Do you feed DC before nursery (1-2yr old)?

[Lucy211]

I have a DD, who’s just turned 12 months. I now want to wean her off formula slowly over the next few months. Right now she has a bottle at 7.00 10:30, 14:00 and 19:00.

But I don’t want to stop the 7am feed because right now, I don’t feed her solids before nursery - I give her the bottle when she wakes up, we leave the house around 7.45, and nursery give her breakfast around 8-8.15. It works well!

What do other parents do? Do your DC have two breakfasts?

That's a lot of formula for 12 months.

I'm a cm and all mine have breakfast before they arrive at 8am. I give a snack around 9.30 am, earlier if they are hungry.

So, I started by switching breakfast and bottle around.

I give breakfast before nursery at 6.30am and then my nursery does food at 9am so its a little later then yours and it's not heavy, fruit/yogurt, toast etc so more a morning tea.

could you do something light like a yogurt before you leave or smoothie, then her full breakfast there?

My 18 month has a bottle of cows milk when she wakes then breakfast at nursery about 8:30am.

Mine has a 'breakfast snack' usually a banana or suckie yoghurt when we're heading out the door at 730, just to see them through until nursery breakfast (which they give them any time between 8-9)!

Our 14 month old has a breastfeed at about 7:40 and breakfast at nursery at about 8:30. He has another breastfeed before his bath at 7ish. I don't know how people normally wean off formula, but obviously the breastfeeding schedule is based on when he's at home with mummy, so he doesn't have any milk during the day. He did get offered expressed milk at nursery when settling in around 11 months, but he wasn't that interested so we stopped sending it in.

At that age my son had a bottle of cows milk at home then breakfast at 8:30am at the childminders. That's a lot of formula for 12 months

Would she take a cup? She could have a cup of cow's milk and a banana to keep her going pre nursery.

Give her a cup of milk instead and maybe something like a banana or toast fingers to tide her over until nursery if she's very hungry.

I’ve just stopped BFing my 14 mo and he wakes up at 5am so I have to feed him before nursery, unfortunately.

Thank you all! Those are some great suggestions - I’ll try doing just toast or fruit with milk.

I wouldn't get away without feeding my children in the mornings so I do breakfast as normal. If they are hungry when they get to nursery they can have another breakfast which is usually a small bowl of cereal so nothing much.

Lots of formula which is ultra processed. For my daughter, I made breakfast at home (mostly eggs/ cottage cheese, avocado) as I wanted to see she ate good quality food at home vs nursery (who would give white toast bread or cereals)

Mine at that age always had a cup of milk or bf when they woke up and actual sitting at the table breakfast before nursery. But nursery started at 9.

I think what you’re doing in the mornings is fine as nursery starts much earlier, but I’d be looking to move to one milk feed a during the day (either mid morning or afternoon) replacing the other with a snack.

Yeah, breakfast before and dinner after. Food at nursery tends to be rubbish portions, very changeable quality of food, and they’re easily distracted by parents dropping off/different kids/etc.

I used to give a yoghurt with her vitamins in but she came off formula under medical advice at 11 months.

She should be having 2 snacks a day so I would be dropping the day time bottles replacing them with snacks

I massively reduced my little one's bottles from 12 months, he started just having a bottle of cows milk (Arla toddler milk) first and last thing, so 7am and 6.45pm. The mid morning and afternoon bottles were replaced by snacks in addition to his three main meals a day. He's 14 months old now and at nursery and our schedule is similar to yours with the timings, so now we give him a bottle when he wakes at 7am and he has his breakfast (weetabix) at nursery around 8.30am. When he comes home at 5pm we give him another snack at 5.30 (he's already had "tea" at nursery at 3.30), and his second bottle before bed. He's a chunky monkey so he's definitely getting enough 😂

I just give a banana and some yogurt usually and sometimes we just have it on the way ! But my daughter is a late riser she only gets up around 7.30/7.45 and we need to leave by 8/8.15 depending on the day of the week

they eat breakfast at 9

My DD has a cup of milk when she wakes up and then I offer fruit (usually berries) and toast before nursery. She often doesn’t eat it all as she seems to prefer a gap between getting up and breakfast. Normally has a second breakfast at nursery regardless of how much she eats at home.

After 12 months I would replace the daytime bottles with healthy snacks.

We replaced the daytime bottles with small snacks and in the morning, we just offered a small cup of milk with some fruit to keep them going until they got to nursery and had breakfast there.