EASY question about long am/short pm nap

[scucci1979]

My 10.5 month old DD is currently on three bottles at the moment. She is not a big solid eater so I would like to keep her second bottle as long as I can.  Anyhow, when I look at her EASY, it is like she is eating so much in the afternoon. I purposely give light dinners so she will take her last bottle.

Here is our routine:

wake 7am
E 7:15am
Solids 9am
snack before nap one
nap 1 10:30/10:45am-12/12:30pm
Solids 12:30pm
E bottle 2/2:30pm
nap 2 3:30pm/3:45pm-4:45pm
Solids 5pm something light here
E bottle 7pm
Bed 8pm

thanks

[huntersmummyinoz]

hi hun, i'm not sure exactly what your Q is??

[scucci1979]

It feels like she is constantly snacking every few hours between bottles and solids. Morning routine is pretty good but when I give her a bottle around 2/2:30pm, then dinner at 5pm and another bottle at 7pm, is the spacing too close?

[Mashi]

If she's drinking her milk and eating her solids then I think everything is fine. FOr another little bit yet her milk is still more important than her solids so I wouldn't worry. When she drops her mid-day bottle she will likely replace that with a snack.

I think that LOs who do their big nap in the mornings probably eat more in the afternoons, and LOs who do their long nap in the afternoon eat more in the mornings. When they are asleep for such a long chunk of the day they need to make up for it at some time.

As she nears one and drops her lunch time bottle you will probably feel she is "eating" more as her calorie intake has shifted from less reliance on milk to more reliance on solids.

HTH

[scucci1979]

Thanks! I am going to follow her cues for the afternoon.

[huntersmummyinoz]

exactly as mashi said, if she is eating and drinking well then i wouldnt change a thing! her routine looks great (which is why i wasnt sure what your Q was  )

if you are worried or wanting to give her a more substantial dinner then you could try it a half hour earlier so that she is still hungry for a full bottle. but as you are, make sure she is taking that full bottle at night until she is 12mths as milk is more important than solids until then.

best wishes

[squeakersmum]

I'm so pleased you posted this!!!

Our routine looks almost exactly the same!  I was discussing with DH the other day about the fact that he seems to eat so much in the afternoon!

Actually, I was also a bit concerned that he might be sleeping too much if he had a 2 hr nap in the am and then 1hr in the pm (I do quite often have to wake him from that one ) - but I am very pleased to see another LO on the same EASY at the same age!!!!

Just not sure what to do when he wants to move his long am later about when to fit in lunch etc... Although, I'm sure there's a thread on this!

[scucci1979]

That was exactly my thought! Right now her am nap almost begins at 11am. She has a bottle at 7am, breakfast at 9 and dry cheerios around 10am.  I am not sure if I should move the pm bottle before the am or leave it as it, or give a top up feed.  If I leave it at around 2:30/3pm, she will not eat dinner and if I give her a top up feed, I am afraid she may start snacking and wont drink her full bottle first thing in the morning.

Mashi and huntersmommy make sense to leave it as is because she should drop it soon. However, she is not big on solids. I can only manage two meals out of her.

[Mashi]

With lunch times and things, as naps change you just have to be flexible and do what you can.  You start falling into a way things are and just roll with it as things change and as your LO gets older things are more flexible. And, most one year olds are unlikely to wake from hunger in the same way a very young LO is, unless they have truly not eaten.

For instance, as an example, when we moved to one nap, for the first few days that one nap was VERY early and very long - he slept from 1145 - 230 (heaven, I have to say!)  So, not ideal for lunch, obviously. So, cut his morning snack (which was usually at 1000) and had "lunch" at 1045. And instead of a light snack when he woke from his nap (used to be at 3pm) now we had a larger snack when he woke at 230.  So, no real "lunch" time but he still got his meals in.   You just sort of work around it as you need to -> there is no 'right' way except the one that works for you and your LO! 

HTH!

[scucci1979]

That does help.  Wow, that is a wonderful nap length!

[huntersmummyinoz]

we did similar to mashi. once hunter's nap was around 11am i started doing a 'split lunch', so sandwich/pasta/etc before lunch and then a big snack (cheese, yoghurt, fruit, crackers, etc) after lunch. we also did milk before nap once we were well and truly in the switch (started second nap refusal at 11mths) as i wanted him to continue having milk with his lunch later on as the nap moved later. he actually still has milk for lunch and dinner now, as he self-weaned milk for breaky around 14mths. as mashi said, you just need to get a little creative with meals for the next couple of months until bub is settled on one nap.