Do you feed your baby a second tea when you get back from nursery?

[WestYorkshireGirl]

My DS is one and has just started nursery (full days 3 x p/wek). After lunch, she has snack at 2.30ish and tea at 3.45pm which is about an hour earlier than she has her tea the other 2 days a week. I collect her about 5ish and she is normally in the bath for 6.00 and having her milk (BF) at 6.15ish and asleep by 6.30pm I started not giving her anything when she got home as she's had a proper lunch, snack and then a tea like baked beans or soup but she woke a lot in the night and it seemed a long time to go until 5/6am ish when she wakes up and has another B/F before we get up. So I now give her a yoghurt and a biscotti. Just wondering what anyone else does? I know it sounds silly, but I don't want to overfeed her, but neither do I want her to be hungry! Thanks!

Our nursery advises us that tea is not a full proper tea and the babies and small children will still need something extra to eat when they get home. 3.45 is very early for the last meal of the day.

Yes! If he wants it. DS1 had two teas for years. DS1 also seems to be a 4 meals a day boy

*DS2

DS has been in nursery since he was 1 (he's 4 now) and had a similar routine (mid-morning snack, hot lunch at 11.30-12, tea (sandwiches, soup etc) at 3.30pm and he'd go to bed at 7pm so when we got in at about 5 he'd have a snack of rice cakes, cheese, fruit etc. Somedays he ate loads, some days not much. When he was small, he'd have his bottle before bed too. These days, he usually has some fruit and maybe some toast.

I give my DS a meal after nursery.

DS is now 17mo, but has been in nursery since 9mo. He has generally had a meal when we get home (around 6:30) as there is no way he could last till morning or even till his bath with no meal! He usually has something like pasta/spaghetti bolognaise/chicken stir fry and so on.

Mind you, like his parents, the child is totally ruled by his belly. He gets the anger if he is hungry. So not giving him a meal after nursery has never ever been a possibility, even at 9mo old.

Actually, until he was 16mo old, DS ate two breakfasts a day (pre and at nursery), lunch, afternoon tea and dinner. And never went more than three hours at night without a breastfeed.

He isn't overfed though. If he doesn't fancy something, he won't eat it and I don't push it. He turned down dinner today as he is teething terribly so just had a slice of toast and some milk in the bath. So it night be worth trying your DD with a light dinner and seeing what kind of appetite she has.

We always have done with DD. She went to nursery at 7mo, but at that age her home 'tea' was something like porridge or rice pudding to keep her full overnight. Plus BF at bedtime.

It has evolved over the last year, so for a while I did her another approximate serving of whatever they had at nursery, crackers and ham and fruit, or a sandwich or beans on toast etc. Then I added a pudding for a while and dropped that hen we moved the bedtime BF forward. Now at 20mo she has a small portion of whatever me and DH have.

Some days she eats it all, some days she just plays with it - depends how her appetite takes her. Like rubyroo, we don't force the food on her. If she's not in the mood, so be it. I trust her to eat when she's hungry (it's done us well so far )

We all eat together at around 6pm, then she has 10 mins with her toys, we start bedtime at roughly 6.45pm and into bed for 7-7.15pm.

Thanks everyone - that's really useful. DD is my first and sometimes it's just good to see what other people do! As you say, they won't eat if they're not hungry so I don't have to worry about over-feeding her!

We've always given DS a meal when he comes home from nursery, more than anything it's so that we all sit down to eat together. I only give him a small portion and let him eat as much (or little) as he wants.

We give DS a small meal when he gets home from nursery, generally just some toast or a bagel, some yoghurt, fruit etc. The issue is now at the weekends he seems to be going along the same timings, wants his tea at 3.30ish, then more around the 5.30-6ish Mark!