My 21 month old son's natural naptime is the entire time of the day that could be considered lunchtime. He wakes at about 7:30 am and goes to bed at night at 7:30 pm. His naps last from 11 am or 11:30 to 2 pm or 2:30. He gets breakfast by about 8 am, so it's too early for a full lunch before the nap. Plus, he's too tired by then to sit still for a meal. If I give him lunch after he wakes up, he's not ready for dinner at 6 pm. I've been giving him healthy snacks and milk before and after the nap to kind of make up for the lunch, but if he's only getting two snacks and two meals a day, that can't be enough.
Does anyone have kids with naps like this? How do you feed them?
This really helps. He does seem content with the way things are, so I'll just go with it. I do give him lots of cheerios and crackers, so maybe I'll increase the fruits and veggies on either side of the nap. Thanks!
Hi,
My son is the same way. I try to get him to eat a good breakfast and a good dinner. In between I try healthy snacks.
To me, it sounds like he is getting plenty of food. That was what I would do when my oldest two napped like that. Does he seem like he's starving at any point? If not, you are doing fine. Eventually, he will move his nap back more, until after noon, and then you can give him a bigger lunch. He will let you know what he needs!
I was just going to say what all the other moms have said so far. Once in a while my son falls asleep early, or he just isn't interested in eating lunch. So I let him skip it. Usually he eats a decent snack sometime after breakfast also, so he just isn't hungry for lunch. Then he will get some milk or crackers when he wakes up to fill his tummy until dinner. I definately would just let your son decide on this one.
I have same thing... sometimes i give 'snacks' of chicken tenders or greenbeans so i know at least he isn't eating crackers or something all day. Sounds like enough food, he'd let you know if he were hungry : )
Hi E.!
I actually have the same problem! I have twin 2.5 year old girls who don't eat lunch at the same time. They're up at 7am go to bed at night at 8pm. Nap is anywhere from noon til 2pm.
They eat breakfast around 11amish and won't go to bed until I put them to bed. I found that giving them ANY kind of sugar before nap time is moot.
They get some milk and that's it. When they see the milk they know its nap-time.
If you're going to give the little guy snacks, healthy is always best and the less sugar the better.
I found giving crackers before bed keeps my girls up longer cuz of the suger content. Crackers have carbs that turn to sugar. Those peperidge farm fish cheese crackers is the fave for my girls and I give them 5 or 6 fish and milk before their nap.
If your little guy still wont take his nap, make a point to tell him its quiet time now (be consistant)and get him to read his fave book with you.
Hope that helps and good luck.
Ohhh you're so lucky to teach french. Bilingual child! Good for you! I stay at home with my girls and believe me, I look forward to quiet time.
If my girls won't sleep, I put them in their room (with a gate in place) and leave their door open. They play quietly while I have some mommy time.
Both of my kids were lunchtime nappers. They were also early risers (6/6:30) and went to bed at 6:30/7. We gave light lunch before the naps and fruit/vegetables and such when they woke up. We had dinner around 4:30/5pm.
I was actuallly just wondering this myself because my daughter has been going down earlier than usual and I've hit the same problem. As the other poster said, I've just been giving her a lot of snacks in the late morning and after her nap too. Fortunately I have a great eater so I'm never worried if she's getting enough but I'm thinking that he'd be really cranky if he didn't eat enough or he'd be losing weight. If he's neither of those things, then I wouldn't worry about it.
Hi Elisabeth,
I agree with the other Moms that he is probably getting enough. What I would suggest you do is to try and calculate if he at least get all the main nutrients he needs for his age. Calcium and vit D, iron, vit A, C and protein is what is most important at this stage. have a look at these articles: http://www.revolutionhealth.com/healthy-living/parenting/... and http://www.healthy-vitamin-choice.com/vitamins-for-toddle...
If he gets it don't worry any further. He will eat when he is hungry.
It's only the cultural norm that we eat 3 meals...breakfast, lunch and dinner. It's actually supposed to be healthier to have 4 or 5 smaller meals from what I understand as far as metabolism goes and all for adults too. His 2 snacks and 2 meals is like 4 meals as it's four times throughout the day eating a healthy variety of food. Doing what you are doing is great. You can always just think of it as half his lunch before nap and half of it after. I'm sure he's fine with eating enough. He'd let you know if he wasn't. :)
