is it ok to give two dinners?

[*Jo*]

I try to have dinner ready at the same time for all of us, but more often than not, because Caleb is doing such a short nap in the day we have to give him an early bedtime so that means his dinner is earlier than ours (sometimes at 4.30!) so i give him his dinner but then say at 5.30/6pm we have ours, he wants to eat with us. i think its great he wants to eat with us but im a bit concerned about the fact hes having two dinners. the second one isnt a big one, its definately not a main meal, but i just give him some of what we are having, some potato or carrots and a couple of bites of meat, then about an hour later its bedtime.

Is this going to be too confusing for him or something? should i stop it? I sometimes make us eat earlier too so that its not happening that often and we are still eating together but im not sure what to do

[shivi]

we do something similar here  =

brekkie 7
snack 9.30-10
lunch 12-12.30 usually a decent portion of pasta/rice, veggies and sometimes meat defrosted from a 250g pot
nap 12.30-2/2.30
snack 2.30
tea with Oscar  - 4.30/5 (as he's also starving after preschool) usually a bowl of preschool soup and he has the main course LOL
baths - with me while DH makes dinner
our dinner at 6-6.30 (DH makes it mostly) and the kids either have a little of this (Emma has the same for her lunches, some is frozen, sometimes a portion is kept for the next day just chilling in the fridge) or otherwise if DH is not home yet, they have biscuits and milk or a bowl of cheerios at this time.
bed at 7

hope this helps - I think its great to have one meal a day as a family. We manage it around 3-4 times a week dep on DHs schedule but the 4.30-5pm "teatime" for kids is always with me having a cuppa as they eat and gabble to each other, O telling us about his day at school etc....

S x

[Mashi]

I don't think there is anything wrong with it, but if he is eating with you anyway, and you are not happy with the two dinners, why not just have him eat his dinner with you?

[*Jo*]

because its too long for him to wait for a main meal and he gets really hungry and grumpy until i feed him and i dont like giving him so many snacks, they dont sustain him long enough till our dinner and he becomes really whingy until i feed him.

I was just worried that it would confuse him having two dinners but if its not such a big issue then i guess we will just keep doing it he just loves sitting at the table, eating and chatting with us. I do love it

[Roseii]

We always used to do this but I was so desperate to find a reason for DD's terrible sleeping that I wondered if having such a full tummy shortly before bed was affecting her sleeping...It probably wasn't to be fair but I've sort of got it in my head now that I want her to have finished eating a good 1.5 hours before she goes to sleep *just in case* I do clutch at straws with the sleeping though so it's probably nothing to worry about

xxx