Length of time between dinner/tea and bed?

[wysiwyg]

How long do you have between dinner/tea and bedtime for your little ones?

If you are not home till 5:30 - 6:00 ish do you push back bedtime to give time for food to settle?

DS seems to sleep better the longer there is between tea time and bedtime - but I start work tomorrow so for those days is going to be pretty much impossible to be finished eating before 6:30 - do I push bedtime back from 7:00 - to allow more digestion time?

Another question - if your children are in childcare do you still give them a proper meal for tea even if have had one for lunch. As long as work has some heating up facilities DH and I will both be having our main meal at lunchtime because that is our preference - we then have more of a snack - e.g. salad, soup,sandwiches, simple pasta in the evening. I am never really sure whether on a daycare day I should be doing something more substantial for the children - in their daycare books it says things like 3 portions vegetable pasta, or 3 portions tuna mornay etc - and will have had afternoon tea as well.

[MummyNaomi]

We eat 5-530 and the kids go to bed 7-730, so have a couple of hours to digest, wind down, bath etc. When we are out or have a late dinner for whatever reason we try to stick to the same bedtime, so even if eating at 6-630 we tend to either skip the bath and just do a flannel wash and PJs and still try to do bedtime as close to the normal time as possible.

When B goes to CC on Mon and Wed I know he has eaten well. We tend to have a really healthy meal on Monday nights after the weekend, but on Wednesdays often have a light meal (eg fish fingers, sandwiches, toasties etc) as DH leaves for band at 6pm so I like to have dinner/bath all sorted before he leaves so I just have to do bedtime. I know at CC they have a well balanced healthy meal so a quickie tea is guilt free

[feeb]

Dinner time varys for us anything from 1800 - 1900 and kids are generally in bed 1900 - 2000 approx. After dinner we have bath/shower, teeth, books and songs and bed. We have had issues lately of taking ages to go to sleep and issues getting them to stay in bed!

As for CC nights they often just have a sandwich or party pies etc easy quick things for dinner as they have eaten so much and so well at CC thats what they often ask for. (They have breakfast at CC then morning tea is fresh fruit, lunch is full meal and desert and then arvo tea as well)

[Phteven]

Dinner is usually between 6 and 7.00 Bed is somewhere between 7 and 8.

[Santosha]

You start work tomorrow?? Yaaay! Congrats!

Erm, sorry. Back to the point. We eat at 5.30 and they go to bed at 7. Every now and then we're home later or dinner is running late and dinner-bed is literally one after the other. TBH, I haven't noticed it making too much of a different for my two, but obviously if it is affecting your little sleep-rebel, it makes sense to give him a longer gap in between.

Re: CC. We've not had that experience in terms of CC, but again, just personal experience, if my kids have had a big meal at lunch, and a big day altogether, they're more likely to just pick at dinner. I think there'd be no harm in making their dinner simple and light on those days.

xoxo

[Ca Plane Pour Moi]

Bedtime is usually 7pm for Liebling, we try to eat for 6pm. If that doesn't happen, bedtime is pushed back to about half an hour after dinner is finished.

DH doesn't eat much for lunch, so we do a big meal in the evening. Even when Liebling and I have a cooked meal at lunchtime. DH just gets larger portions than we do. If DH is away then Liebling and I may have a snacky meal in the evening if we've eaten a large lunch/lunch and tea.

Liebling, on school days, currently eats breakfast, second breakfast (sometimes third as well), fruit snack, lunch (usually packed lunch these days due to intolerances - sandwich, snacks, fruit), tea (usually semi-cooked snack, such as beans on toast, wraps or pancakes) then dinner (cooked meal and pudding). He may also have some porridge if he's still hungry. He'll eat more on a weekend. And he's still under the 9th centile for weight.

[LizLemon]

We eat at 5:30 and bed at 7-7:30. I read somewhere that you should have a two hour gap but I've never noticed much of a difference if I have them closer.

My kids aren't in day-care but if they were I would think it was a big bonus of day-care that they are getting a good meal for lunch and would feel perfectly ok giving them something a bit lighter and quicker for dinner.

