"I went back to work last week and DD is in nursery, she has lunch there at 11:30 then 'tea' at 15:30, unfortunately the earliest we can eat in the evening is about 5:45, she seems to play with this food as I guess she isn't really hungry as she ate just over 2 hours before.
But I don't want her to have no food from 15:30 all the way to 7:00 the next morning as that seems like ages! But she is also really tired by 18:30 and we then bath her and put her to bed"
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Hi again Choc,
It looks like as you say she isn't hungry having had a meal already at 15.30 before dinner again at 17.45. What does she have for tea at nursery? It would be a lot for her to have a meal at 15.30, another dinner at 17.45 and a full bottle as well at 18.30 - don't think any DC could manage that!
So, what might be a good idea is keep her having her tea at nursery at 15.30 and almost give her a light bite at 17.45 - half a banana, youghurt etc rather that another meal and that won't make her too full before her bottle.
The aim is to get her to have a full bottle before bed, so she goes to bed satisfied, so I would just adjust accordingly what you give her for dinner at 17.45 so she isn't so full she is sick.
If she is still being sick, just reduce the amount the following evening and maybe less heavy carbs until you find an amount that she is comfortable with and doesn't make her sick. You feel so bad though when they are sick, I always used to get upset even though DS was fine - he was also very dehydrated after throwing up.
Also, maybe if she is having a huge dinner at 15.30 she may not even need anything until her bottle at 18.30 - bearing in mind that is the same time difference between breakfast and lunch. I wouldn't personally increase the milk intake though - stick to what worked before nursery.
OR THE OTHER OPTION
You could ask the nursery to give her something lighter and try and give her a normal dinner at 17.45 (basically reverse the previous point) I don't know about nursery though and that might not be appropriate.
The only other thing I would say is that if we go later than 17.15 for dinner ds struggles to take his night bottle, as you say 45 mins is too close of a time difference for their little tummies to have a full dinner and full bottle so close together.
I totally agree that you don't want to be putting her to bed later though as you're in a good routine and that hour later would probably make a lot of difference to you and her! Phone your Health Visitor tomorrow though and ask her what she thinks and just copy and paste your post onto the forums at babyledweaning.com - they are great and very helpful.
HTH - am no expert at all just giving advice as another mum....