Routine and Activities for 17 months old

[sw1]

Can anyone do me a favour and outline their toddlers day, sleep, what they eat, activities.........just need to know if I'm a crap mum or not

Hi, sure you're not a crap mum, my LO is a little bit younger than yours but here goes...be interested to hear what you and others do as I sometimes wonder if I'm doing the right stuff.

Wakes at 5am for a drink of milk then back to sleep.
Wakes at 6.30-7.00
Breakfast 7.30ish, then wash and brush teeth.
8.00-9.30ish Plays with toys with me in same room folding washing, doing chores.
9.30ish-lunchtime, usually out of the house doing some activity or other, be it supermarket shop, play group, walk to park to play and feed the ducks. Normally have a snack 10.30ish
12.00ish Lunch
12.30/1.00ish Nap (If out he will nap in car seat or pushchair)
2.30ish/3.00 wakes up. Snack.
3.00-5.00ish Sometimes we go out to the library or on some errand but usually stay at home. Plays in the room that I am in, usually try to spend some time playing or reading with him. Try to do something creative such as aquadraw, music, but don't always manage to.
5.00ish dinner.
5.30-6.30ish usually now when the tv goes on tbh, but we limit it and he plays with his toys.
6.30ish supper and bath (if it is bath night), then bed. Normally asleep by 7.30/8pm

Thanks so much flockwallpaper, here goes with ours.....spot the problem!

Wakes at 7am
7:15 eats a good breakfast of mini weetabix and shreddies, smoothie and yogart.
8am bath, wash and dress
8:30 play with me, painting etc
9 am Milk then Back to bed until 12

Lunch 12-12:30 ish consisting of just 1/4 of a sandwich if we are lucky, 1 spoonful of dessert or bite of a banana.

12:30-2 visiting relatives or park, go to the shops etc Great behavioru lots of cuddles and chat.

2-4:30 play with friends wils becoming more and more tired! Behaviour starts to get hard work. snack - rasins etc

5pm If we are lucky, 3 spoonfuls of chicken stew, meat and veg type meal, small pudding if he doesn't chuck it across the table!

5:30/6pm Fast asleep again.

He has lost weight which worries me. I also worry that we can't get to many clubs as he is asleep all morning! Where am I going wrong?

Anyone else able to help?

my 14 month has similar routine to yours with that long sleep in morning and really bad eater. I find that if i try giving him lunch within half an hour of him waking up he won't eat. either try waking him up a bit earlier by making a bit of noise round his cot or wait a bit longer to serve lunch.

lots of fresh air

Thanks so much Marla. He sleeps all through the night so about 13 hours then another 3 or 4 in the morning. He has lost about a pound in the last 3 months. He is now 9.5kgs. He is wearing 12-18 month clothes.

If we went out he would fall asleep in the car or pushchair, if I got somewhere very fast he would be grumpy but would manage. I just feel like we miss out on singing groups etc as he misses half the day!

He wont tough pasta or rice as he hates the texture. He touches it and gags!

I am worried

Thanks Kalo12 I will try that.

could it be that at 2.30 he is actually really hungry rather than tired but by five he has gone beyond hunger to tiredness?

i have a terrible eater and i find if i miss my window of opportunity to feed him at the right time then its game over

Good point. I perhaps need to be more flexable and except he may have to eat on the go?

Hi, my DS is 17 months and our routine roughly is:

730am ish: wake up with 10 minute play in our bed or on floor while I wake up
745am ish: dressed, nappy change
8am: breakfast (porridge with fruit, toast, shreddies)
830am - 1230pm: anything really, playing in house with toys, out for a walk, out shopping, visiting friends, baby group etc
11am: snack (eg, banana or cheese etc)
1230pm: lunch (sandwich, yoghurt etc)
1pm-230pm: nap if I'm lucky (he's starting to drop his nap argh!) if no nap we just do the kind of thinge we do in the morning
430pm: dinner (precooked meal or leftovers from our dinner the night before)
530pm: play in living room, watch ITNG if daddy isn't watching the news
630pm: bath
645pm: PJ's, stories, bed
7pm: asleep

SW1 you aren't a crap mum! It does look like though your DS's morning nap is causing problems though, maybe he is so tired by bedtime he doesn't want to eat anything? It's a long nap at 3 hours too, have you tried to wake him up at all or put him down a bit later that 9am? Would he prefer to feed himself? I often make cheese sandwiches and leave DS to it, he seems to like that. He went through a phase when he refused to eat off a spoon and all he ate was finger foods. Has your DS been OK with eating before? Maybe he's teething just now?

Not really sure what advice to give other than trying to change his nap times, it looks like he needs a lot of sleep so maybe breaking it up over 2 naps a day might work?

or be more flexible and go out later?

what happens if you try and wake him before 12?

If I try to wake him up early he gets very upset and it feels terrible as he really is Mr sleepy head. Interestinly he struggles to have an afternoon nap, even in the car or pushchair. In was wondering about trying to push his sleep forward a bit say 11-1pm. This would give us some more time to go to morning groups but is this more important than letting him sleep as he wants to???

Is this much sleep normal? From your routines it looks a lot.

ilike......he has been off his food since Christmas when he got a cold bug! Since then he has often thrown 3 meals a day across the room!I wish he was teething as I could understand it, its so upsetting.

my lo usually sleeps for about two hours in the morning and an hour and half in afternoon

Hi I'm back. My LO's routine was more like your LO's about a month ago, just wondering if your LO is sleeping well at night?

If he isn't eating enough in the evening, he isn't sleeping as deeply at night as he needs to because he is hungry. He therefore wwants to catch up on sleep in the morning once his tummy is nice and full, then he struggles to stay awake for the long stretch of time between his morning nap and evening bedtime. If he eats loads of breakfast, that might indicate that this is the issue.

We started giving our DS supper just before bed (a favorite such as reddy brek with warm milk that he would take even if tired) and fitted blackout blinds just to make sure the morning light wasn't waking him early. After a few days he gradually seemed to get back on track, and was eating more.

I hope you can find something that works for you.

Thanks so much Flockwall.....that isn't something I had though of as he is sound asleep all night, but that may well be true, I'll try and offer some "breakfast" before bed and see if he eats it. Thank you x

i think the amount of sleep is not unnormal, it's the timing - if he slept at lunchtime he probably wouldnt get so cross in the afternoon, it is a long way from nap to bedtime. probably easier to move this one big sleep back to lunchtime than split it into two.
could you try sort of creeping the nap back - rather than switch all of a sudden from 9am to 12am, move it back by half an hour every couple of days so he is staying awake for a bit longer every day? you could use the clocks going forward tomorrow to give you a start - if you simply put him back to bed at what feels to him like 9am it will actually be 10am by the clock, and then you just keep to that the next day.
you will have a problem when it gets to him sleeping around what is now his lunchtime but try giving a hefty snack before bed and hefty one after for a bit so he doesnt wake up hungry. good luck!

Wow! Thanks woodstock3. I'll have a go, just hope it doesn't effect his tea and lunch too much as eating is a real issue at the moment!