R?

Some of my DDs friends eat earlier, and parents later but they still have a full meal. I’m not a fan of cooking twice, which is why we eat quite early.

We have had 2 weeks back at school and last week I had to ramp up my after school food game. Ours looks like this:

745 breakfast, normally weetabix or porridge plus sometimes bread and butter.
10ish morning snack and milk, currently crackers, mini pepper stuffed with cream cheese and a soreen
1230ish school lunch, hot meal
330 finishes school, I’ve started taking a ham sandwich, plus fruit/babybel and a biscuit. Just snacks was not enough.
615/630 we all eat a hot meal together, DH home fairly early.
715 upstairs for a quick bath, in bed by 8 with stories.

I'm not mad about her having a sandwich after school and then dinner. But honestly, she still eats her dinner and she’s nicer to me and able to do her homework. I do think when she’s sat having lunch with her friends she’s easily distracted and probably doesn’t eat loads. But they need what they need and they’re all so different.

No wonder he's still hungry. Poor boy. Give him a proper meal, same as you're having.

OP in my experience very few young kids eat much at school. They sometimes don’t like the food, or the portions are small, or the time is limited, or they’re just distracted and keen to crack on with play time. Does he get a snack at after-school club? My children were always hungry when I picked them up at 3.15, so they’d have a snack then, and a proper tea about 2 hours later.

You just have to find a way to make a proper tea for your son, because otherwise he’s going to lose weight.

Sorry I haven't RTFT but why don't you eat earlier in the evening and all have dinner together? Before I had my DS we used to have dinner late in the evening but we now have dinner around 6pm so we can all eat together. I think it's nice to chat round the table at dinner and it saves you cooking separate meals.
Also I do intermittent fasting so an early dinner helps. I struggle to sleep now if I eat dinner too late.

I always did a proper dinner. But I wasn't inventive. We had pasta, curry, sausage casserole and mash, pasta again and salmon, wedges and peas. So the pasta sauce curry and sausages were batch cooked.

The school meals were small, served at 11.30 and they put half the calories into the pudding, which being low sugar got left a lot.

Just make one hot dinner that you all have and preferably eat it together. I think it’s very beneficial for kids to eat with the rest of the family or at least however many are at home at the time.

When my kids were that age we would get home from school/work at 6.15, I made dinner whilst they got changed, ate together around 6.40. Then they would do their homework when I cleared up, then a bit of playtime or TV, a snack and then 8pm they got ready for bed, did some reading and lights out at 8.30.

i’m not British and have never seen this concept of letting the kids eat by themselves. Dinner was a really important part of family time when I was growing up.