HELPPPP - feeding frustration

[Sal1105]

Afternoon. About 5 days ago I decided to change my DS (2 in May) lunchtime and have his lunch before his lunchtime nap as he was eating so late having his lunch after his nap. Out of the five days, I think only one has been successful. For some reason he has started to wake up earlier, so obviously he's having his breakfast earlier. But he's gone from being really good at eating his breakfast to eating hardly anything and then, come 11.30 he's very tired and very hungry and therefore horrid. He wont eat his lunch even though I can hear his tummy rumbling. I'm fairly sure he likes what I've made (ravioli) as he's eaten it before. I try not to get stressed, I try to stay calm, I try to talk to him, blackmail him, I've tried everything. He also wont feed himself much anymore even though he's had loads of encouragement. He has a Donkey (not a real one) who has more influence over him than I do (I do Donkey voice and he listens to him). Anyway, I don't want to deprive him food but he hasn't really experienced hunger so I don't know whether to play hardball and let him learn the hard way or to go back to giving him his lunch after his nap. I'm not quite at the end of my tether but not far off..... Very stressed... HELP

Hm. Not sure about this - I have a couple of questions...

What time is he waking up now? And what kind of time is he having his nap (and how long does he sleep)?

Did he start waking early/not eating much breakfast before or after you moved his lunch? Do you think the two are related or not?

I'd be tempted to deal with the breakfast thing first - maybe offering him breakfast again half an hour or so later than you have been to see if he eats any more. Depending on how much he eats then, you could see whether you want to offer lunch before or after nap. My dd1 is just 2 and is variable on how much she will eat for breakfast and even on what time she wakes up, but she's a tiny wee thing so I tend to wait and offer more breakfast in a little while if she literally eats hardly anything.... not very helpful I know, hope you get better advice soon.

It all sounds so familiar to me. My dd is 14 months old and has a nap at 11 or so until 1 or 2 pm. This means she's not hungry enough for lunch before nap, and then if she eats after her nap (if) it's not long before dinner time! We tried giving her lunch at 11.30/ 12 and she got so over tired she wouldn't settle. She's decided to be a crappy eater altogether now, so I often can't tell if she's tired enough for a nap, or cranky because she's hungry, or perhaps too hungry to eat, or just being a PITA! It all used to be so smooth like clockwork sleeping then eating but now that she doesn't want to sleep in the morning it's all gone askew.

Not much help I know, but lots of sympathy here!

Sympathy is lovely. Thank you, weebump. Bella73, the little darling has been waking up at 6.30 where as before it was 7.15 - 7.30 (lovely). You might be right about them being connected as it's only been the last few days, may be more, that he's been waking up earlier. The breakfast thing has been going on for a bit longer. I've been told that they can lose their appetite during teething - may be that's it. Although I haven't noticed it this much before with earlier teeth. Not entirely sure if he's teething or not, to be honest. It's hard with the breakfast timings, etc, as weebump points out. You don't want them to eat too late as it means not hungry for lunch and then a late lunch means not that hungry for tea. God, I wish I was psychic.

Forgot to say Bella73, he was napping at around 11.30 - 1.30. And now, it's about 12.15 - 2.15.

Yes, I totally get the difficulty with timings, esp when he was napping til after 2.... tricky. You might find he's fighting off a cold or teething as you said, and that's messing his sleep AND feeding routines....

How about going for brunch? I know that sounds silly but it might be a good compromise in the short term til you figure out if this sleep thing is a blip or a new pattern for him? So maybe no breakfast when he is first up (and yikes at 6.30!) but something at 9ish or whatever, more than you would normally offer for breakfast as a compromise? Hope that makes sense? Then you could put him down for a nap when he gets tired at 11.30?