What to give DS to eat after nursery

[lovelymama]

Just wondering what people give their DC to eat when they get home from nursery. DS has lunch (main meal) there at 12 and rather strangely, has tea at 3pm. Tea is usually a light meal like crumpets and fruit or sandwiches. I don't want to give DS another full meal when I get him home from nursery at 5.45pm, but I think he needs something else to keep him going until the next morning. I've been giving him a banana and yoghurt or some rice cakes but it's getting boring and I know nursery give them rice cakes as snacks and he often has banana at nursery.

DS doesn't really like sandwiches (although seems to eat them at nursery!!) so that's out of the question. Anyone got any simple but filling snacks they give their children? If only nursery could be sensible and give tea at 4/4.30pm I wouldn't be thinking about this!

Thanks

beans on toast
scrambled egg
cheese on toast

My two los have a similar kind of tea at nursery but at 3.30/3.45. It's early because parents tend to start appearing to collect not long after 4, even though it's open till 6.

On the train home they usually share a banana and then scoff a tub of any combination of strawberries/grapes/raspberries with a digestive or another plain biscuit at the end if they're still chomping. If we've done baking the day before, they might have a sneaky flapjack instead.

Cereal
Soup
Toast and peanut butter
Bread sticks and houmous

My dd has nothing! Sometimes a yoghurt - but very rarely.

Mine (aged 4 and 17 months) still want two courses at 5, even when they have eaten at 3/3.30

We have pasta and sauce, salmon with couscous, muffin pizzas, omelettes, tinned vege ravioli on toast etc etc. What I tend to do early in the week is give them left overs from weekend meals - tomorrow for exmple, they will have reheated cauli cheese.

And then yoghurt/fruit (depending on what they have had at nursery). All this at 5, and then milk (and biscuit for 4 year old) at 6.30. They could eat a house my two.

why don't you want him to have another meal in the evening? If he has his lunch at 12, then a snack at 3 surely he's ravenous by 6? I know mine would have been! Isn't it usual to have dinner in the evening? [baffled emoticon]

DS normally has something like cheese on toast, cheese and biscuits, baked beans, pasta.

DS sounds like your two clemette

Porridge. With raisins/banana/grated apple/berries/yoghurt/milk/honey/whatever.

That was DD's supper for the best part of a year when I was at college full time.

Sends 'em off to sleep - when she is overtired and needs an early night I still do porridge for tea, and she is 6 now!

Ds usually wants no more than some fruit, and maybe some toast. Occasionally a boiled egg

They have tea at 3 as then they are done by 4 which is when the pick ups really start - certainly at DS's nursery at least half have gone by 5

Weetabix or porridge!

Seriously - do your children not have dinner?

DS is really not that hungry - if we have dinner in time he is offered it, but isn't interested. Of coursed, if he is hungry, I'll cook him something, and always have fresh stuffed pasta in the freezer for such eventualities

Tea at 3/3.30 is several sandwiches/soup and bread/beans on toast plus fruit, so much more than a snack

seeker I'm a bit confused as well!

Mine is nearly 2 and not even started nursery yet but certainly gets through 3 square meals plus mid morning and mid afternoon stuff. Crumpets or fruit is a snack surely. I assume the reason they call it tea is that it sounds like an old fashioned "high tea" ie something to tide you mid afternoon til later.

I mean obviously all the children are getting enough food but DD woofs down 2 large courses quite merrily at 6 ish...

Maybe I have a greedy child!

DD is 1. She has the same set up for mealtimes. On her 2 days at nursery, when we get home, she has porridge, toast and a yoghurt if she wants.

Wow thanks everyone. I'll try some of the suggestions.

Seeker and Lovely Tin - DS really isn't that in to food. He loves, loves, loves brekkie and has cereal, fruit and toast but then after that he can take or leave large amounts of food. He'll eat all of either lunch or tea but not both. I've tried offering him a meal at 5.30 when he gets home - he just won't eat more than 2 mouthfuls but seems to be quite happy to have a banana and yoghurt or a similar small snack. I guess all babies have very different habits!

Most teas at nursery are just a small snack to tide them over till they get home and have their main meal.

Does he like hardboiled eggs or slices of ham or cold chicken or anything like that? Picnicky stuff would be easy to have ready. But if he likes breakfast food, I'd be inclined to give him the same again - porridge or cereal with fruit and toast seems like a perfectly good thing to have for supper to me if you've already eaten three decent meals. Alternatively, how about freezing small portions of pasta sauce or stew then you can just cook him some rice or pasta and frozen veg to go with it and give him that? V easy and will only take fifteen minutes max to get ready.

Also, hoummous with veg sticks is an easy one, and a good healthy option if you don't want him to have another 'sweet' meal.

lovelymama - I asked the same question a while back! In my experience, it's all a bit hit and miss. I personally cannot bear to give DS (now 16 months old, was 11 months old when he started nursery) just snacky bits. I've grown up with hot meals so find the concept of just a cold meal i.e. sandwiches etc very difficult (but I will admit that is just me!). So what I do is I do freeze smaller portions of food that I cook for the family and just heat those up for DS when he gets back. That way I don't feel gutted if he decides not to eat that night (which can happen often especially if tea in nursery is something he likes).

Gnocchi, fresh pasta from supermarket (if you buy the special ranges, they usually have a lot less salt than the normal range) etc are easy to cook and I also have pouches of ready pasta sauces (ASDA does a great kids' range of sauces) that I can mix those in to give DS a quick dinner. He then has a yoghurt or fruit or some biscuits as pudding. Don't stress too much if he doesn't want to eat, some days DS gets so overtired from nursery that he just cries through dinner and usually, he just gets yoghurt and some fruit then.