Do you give your DCs a proper dinner after nursery?

[megonthemoon]

My DS (2.1yo) has been at nursery 3 days per week since January.

We have recently decided to revise his bedtime earlier (now around 7 rather than 7.30) as he is so tired after nursery. So I've had to take the time from dinner by cutting back on proper meals and doing a more snacky supper so we can get up to our bath/bed routine in time. I'm a bit worried about a snacky meal, mainly because he has always been slow to gain weight despite always eating ridiculous amounts of food and is a beanpole. Until now he has always had two 'proper' warm meals a day.

The past few post-nursery meals have been:
Pitta and hummus followed by grapes and small yoghurt
Toast with honey followed by apple
Beans on toast followed by fruit salad.
Carrot soup with bread

It used to be spaghetti bolognese, couscous with ratatouille, risotto, fishcakes, chilli and rice, casseroles etc.

Do you think I need to find a way of still giving him a 'proper' meal post nursery (more use of freezer, quick prep stuff), or do you think the more snacky things are reasonable? He gets a cooked lunch with pudding at nursery, plus a tea of ham/cheese/marmite sandwiches at 4pm.

And if snacky things are okay, any suggestions as I really just seem to do variations on toast at the moment!

I have done the same since ds was about 2 but he has never eaten much in the evenings anyway. On his nursery days he often has seconds of lunch and a substantial tea so I don't worry too much about it.

He likes eggs so often have boiled egg or omelette in the evening. It's not unknown for him to just want a Babybel and some grapes and be perfectly happy with that.

If you want to give him the hot dinner, then I would be bulk cooking and freezing. Then it would take ten minutes when you get in to reheat/cook rice. Most of those meals would freeze well.

Hmm, i would think that a snacky meal would be ok but if he has sandwiches at 4pm it may be a bit too much 'bready' stuff?

Apart from the cous cous you could freeze the meals you had before and just microwave a portion for him. Maybe do this once a week?

I do as you do
DD has a hot meal with proper pudding at 12, and then snacky snuff like pittas, houmous and fruit at 3.30.

when she gets home, I'll do sandwiches, muffins or cheese and crackers with fruit.

I also do porridge as an occassional 'supper' when time is tight and kids dont fancy toast/bread stuff.

Hi Meg,

I had EXACTLY the same prob with my DS, he is now 3 but been at nursery a year and they do a big meal at lunchtime which he normally has 2 portions of and 2 portions of pud too, then at tea time they do similar to what you have listed above.

I usually do the following for him at about 6ish as he also goes to bed at 7pm -

3 Chicken Goujons and a dip
Half a jacket potato with beans or cheese
A muffin split in half with some tomato puree and cheese and anything else I have in the fridge (like a mini pizza)
Very small portion of pasta.
Sometimes just a fruit salad and a couple of yoghurts.

I think given the fact he has already eaten at about 4pm it would just end up being wasted to try and feed him another proper meal at 6pm but I do think they need a bit of something to get them through to breakfast the next day.

My DS isn't a beanpole exactly but he is smaller than average for his age.

Hope this helps.

Thanks everyone. I guess I am a bit concerned, like littleducks, says that it has all become a bit bready.

Problem, tbh, is not so much the prep of food - I have always had stuff in the freezer or cooked extra from ours so DS can have it next day to make it simpler - but just that proper meals takes DS ages with fork (and he was adamant about eating with his hands until about a month ago so I'm very keen to encourage this interest in fork use now!), and all rigmarole like grinding pepper on and such like which he loves. Whereas he seems capable of just inhaling toast and yoghurt and fruit so that is about 10-15 mins rather than 45!

I like the idea of baked potatoes and omelettes or chicken dippers and/or maybe littleducks' idea of doing proper meal once out of the 3 nights. He does get 2 proper meals on the 4 days he's not at nursery, so it's only 3 where it's snacky, and if i cut it to 2 that might make me feel a bit better!

I wouldn't worry so much if he was a butterball, but you can see his ribs even though he invariably asks for seconds of everything and nursery says they've never known a 2 year old put away so much food. He has hollow legs, my DS...

My dd (2 next week!) has also been at nursery since beginning of the year for 2 days, soon to go up to 3 days. She is definitely a beanpole, despite having always had a good appetite. Unfortunately pretty much constant colds/coughs/ chest infections for 3 months since starting nursery and a change of routine with this and ds arriving 7 months ago have really affected her appetite.

She always eats good breakfast, lunch is hit or miss at home, but she rarely eats much of her lunch at nursery, unless fishcakes, her favourite. There is a proper pudding too. She has breakfast at nursery and quite a substantial snack mid-morning there, which I think is why she doesn't eat much lunch there. She has tea there at 4pm, which is quite carby - sandwiches/teacakes/crumpets and fruit/veg sticks. She almost always eats this.

Particularly since she has become fussier recently, I find that if I try and give her a hot "proper" meal when she gets home from nursery, she is so tired that it will just put her off and she will eat nothing. Much more successful are snacky things as you describe - toast, fruit, yogurt, maybe eggy bread or cheese and crackers. She will nearly always have a whole banana too, then loves her mug of warm milk, so I am very happy even if just those two go down! I also find wholesome home-made cakes such as carrot, apple & raisn or banana are a hit if she is too tired to eat much else.

She is absolutely dropping when she comes home and we have given up bath on these 2 nights, preferring a more prolonged cuddle whilst eating snacks. I then give her a quick but thorough top and tail and a calming massage before scooping into bed.

Your ds sounds fine, especially if he is having lots of a hot lunch and pud at nursery. I find it difficult not to worry if dd refuses food, but she will always make up for it next day.

DS, also 2.1yo and also has tea at nursery at 4pm, has dinner with us at 6pm. Sometime he eats nothing and sometimes he scoffs the lot.

Last few days he's been having a full dinner and pudding! No idea where he puts it all.

I always thought my ds ate exceptionally well at nursery - e.g. 2 portions of cooked meal, 2 portions of pudding etc - then I asked how big a portion is, and they said it is the size of the child's palm - so actually portion size is much smaller than I expected. I give jacket potato or cheese on toast at about 6pm as DS (now 4) does seem to be hungry in the evenings.

DD1 is almost 4 and has breakfast, cooked lunch and dessert, and 'tea' similar to everyone else's DC's.

When she comes home she will normally have a piece of fruit, apple/satsuma/banana, a piece of cake if we have any (I make banana, apple, fruity type cakes) or toast and cheese plus a drink.

She is very very slim - but it's just the way she is. I wouldn't contemplate doing another cooked meal - not necessary and would worry she would be eating too much.

what about scrombled egg

or omlette with cheese / peppers / mushrooms / whatever else you chuck in?

or fresh filled pasta that takes about 3mins in a saucepan?