Good luck for your first day!

[Mrs P]

We eat between 6-630 and bedtime for DD (2.5 yrs) is 730.

[~Kim~]

Oh gosh, mine usually go to bed straight after dinner....if one hasn't fallen asleep beforehand and missed dinner altogether lol But, if I knew one slept better with a gap between, then I'd def do that.

I definitely go lightly on dinner on the days that we've had a big lunch/afternoon tea.

[OceanPrincess]

Dinner is usually between 6 and 7.00 Bed is somewhere between 7 and 8.

Yep that. Though there have been times where our kids have been playing up and been sent straight to bed from the dinner table, usually nights when dinner is a bit later and they are tired, so bed is the best thing for them.

Oh and DS1 has been known to ask to go to bed in the middle of dinner. More than once. We take him to bed and he is out like a log. I love those nights

[~Kim~]

lol OP so does my DS!

[wysiwyg]

Thanks for all replies. DD it never made any difference and often bed was right after tea but it does affect DS it seems and I know DH finds difficulty sleeping after a meal (one of the reasons we eat most at lunch time) so maybe DS is like him.

Good to hear lighter meals after daycare are ok too - sometimes I do wonder if I feed mine too much (mum has said this before) they are not light kids. Maybe me going back to work will be good for them in that respect.

Now to bed so can attempt to get them to daycare by 7:50 tomorrow morning.

[chippyrabbit]

Was just about to post a very similar post myself! Hubby doesn't get home til 6pm most nights and DD doesn't see him in the monring (he leaves about 6am) so i like for her to have some time with him when he gets home so often dinner isn't until after 7pm which then results in bedtime about 8:30pm (don't even get me started on actual asleep time). DD is only 21 months old so i am not too worried about her being up later but would love some time for the DP and i to atually spend together.

For people that eat before 6pm, does the whole family eat then? DP and I would really struggle to eat that early.

[RainbowRiver]

DF isn't home until around 6 but usually I have dinner on and just finishing up when he walks in (if my arvo hasn't been mucked up). So we eat between 6-630. Kids brush teeth and toilet at 7... Usually in bed by 720.

Only one in daycare, 2 in school. All eat like they have never seen food before. I go with the theory that they need substantial meals, not quick thrown together easy foods. My kids love their salads so we have alot of that and meat, most nights when they are with us.

DS can pig out when food is provided at daycare, but its not 'filling' food, so he needs decent meals at night. School drains DD's so they like hearty meals too

[TaRhLi.]

We generally have dinner at 6.30pm as we like to eat as a family together so have to wait for DH to get home from work. As evenings are the only time DH gets to see the kids they will have a play for about 30mins/45mins after dinner and then on bath nights bath starts at 7.30pm until about 8pm as we have to do 2 baths - the twins go first then DD second - then pj's, bottles and bed. The twins go to bed between 8.15pm - 8.30pm and DD around 8.30pm, the twins have to be in bed before DD or else they will run riot.

[CoNNiE_Melb]

I have alway wondered about this too. At the moment, DS has dinner on his own at 5 and then goes to bed at 6:30pm.
Eventually I want to be able to have dinner all together... But I don't want DS to be going to bed later than 7, for a couple of reasons; 1. DS loves and needs plenty of sleep. 2. DH and I enjoy our together alone time.

[veus]

DD has dinner between 6-7 and bath & stories & bed between 7-8(9 sometimes!) I don't care if its child care or not, she gets offered what we eat and it's up to her how much she eats. She generally eats a bit but she's also one of the kids that like proper meals (sandwiches don't really appeal to her).

With days when I work, I try to have part of dinner cooked so just maybe some veggies to quickly cook up to incl for dinner.

Ps; congratulations on new job!

[Butterfly Dawn]

Most of the time we eat proper meals at night.
Hubby is used to cooked lunch (at work) and cooked dinner and a supper too.
my kids like a full tummy to sleep on and will ask for supper if bedtimes get pushed back.
With the LOs, I work in the idea- if they aren't hungry they won't eat (within reason)