Tell me about your 18mo routines

[callmeovercautious]

This may be long, I would love to know what other 18mo babies do. DD is 18mo. She will happily get up at about 7am, eats breakfast and plays until about 11am when she wants her milk and nap. Usually naps until 1pm (if I am lucky ) then Lunch. We usually go out in the afternoon and then have tea at 5.30pm, bed about 7.30pm.

The trouble is she sometimes wants to nap later in the day but is not hungry for Lunch before nap. Today for example she ate Lunch at 3pm. Now I am wondering whether to even try and feed her her tea or to leave it.

Argghh!!!

Should I just make Lunchtime around 11.30 and hope she eats it before her nap?

They do this at Nursery 2 days a week but she never eats much Lunch and despite having tea at 3.30pm she is then Hungry when we get home.

ds is the same he is 17 months
He gets up around 8.30 has breakfast i try and give him lunch around 12ish but he never eats it so i give his milk and put him down for his nap about 12.30 he gets up at 2.30 i just give him a snack banana or biscuit he then has tea about 5.30ish goes to bed at 7.30. dd now never was hungry for lunch even now she hardly eats any at 3.

ds wakes around 6.30/7am and has a small cup of milk around 8am followed by breakfast. We do the nursery run for dd and drop her off for 9am and she is picked up at 11.30am. DS has a snack around 10am (a banana, apple, etc). We have lunch when we get home from nursery which is around 12pm and then ds goes for a nap from 12.15/12.30ish and this can last anywhere from 1 1/2 - 2 1/2 hours (unless I have to wake him early to take dd to one of her activities - monday is swimming and friday is a mini-movers class both which are at 2pm).

He sometimes has a snack around 3pm and then dinner is 5/5.30pm and bed is 7.15pm. He has a cup of milk before bed too.

At the weekends timings of meals can vary and ds often has his lunch after his nap instead of before. We would normally then make that the big meal and then give something more snacky before bed which is the opposite of during the week.

My dd was similar to yours and still doesn't stay up well for lunch later than 1230ish and is now 2.2!
I would just try using the mornings to go out have lunch about 1145. If she doesn't have a snack then I would give one about 10ish as sometimes if their blood sugar drops they get stroppy and tired. Give water/juice to break the sleep connection with snack and lunch. This perks mine up until lunch IYSWIM.

Thanks for the replies. I don't have other DC to work around (it must be hell to have to wake them from a nap - DD would flip out!)

I think I will try doing our activities in the Morning, thanks Tori, last timw I tried it she fell asleep in the Pram for half an hour then would not sleep when we got home which means no housework gets done

Lollyheart - it's frustrating when you offer food and they don't want it isn't it?

Oh and she pretended to eat some pasta, then wolfed down bananas and custard at about 6pm, she is still playing with DP - better go and rescue him

My dd gets up at 7, breaksfast 7.30, playtime, trip out somewhere, back 11.30ish, try to give her something to eat but she's usually too tired to eat, so nap for 1 1/2 - 2 hours, then more lunch (but just something simple like cheese and crackers), more playtime, tea 5ish, bath and bed at 7.

So it seems like Lunch is a bit more snacky then? Am fed up of throwing out home made food

Thanks naturalblond - we have a date with the ducks and Waitrose on our next day together then we will give a ham sandwich a go.