Eating schedule at 17mo

[Bella89]

Hi there,
I wanted to ask about your eating schedule at similar ages.

We use to do 5 meals
7:00 cup of milk and breakfast
10:00 fruit or yogurt
12 lunch
1-3 nap
4 dinner
7 supper with cup of milk

But my 17mo does not eat as much as he used to recently. Partially because it's hot outside, because of teething and who knows what:/ I also noticed he is looking for cookies and raisins since I started to give him some as a dessert. I think he is refusing dinner and lunch sometimes, because he thinks it will get him straight to dessert I am a little worried about that, but I don't want to say "eat lunch and I will give you a cookie". I'd rather say "ok, let's do something else if you're not hungry"

What I am asking is, how many meals do you do?

I wonder if I will make 4 out of 5 will he eat more? Like this:
7 breakfast
12 lunch
4 dinner
7 supper

He is sometimes too tired to eat at 12 because he is very playful outside ;], so I will move lunch to 11:30 I think is decide to do so.

What do you think?
Sorry for all the blabber

[MasynSpencerElliotte]

At that age (and still, even for my almost 10 year old!) we did 3 meals and 2 snacks (is our daycare's routine as well)...so something like this:

8:00 breakfast
10:00 snack
12:00 lunch
3:00 snack
5:30 supper

We only have dessert every so often and it is usually served with the meal - so they can eat it first or last or whatever!

[creations]

At that age (and still, even for my almost 10 year old!) we did 3 meals and 2 snacks

Same here.
Actually, thinking again I reckon we had 3 snacks at that age.  (start with WU milk) Breakfast, snack, lunch, snack, dinner then a small supper snack with a small cup of milk before BT (no BT milk).

I didn't give cookies at all at that age (unless they were home made sugar free types, usually mini muffins or oaty chews, which I really had no issue him eating as they had fruit/veg and eggs nothing bad in yk) but I did have a short phase of DS wanting too much fruit and dried fruit.  When it got to the point of me considering it was becoming out of balance I put a stop to it, 3 days and it was done, crying the first 2 days and him trying to hammer on the cupboard door where the dried fruit was kept (with me holding him saying "yes I know raisins are nice, I know, you want raisins and you are sad you can't have any...") by day 3 his appetite was back to normal.

We also had a phase (appetite off a bit but this was different to just wanting fruit fruit fruit) where I put a very small number of raisins on his dinner plate with the main meal, he would start with those and it really got his appetite going. It wasn't so much he was holding out for them it was more like he wasn't interested in food but would accept raisins and then once he had a couple he would feel hungry and eat a proper meal.  As adults often have appetisers too I didn't see any harm in that.

[Bella89]

I know what you mean. I think this is what's going on. He is not too hungry, but well, a cookie he can eat. I give him whatever I bake, low sugar, mostly coming from raisins or fruit added. Sometimes I buy organic cookies, but they are much more sweeter.

I think my goal was 3 meals and 2 snacks. But when he stopped eating meals, I started offering bigger and bigger snacks. He can now have a whole banana or 5oz of natural yogurt. Which for him I think is pretty filling.
I don't want to drop fruit, because first half of the day is a better time for fruit in general. But I think I could try smaller portions.

I have 2 options:
1. keep the snack between lunch really light
2. Give solid lunch at 11, before his nap. Without a snack.

I don't know if I should keep 2nd meal before or after nap:/ I am lost a little, I have to say.

[creations]

If he has a big appetite at 11 I see no problem with doing lunch then instead of at 12.  Mine also used to have a big snack which was more like lunch, I'm trying to remember his age but perhaps it doesn't really matter, then I fed him at lunch time too but perhaps a smaller lunch.
I think the main thing is that if snack is big then try to have lunch type things prepared for it rather than more and more snack things - which i think is what you're saying anyway.  We used to be at baby groups a few times per week in the morning so I would take things little home made bean burgers which I found easy to carry/eat out and about.
With the cookies I'd probably just back off from the shop bought for a while and offer your lovely home made ones which are bound to be healthier and then you won't feel so bad about him having one...you could also make them smaller so he just gets a small portion and so you don't feel worried about it.  If the cookies are healthyish and small you would likely not mind him eating one at the beginning of his meal like Heidi said, it's just there and he can take it before, after or mid meal.  To me the main thing is for you to feel comfortable about what and when you are serving foods so there is no anxiety over it.
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