Meal times for 13mnth on one nap

[dache]

I might be going to work in March and my mum will be looking after dd so Im trying to make sure she is on a good routine, she does better like that.

So wondering, when would you put meal times for a 13mnth old with a nap 11-1?Snack time too.

She has a bottle after wu and before bt, sometimes she is having a bad day I give her one in the middle of the day but that is rare and I give it only if I really have to.
Wu time is (should be) 7 and bt 7:30-8.

TIA

[creations]

I do think it depends when she is at her hungriest, some LOs like a bigger meal (lunch) to be around what I'd call snack time, ie mid morning rather than noonish. My DS had a huge snack, more like lunch, at 10.30 for a long time. Some work with 'split lunch' when the nap is mid day so half before the nap and half after. It depends what works best for LO and your CM.

I would prob do something like
7.00 milk
8.00 (or whenever you do it) breakfast
10.30 snack and drink (milk in a cup if she sometimes likes that as you said)
nap 11 - 1
1.00 lunch (it's handy to use nap time to prep lunch)
3.00 snack and drink
4.30/5.00 dinner
7.00 BT milk (or switch to a 6pm milk and solid snack to wean the BT milk if you wanted)

But like I say, if she prefers a huge meal at 10.30am then there's no harm in that.

[dache]

Thankas Creations, I was thinking something like that.

I was wondering about which one should be the main meal.
We are talking about this with dh and he thinks that lunch should be the biggest meal and dinner should be light. In his opinion this is the best for the digestive system.
I think it should be the other way round, dinner should be biggest bc that way she will be full till the morning.
What`s your take on that?


Another question. Her bt is getting later, 8, if not later, no matter when her nap is. Do I offer a snack or something like light supper in between dinner and bt? Especially if I am trying to drop a bottle.

[creations]

Toddlers and children tend to eat more in the earlier hours of the day, so morning and lunch times, they tend to eat less in the afternoon and evening.  Many people find that toddlers this age and even older kids don't eat much if their dinner is served late. Here we have our evening meal at 4.30pm which is much earlier than I'd have dinner if I didn't have DS (I'd eat closer to 7 or 8pm).  If I serve dinner later than say 5pm he eats so little, although BT is not until 7pm he is really too tired to eat properly beyond 5pm.
Either way I serve enough food for DS to have his fill at lunch and dinner with no limit on portion size, so really LO is in control about when they choose to take in the most calories.
Eating later in the evening won't necessarily keep her full until morning, she might not eat much because it's late, and because LOs this age can fill their calorie need earlier in the day rather than spread evenly across the day.  I would be very surprised by a 1yo waking from hunger.
I hope this helps you.

When my DS's BT moved to 8pm we had dinner around 5 - 5.30pm, based on when he was hungry and the most interested in eating.

Quite separately. If you want to drop a BT bottle introducing a snack or supper is a great idea. It took less than 2 weeks to drop the BT bottle for us (at 12 months) without any disruption to our routine or his ability to sleep etc.  I introduced a supper (solid snack and sippy cup of milk) roughly an hour after dinner (still an hour or two before BT) and reduce the BT milk by 1 oz every few days.
I used these 'rules'
- reduce by 1oz if the bottle is drained hold the amount there for 2-3 days before reducing again
- if the bottle is not drained take note of how much was taken, this is the amount offered the following night
- when only 1oz is offered hold at that amount for a couple of days then offer water only
- throughout the process I took a second bottle with me for the feed, with water only. This was my back up if he drained his milk and fussed for more - he never did.
- after the milk is totally dropped I continued to offer water just before BT, initially in a bottle, then switched to a sippy cup. He still has a cup of water available by his bed at night.
- continue the milk wean regardless of how much supper or how much milk was taken from the sippy cup. If LO needs the milk they will increase the morning milk (or whenever you offer a milk drink in the day), if LO needs more calories they will make sure they get them in the day.

And throughout the wean I continued to do our exact same wind down. He started to push the bottle away and lost interest much quicker than I had anticipated. So we moved from that part of the wind down to the next part, the pre-bed cuddles and song and he was fine. I know a lot of people are scared to drop that BT bottle as it is such a habitual part of the sleep routine and a snugly time for cuddles at the end of the day. We never reduced any of our cuddles, just the milk

Many people choose to keep the BT bottle and there is no harm in that either, just make sure it comes before teeth brushing as even milk is not good sitting on teeth all night. My reason to go for the bottle drop was because I was giving it after teeth brushing so I knew I must move the bottle anyway, thought I might as well go all out and drop that bottle.  I later discovered larger quantities of fluid in the morning (ie maintaining a morning milk drink rather than a BT one) can help with potty training and night dryness...but that may seem very very far off

[dache]

Thanks for your answer, its so informative.

You are right about being scared to drop of the bottle bc its such a big part of bt routine.

Is that how your bt routine looks like? What I do is bath, (or no bath), wind down music while I massage her (basically put lotion ) and get her dressed. She has the milk, if she cries a lot I give the milk while I get her dressed. After that I give her the paci and put her down. This worked, she was IS but she got sick after New Year and sleep is a mess. I was thinking of adding cuddle time before bt, just sit with her next to the crib, maybe read a book Is this crating sleep prop?

When I think about it I think you are right about eating the most in the morning and at lunch times. I guess dh was right about that, and he is the one that suggested no limit on portion size.


I am trying to PT so, that will is also great advice.

[creations]

Do you have a Sleep or Getting Back on Track thread going to get some support on the sleep side?
Without going too far off topic here, a couple of things might be happening
- she wants the food so fusses (introducing a supper before you go for teeth brushing and bath might help with this whilst you do the BT bottle wean)
- she wants to get to bed so fusses for the food because she knows this is the next part of the WD and is trying to move things along (mine was great at moving the routine along when he wanted his bed. You might find starting the bath 15 mins earlier helps)

Our WD was always teeth (potty) bath, dry, dressed (potty), water if wanted (usually a sip), song with cuddle in dark room, into bed, sleep.  I see you have some WD music already, I used to sing one song to DS (same song every night, strong sleep cue) but at about 18 months switched to a CD, it was during a phase of some fussing at BT and not settling. It's still the same CD every night, I leave after the first song, which I sing to him and he now sings to me.
If you give the milk in her room I would continue to do that and as the milk lessens just have a snuggle.
You can introduce other things to WD if you want but there is no need to.  Many people read stories at BT, we read stories all day long and he gets one book read to him during bath time, but we never have books at BT, like I say DS wants his bed, we don't even put the light on when we go into his room so it is already dark and we sing and cuddle then say night night.