What routine do you have if you eat dinner with your toddler?

[jumperooo]

If you eat your evening meal with your toddler, I wonder if you could tell me what sort of timings/routines you have. Specifically what time do you all eat, what time do they go to bed, do you give them something to keep them going between lunch and dinner, and when do you do baths, bedtime milk and / or anything else that you think needs doing in between. I have a one year old who currently has dinner at 5pm, she has a bath every other night after dinner, bedtime milk around 6.20pm and is ready to go up to bed about 6.50pm. She fslls,asleep straight away. We currently eat dinner after she's gone to bed, usually around 7.30pm.

Thanks!

We do try and have dinner as a family where we can. My DC are a little older (4 and 2) but we have done it for a little while. They do tend to have a substantial snack at about 3.30 / 4 pm, and then we aim for a 5.30 pm dinner. It does mean that once they have eaten we go straight to the bath, then wind down for bed. We aim for lights out at 7pm.

We do like eating earlier - the only danger is that you might need a bit of a snack later. I was always eating a substantial snack at 5pm anyway (or eating off the DCs plates) so this probably works better for me.

My boy is 4 now, but we've always had dinner together at 5pm. So, when he was a year old, we'd eat tea about 5:15, take him upstairs for bathtime about 6pm, in the bath 6:30pm, out about 6:45pm and then milk/stories and lights out about 7pm - 7:15pm (depending on if things run late).

The only difference now my eldest is 4 is that he only has a bath every couple of nights and we're often upstairs sometime between 6pm and 6:30pm.

Your routine seems remarkably similar to mine - are you not happy with it?
(I could never have tea at 7:30pm - I'd be starving! Me and DH were both brought up in families with 5pm teatimes so we're programmed to eat at that time lol :-D

I should add that this has really helped my eldest with eating / trying new foods (and I find that we eat better when we are eating with the DC).

Oh, and we have snacks anytime between 2:30pm and 3:30pm - nothing after 4pm.

We aim to eat as a family at about 5.15 (DS is 2) then wind down, bath about 6.15 followed by story and lights off about 7ish.

DH isn't generally home til 6-6.30pm so we only eat together at weekends, then its more likely to be lunchtime and have tea at 5.30pm followed by be at 7pm. The children are only 3 and 1 though so not at a point of being awake enough to eat at 6.30-7pm with us yet.

2yo often has dinner before us because that suits everyone's routines, but if we do eat with her we eat at her time. She'll have milk and a snack around 3ish, then dinner about 5.30. The only thing with eating with her is actually getting the dinner ready! But we don't do bathtime until about 7, then milk, then story and in bed by about 7.45.

I don't like eating with her too often because she actually eats better when no one else is at the table. Oh, and if I eat at 5.30 I'm starving again before bed

We eat at 7ish each night, then bed with stories, asleep about 7.45-8. My DD has always found a bath too exciting (in my opinion) before bed so has one in the morning. We get up about 8am, so breakfast 8.30 or so then bath. No morning snack unless we are at a toddler group with a set snack time. Lunch 12.30-1, followed by a nap, snack when we get in from dog walk/park at 4/4.30.

It does mean we can take her out and eat in restaurants at a normal time without any fuss and if she does have a late night we just let her sleep in a bit the next day.

DP is still at work until 6pm, I used to work until at least 6pm too pre-baby so anything earlier than 7.30pm feels too early for us. Infact we used to eat around 8pm! When I was a kid we ate early but by our teenage years it was later in the evening. As you say, its how you were brought up I guess!

I would like to eat more evening meals with DD (I do eat breakfast and lunch with her) so that she eats more of the same meals as us and also to try and avoid food fussiness, she's got to that age. If we had dinner at 6.15pm-ish I'm wondering how to fit her milk and everything else in by 7pm bed time. She's done in by 7pm so a later bedtime isn't an option at the moment. I'd also need to think about a largeish snack mid afternoon to keep her going until dinner, I wonder if she might be too full from dinner to want milk fairly soon after too. I know its recommended to eat dinner with your kids, I just don't know how best to do it or whether to wait til she's a bit older!

Oh, I should have said, DD has just turned 2 but has been eating at 7ish since she was about 1.

We all eat together but I'm a sahm and dh works at home so we can all eat at 5.30 ish.
On the odd occasion when we eat later then I bath the kids first, then dinner, 15 mins to let it go down, then teeth and bed :-)

kids eat between 5 and 6pm. dh and I eat around 8/8.30pm most nights as he gets home later. we eat together at weekends

p.s. my 2 are 7 and 10 and are in bed when we have dinner

To be fair we do prefer to eat after she's in bed, the time is better for us and its more relaxing. Maybe I shouldnt worry about it until she's a bit older.

