Meals help for 5, 3 and 1 year olds

mummyroysof3

Really hoping people will be willing to help me please,

DD who is 3 goes to afternoon nursery so her and DS who is 1 have lunch at 11.30 as we leave the house at 12.15.

this means they are wanting tea at 4.30, so are getting up at 5.30 am hungry, im try to get them to wait till 7am for breakfast or its too long till dinner for them, then they constantly ask for snacks in between argh im going mad

really was hoping if people could give me an idea of what sort of mealtimes you have at your house, and hopefully some ideas of what your children have for meals/snacks as im fed up of them having the same things and need some new ideas...

balletshoes

maybe you could give them a light meal at supper time too? ie boiled egg and soldiers, some soup, or even some cereal?

cte1111

Weetabix at bedtime is my recommendation, it's cheap, filling and healthy.

Jojo_the_Tightfisted

Nothing wrong with a toasted crumpet or small sandwich at about 6. Or those straight after school and dinner at 5.30/6.

If they're waking up because they are hungry, you simply need to feed them more/something that has good protein and carb content.


For mine, it was breakfast at 7.30, snack at 11, lunch at 2, tiny snack at 4, dinner at 6.

Both grew up tall, slim and healthy.

In your case, there is a case for introducing a good snack after school.

Counting_Pennies_2

Breakfast anytime between 7 and 8,
Lunch anytime from 11:30 - 1pm
Kids supper anytime from 4pm - 5:30pm
Kids snack (sandwich, toast, banana) an hour before bed
Milk just before bed.

Adult supper after kids bed

PS - a snack is always given to my children the second they are out of school. Their blood sugar has totally run out at this point, and they are grotty. The snack (a biscuit normally) will rally them and stop them giving me hell in the run up to supper

julie03

breakfast at 7.30, snack of fruit and cereal bar at 10.30, lunch at 12, at nursery my son has milk and fruit, after school 2 biscuits, dinner at 5.30, yogurt about 6, no other food just milk before bed

onlyroz

Either give them a snack at 4:30 and dinner sometime between 6 and 7, or do it the other way round. But I wouldn't expect a growing child to go from 4:30pm to 7am without any food.

mum2twinsx2

Counting_Pennies wrote: »

Breakfast anytime between 7 and 8,
Lunch anytime from 11:30 - 1pm
Kids supper anytime from 4pm - 5:30pm
Kids snack (sandwich, toast, banana) an hour before bed
Milk just before bed.

Adult supper after kids bed

PS - a snack is always given to my children the second they are out of school. Their blood sugar has totally run out at this point, and they are grotty. The snack (a biscuit normally) will rally them and stop them giving me hell in the run up to supper

I do the same as this. Sometimes like on Thursday we have ballet, TUesday swimming at 4.30 for an hour, i give them a larger snack e.g fruit, cheese and crackers and cocktail sausages.

somethingsgottogive

Definitely start giving them snacks! I don't really understand why you don't already?

I have 2 girls, 2 and 5 years old

7am/7.30 breakfast - weetabix or porridge
About 10am - eldest has milk and fruit at school, youngest has the same at home
Lunch - eldest has lunch at school at about 11.30, we have lunch at 12/12.30 and I make sure that my eldest's lunchbox is packed full - generally a sandwich, yoghurt, carrot and cucumber sticks, raisins etc
After school, about 4pm - they ALWAYS have something - usually fruit, yoghurts, crumpets, toast etc
Dinner at about 6-7pm, depending on what I'm making and then bed at 7.30-8pm.

As for meals, what sort of thing do you do for them now? Are they quite easy going or do you have to stick to certain foods? I do a lot of pasta/cous cous/potato salad type things where I chop up lots of cucumber/pepper/carrot/sweetcorn/tomatoes and something like ham, chicken, bacon, tuna, sausages then mix it altogether with a blob of mayonnaise. If you do it with mashed potato you can pile it on a plate and stick sausage/carrot arms and legs on it, make some eyes and have a mash monster I also mix other chopped up veg and meat into baked beans in a bowl, and put toast fingers around the outside like a spider, sometimes

madison-nyc

I have a 3 year old daughter and an 18month old son , They sleep from 6pm til 6am so our mealtimes are as follows:

6am - snack of grapes , cheese or banana etc. (to keep them going until i'm in the land of the living! lol)
7/7:30am - breakfast of porridge with a fruitpot mixed in or cornflakes with raisins etc.
my daughter has a fruit snack at school at approx 10:30am , my boy eats a huge breakfast so doesn't have a mid morning snack
12/12:30pm- lunch. Sandwich or soup with bread and butter etc. followed by yoghurt and a bit of chocolate or a biscuit if they've eaten well.
2:30pm ish - snack of fruit or cheese
4/4:30pm - dinner. shepards pie , pasta bake , lasagne etc. followed by a pudding of yoghurt , cake (if we've baked any!) etc.
5:30pm- my boy has his milk although he rarely takes more than a few sips over the last few weeks
6pm- bedtime!

My daughter is a bottomless pit at the moment and will graze pretty much all day somedays , so I will always offer a bowl of chopped fruit which she can pick at as and when she's peckish but won'r ruin her appetite for her 'proper' meals.

Spendless

Many children are hungry when they finish school, even those who live 2 mins from the school gate and last had their school meal at 12.30 ie mine!!! give them a snack when they come home and their tea later on.

I know it came as a shock to me when my eldest went to PM nursery that he could become so hungry within a couple of hours, but he did. My friend whose dd went to am nursery, thought when she went to f-time school that she couldn't be eating her lunch cos she hadn't encountered '3.30-starvation'. BTW my eldest is 11 and hasn't outgrown it!