Ending up with lots of snacks and no proper meal - help!

[Thankyouandgoodnight]

DD is starving when I get her from nursery mid afternoon - 3ish, so she ends up having a banana + a couple of other bits and pieces and seems fine. Then half an hour later she's after more and gets VERY distressed if I don't give her anything and I've tried not to to encourage dinner eating. I offer her dinner around 5 by which time she's exhibiting signs of starvation and malnutrition but eats relatively little. then, within 20 mins, she's after more food (but not dinner, usually bread or cheese or something) and will be eating until bed time at 6:30.....what do I do?????

I would bring forward tea to 4 or 4.30

If she really is screaming for something earlier how about a nice light snack like breadsticks when you collect her?
Have you asked if she is eating her meals at nursery?

mine are a bit like that
too tired to eat properly but very hungry

i just go with it. is she eating a good (hot) lunch?

if so, then why not do a tea of ham & cheese pitta,banana, apple, apricots, yoghurt, cucumber, carrot etc..

mine eat far more that way!

Her hot lunch at nursery is at about 11:30, so really early but I want her to have a full tummy at bed time (6:30).

I would say that between 3pm and 4pm, she ends up eating a banana, breadsticks x 2, fruit stick x 1 & apple quarters x 2 and then seems full. Which is absolutely fine with me but then dinner at 5pm seems to be a wash out.

After dinner, she will eat, a slice of fruit bread, lump of cheese and a biscuit / cream cracker.

maybe you could try dinner ready for 3pm? then a snack before bed if she wants it?

DD1 is exactly the same, starving and has to eat straightaway or completely loses it, but a small amount of food totally satisfies her and she doesn't eat meals.

the only meal she really tucks into is breakfast. because that is the only time she is really hungry.

One good meal a day is all I expect from my 3 children. It varies day to day, child to child which meal gets eaten the best. Provided she's snacking on the healthy stuff, its all fine IMHO.

My children have an early (hot) lunch at nursery too and then they get a solid snack at 3pmish, usually cheese, raisins, crackers, carrots, little sandwiches etc. I just expect that on those days they will not eat loads for dinner.

Well, as the saying goes, eat breakfast like a king, supper like a pauper. I wouldn't worry as long as she is eating all the food groups. Doesn't really matter when she eats them, I guess. Maybe throw in some boiled egg or fishsticks to make sure she is getting her protein.

Thank you so much for your very reassuring replies! It's good to write things down because I can see that actually over the day she's having quite alot really. Great idea about boiled eggs - I keep forgetting about those!

I met her with some cream cheese sandwiches and chunks of pear today in readiness and she had a couple of bits but ate a good solid dinner later on (ie the reverse of her usual pattern!). Interestingly though, she slept for 2.5 hours at nursery instead of the hour she usually manages to get there. She usually sleeps about 2 hours on non-nursery days so may be she is just tired and gets confused and thinks it might be hunger??