Toddler Eating Schedule

[Robin D]

Just a quick question: how often do people usually feed their toddlers?

Toddler V is getting breakfast with us at 6:45 am, then 2nd breakfast at 8:30 am (at daycare), then lunch at 11:45-12:00 noonish (daycare), snack at 3 pm (daycare) and then dinner with us around 5:45 pm. When I bring her home she acts starving by about 5:20 pm. We do not, as a rule, make complicated meals during the week, but we can not eat earlier than 5:30 pm. I've been trying to include some protein in her snack but she still seems really hungry. I hesitate to give her a snack before we eat dinner because a) I insist she eat what we eat and I'm afraid she won't eat dinner otherwise. How often does everbody else find their kids get hungry?

[little_muffin]

All the time at the moment! She constantly asks can she have a snack, even just after a meal, yet she refuses to eat more of her meal. We are only bout 3 weeks in though so probably still fighting the sugar demon, especially as she loves her fruit but isn't so hot on the veg. Baby steps and all that

[loubee]

My 20 month old has a similar eating schedule to Toddler V. I find he's really hungry at the same time when I get him home from nursery (daycare) - I often have to give him fruit in the pram on the way home. He will then eat dinner at 5.45pm (meal plus fruit and yoghurt) but then will also follow this with a banana and slice of fruit toast with his bedtime milk (he's not W30).

Maybe you could try a really small snack and see if that imapcts on dinner?

I find the eating goes in phases - we have 7-10 days when he's starving, then all his trousers seem short, and then 7 days when he's not fussed at all - maybe she's in a growing phase at the moment

[Javagal78]

Would bumping dinner back and giving her a snack help? I'm not sure if that would run her into bedtime, though.

[pjena]

I find that super hungry time between getting home and getting dinner on the table is the perfect time to put out some cut up veggies. My kids eat more veggies during this 1/2 hour than the rest of the day put together!

[CaseyD]

My daughter always wants to eat before dinner is ready. Like, holding on to my ankles while crying and basically preventing me from finishing. I resort to giving her a portion of dinner when at all possible, or a piece of fruit. As long as I give her a small amount of food, she'll eat dinner just fine. I usually draw it out a little too. I'll hand her a chunk of the banana, keep cooking and then stall as long as I can to give her the next piece.

I should totally try the veggie trick instead. I don't know why I never thought of that! If she's really starving... you know?

[Robin D]

I'm glad to see I'm not the only one with a hungry toddler! We've been giving her a snack at 4:45 of either fruit or vegetables (especially beets which she LOVES). One added unforeseen bonus to adding the pre-dinner snack is we are now having dinner at 6 or 6:15-a full 30-45 minutes later! That means V is asleep by 7:30 and sleeping until 6:30 (we were having a big bedtime battle and a early wake up for months prior to us). The extra snack seems to be helping in all sorts of ways! I hope it sticks!