My 11 month old and my 3 year old have the same routine.

6:00pm dinner (with flexibility of course depending on how busy the day is...if baby is tired we move it to 5:30pm or if he's nodded off and had a late nap, we move it back to 6:30pm - that kind of thing).

DH and I often eat with the kids but regardless always sit down with them. We have a story routine at dinner. We read them books while they eat, between chatting etc.

When dinner is done the kids have a bath, then we split them up and put them to bed. Bed ranges from 6:30pm - 7:30pm for the baby and between 7:00-8:00pm for the 3 year old. 3 year old gets 1:1 time during bedtime stories in his room after bath, baby just gets a cuddle and is done for the day.

They do get a snack between lunch and dinner - fruit, cheese/crackers yogurt or whatnot.

I have 2.2 yo twins. We eat together at weekends and on my day off work. On other days they eat at 5ish and then DH and I eat at 8ish
Routine on weekends is
Wake about 8/830- Milk
Breakfast about 9
Lunch about 1230
Nap 2-4
Snack on waking (smoothie or yoghurt)
Dinner at 530/6
Bath
Milk and bed by 8.

do whatever works for you. We only eat together at weekends because we eat too late for the kids to eat with us. It doesnt seem to have stunted their development too much.

We try to eat our evening meal withds (5) at weekends and school hold, he couldn't have his tea at 6:30 or later when his Dad gets home!

We have a 17 month old and I don't get home until 6ish but it's important to us that we all eat as a family.

So I get home 6-6.30 ish and we eat at 7pm. At around 7.45-8pm he has a quick bath, then he's into his pyjamas, teeth cleaning and is in his cot to hear two stories before settling for bed.He typically goes to sleep around 9pm.I know that sounds late but it suits our toddler (even as a baby, his falling asleep time tended to be 9pm, no matter what time we started his bedtime routine). I don't think such a late bedtime would suit all toddlers.

It does mean we get a lie-in whenever we want one, though. He typically wakes up around 9-10am, sometimes even 11am. I don't know anyone who has a toddler who sleeps so late. To be honest, it only works so well for us because he doesn't have to be up and off to nursery before I go to work. He only does afternoons at nursery.

I really do believe eating together with family is key to having a not-too-fussy toddler (some degree of fussiness will happen no matter what you do, though). We also never pressurise him into eating anything in particular or at a certain speed. He can just pick and choose from his plate. Once he's eaten all his favourites he'll start eating the less-favoured foods. Carrots get a full veto from him but we just keep putting them on his plate anyway, but with no pressure to eat any. He has occasionally tried one again, but only one.

both mine go to bed earlier than your toddler but then they have school to get up for so dont get the luxury of a lie in. I am finding that as my 2 get older they are more up for trying new things so i dont think eating habits as a toddler/baby have that much influence. They will also go through phases of liking/not liking things so just because your lo eats well just now doesnt mean that that will continue!

There's no way we could eat with 18 month old ds - he goes to bed at 6 pm (has dinner at 5 latest) and I'm not at all hungry then! I usually put him to bed and then make dinner for dh, me and dd aged 11. Works better for us that way and much more relaxing for us too.

I usually do have a snack with ds at 5 so he's not alone eating :) ... He wakes at 6, has lunch at 12 ish then a nap 1.30-3 then dinner and bed at 6.

We used to eat about 5-5.30 but milk was about 7, bedtime 7.30.

If DH wasn't there (quite normal at that time) we'd join him at the table for a drink or a snack at 6-6.30 . Otherwise it was just too long to wait for the little one.

Back from work at around 5.30, dinner for me & kids at around 6 (3 of them are teenagers so we have a cooking rota which means I'm not always rushing straight into the kitchen!) DH isn't back till much later so he sorts himself out!
Sometimes bath for 2 yo DS around 6.30, then he has a bit of tv & milk. Upstairs for stories at 7 and he's usually in bed by 7.30.
Big glass of wine for me!

Thanks all, I guess there's quite a difference between a 15 month old and a 2yr old. Can't see us being able to eat before 6.30pm and I think she would be too tired and grumpy for dinner by that point. Will stick to our current routine for a bit longer.

If your routine is working then stick to it. You can eat other meals together, you can sit and be with him at dinner time, and nurseries and childminders will have social.meals too.