After nursery food for toddler

[Squashpocket]

Just wondering what everyone else does for after nursery meals for your toddlers?

Our 20 month old has the following on a typical day at nursery:

8am - cereal and milk
10am - fruit or breadsticks
12pm - shepherds pie and pudding and custard
3:30pm - sandwiches, salad, fruit and yoghurt
5pm - baby crisps

We get home at 6 ish and he goes to bed at around 7:45.

I usually give him something like a banana, yoghurt or toast and always a bottle of whole cows milk before bed. No proper dinner and just wondering if I should be?

On days when he's home with me it's just breakfast, lunch and dinner and a morning snack if he's hungry.

Sounds good to me. They only need a snack if they have had a hot meal and sandwiches. Mine have either toast with peanut butter or honey. It's their favourite.

Does he seem satisfied after the snack? Just wondering why you feel that he needs a full meal in the evening?

Mine has exactly the same routine. He commutes to nursery with me on the train so usually has a snack on the train home. Banana, scotch pancake, biscuit, rice cake, something like that. Then a beaker of milk before bed. It's enough to keep him going until morning.

My DD has similar always just has a snack after nursery, usually toast or a bagel and fruit, very occasionally beans on toast if she insists she’s hungry (she’s older though so can tell me). She’s a great eater at nursery though and almost always has seconds! If she didn’t eat the food there I’d probably give her more when we get home.

Watching with interest as I've been wondering the same thing.

I do oatcakes with cheese and fruit, or beans on toast, or scrambled egg on toast.

With DS2 who is nearly 2 comes home from nursery around 5.30 and sits down and has dinner with us at 6.30, he usually doesn't have very much but it's more about sitting down with us to eat. He has a bottle when he goes to bed.

When DS1 was this age we didn't get home til 6.30 so we ate later after he went to bed.He usually had a small snack when we got in and a bottle with bed.

We do yogurt plus toast if he asks for it then cup of milk before bed.

DD has some cereal, toast, cheese on toast, crackers or crumpets with fruit and a small yogurt when she gets in, then milk before bath. She packs away quite abit of food during the day including hot lunch so don’t want to overfill her before bed

Same as lots above. Cheese and crackers, toast, malt loaf, crumpets, hot cross buns, scones and a cup of milk.

We do the same - a snack with some carbs to fill him up before bed, but not a full meal

I used to try and get DD1 to eat a proper hot dinner after nursery. After way too long I realised I was wasting my time and just gave her a sandwich or similar. She was too tired and stuffed full of nursery food to eat another ‘proper’ meal.

I give tea the same as what we are having but smaller portion than non nursery days.

Thanks everyone for the replies. I feel reassured!

I suppose I wondered if I was letting him go hungry as on my full days with him he has a proper dinner at 6pm. He doesn't sleep brilliantly at night (every night, not just nursery days!), so wondered if he was missing it. But sounds like probably not.

We always did a proper hot dinner. Mine had afternoon snack at around 3:30-4pm and got home by 5:30. We have dinner at 6:30 and then off to bed by 7:30. But really it's because we had to eat dinner ourselves. It seemed silly to not feed her too, especially as snack at nursery was just things like breadsticks, fruit, toast, etc. nothing especially filling. But I think if it's working for you and he's not waking up hungry at night, then it's working, so I wouldn't worry about changing it. The only reason I might think about offering dinner is just getting him used to foods you eat as a family, if what he has at nursery is notably different. Most people tend to cook the same types of meals again and again, so getting him to love those dinners now will probably make it easier later when he goes through fussier stages. But if he's getting plenty of those meals on other days, then probably doesn't matter too much.

It doesn't matter what it is, as long as it's enough.