Won't Eat Meal After Nursey - Help please!

[yourlittleswampduck]

Hi, my DD is 2 and a half and is full time at Nursery. I get home with her in the evening about 5:40pm and make her some tea. This can range from a plate of vegetables (she likes them honest!), to ice cream with fruit, crumpets or pasta with cheese sauce. Only problem is she won't eat very much as she is either tired or not hungry and we are then woken up once or twice between 11pm and 1am with her wanting milk. 2 questions: Can anyone suggest anything nice but healthy to tempt her with and can anyone suggest anything we can do to change this behaviour please? I need my sleep!

Have you tried feeding a bit later or will she be in bed by then?

Does she have an afternoon snack at nursery? If so, could you try getting them to drop this for a while to see if it makes her hungrier?

What about giving her something in the car or pushcair as you're coming home? Chopped cheese or sauasage?

definitely don't give her milk in the night, if you start this, you'll always be up with her. She may be hungry for a couple of nights, but she won't starve, and will possibly eat a bit more the next day.

Also, she may just be going through a stage of not eating very much.

Talk to the nursery about afternoon snacks, it may be just that she is full and doesn't want a big (ish) tea

don't give her milk in the night, DD2 is 2.1 and we did this about 6 months ago and still are. it's a nightmare.

anyway, what about a bowl of cereal before bed? weetabix with hot milk? should fill her right up.

btw she may not be up in the night wanting milk because she is hungry, she may just be wanting a drink to get back to sleep. If you don't give it to her, does she wake up completely starving?

At our nursery the children have a big cooked lunch and pudding at midday. Then at 4pm they have a snack - usually something like ham, crackers, tomatoes, cucumber etc.
There are a couple of children like your dd, and the parents bring in a little something (yogurt, banana etc) to supplement the nursery snack and then it's not a big problem if those children don't fancy a meal on return home.

As long as it is fairly healthy and labelled with the name the nursery are fine with this. Might be worth asking at yours? Then maybe just give her milk and a small snack at bedtime to "top her up" ?