Cut off for eating before bed

[thiscantbeforever]

DS is 23 months and is always ravenous after nursery, keeps demanding more food even when he’s had tea there - which is often savoury scones and veggies, beans on toast, jacket potato, sandwiches etc.
I give him a piece of toast, usually some cheese, some cucumber/carrot/pepper or some apple/blueberries/raspberries. He will always ask for biscuits, breadsticks or cakes after he’s eaten all his snack! He still had about 200ml milk at about 6.15-6.30 before bedtime starts at 6.45 and he’s asleep about 7.30.
Recently he’s been waking up at 6am ish having done a huge poo. I’m wondering if I need to change up what I’m offering him, reduce the amount of food or limit the time I offer food, implementing a no food past Xpm sort of thing.
Anyone had anything similar?

What time do you get home from nursery pick up? Would it make sense to just give him dinner? DS used to have tea at nursery and then dinner at home most days

You want to reduce his food so he doesn't wake up and poo?

I used to give mine porridge for supper as it filled her up!

It sounds like he's not eating enough during the day though.

Also is he potty trained? Even if not might be worth starting to sit him on the potty before getting ready for bed. DS also eats a lot, always has and he's as regular as clockwork, before bed and within 15-20 minutes of getting up in the morning, but we used to sit him on the potty after his bath, the warm water often gets things moving. If DS was getting less than 12 hours sleep he was ratty so I wouldn't want him waking at six having gone to bed at 7:30

He sounds hungry, like he needs a proper meal, mine always ate again after nursery tea. And I would lay off the fruit maybe, not in general, but give it in the AM instead to see if that helps with the pooing.

Not actively look to reduce it but hear from others if a large amount of food might be the reason he seems quite uncomfortable and having a huge poo in the morning. Just looking at possible options.

He isn’t potty trained but I will give this a try! I don’t think we are far off to be honest.

Due to commutes and DH working away a lot I have struggled to even consider making dinner for all of us before DS goes to bed. But I think I need to start meal planning and prepping our meals together

@thiscantbeforever I know it's a bit of an odd way to do it, but we used this routine before properly training him (he used to sit with a board book 😂) and we never had any issues with poos and I know some children find wees on the toilet fine but poos take longer to get the hang of

Portions at nursery are usually on a the small side. Does he eat well at nursery? I collect my 2 year old from nursery before dinner, but the odd time she’d stayed, she’s still sat down with us at home and ate a full dinner, and she’s a petite girl and definitely not greedy.

You're giving him lots of snacks bits, without much protein to fill him up. I would suggest giving him a filling meal with a little fruit for pudding, and stop all the snacking, perhaps something easy for you to batch cook, then reheat for him to have a home.

I think it sounds ok what you give him really but perhaps he needs larger quantity if he's hungry. More cheese would be a good place to start for the protein and calories.

We sometimes gave/give our kids a 'proper' dinner after nursery and sometimes not depending on our working pattern and level of organisation. But generally our kids have not been particularly hungry after nursery, often they ate/eat nothing or very little. My youngest is 2.5 and there is the odd day where he hasn't eaten his tea well at nursery or they had something very light like soup when he is as hungry as you describe.

Very quick but still filling options you could consider:

• Beans/egg (fried/scrambled/boiled/poached)/spag hoops/grilled halloumi/cheese/soft cheese/peanut butter on toast/pitta bread/crumpet/English muffin
• Frozen jacket potatoes with cheese and beans/spag hoops or cheese and coleslaw and salad.
• Cheese or peanut butter on crackers, and salad/fruit
• Tinned soup with bread/pitta bread/crumpet/toast/English muffin
• There are some toddler ready meals around but we are vegetarian so often struggled to find anything. Tilda do toddler veggie rice packets that mine like though
• Make extra of you and DH's dinner and reheat leftovers for your DC the next day
• Pasta and pesto with salad/frozen peas. You can even buy 'quick cook' pasta from Tesco.

What does he have for lunch because that doesn't look like very much protein?

It's usual for them to have a 'high tea' at nursery around 4.30pm, then most kids will eat tea at home too.

My first always had a huge second tea with us, until around 2 when she slowed down. She now 2.5yrs and often doesn't want much 6pm tea. 13 month sister usually has a big tea, even on nursery days.

I eat with them both at 6pm. Then sometimes youngest is pretty much straight to bed. Oldest will be downstairs til 8ish, sometimes after refusing tea with us at 6, will have some off dads plate at 7.30.

He needs a proper dinner when getting in from nursery

He'll probably sleep later if you do that, too

Yes make dinner for all of you before his bed time. Nursery tea is usually quite small and very early, most children eat dinner at home as well so he’s probably very hungry if you haven’t been giving him dinner. Also though that may just be his poo schedule at the moment, 6am isn’t early for a toddler to wake up.