My nine month old baby boy will be starting nursery next month and tea is served very early at about 3.30pm. He has a really healthy appetite and I am concerned that such an early tea, with nothing other than a milk feed at bedtime, might cause him to wake up earlier in the morning. Can you please advise whether I should give him another meal when he gets home at 5.30pm, or just a snack?
I think it is important that you do offer your son something when he gets home, but you will have to be careful that you do not offer him so much solid food that it puts him off his bedtime milk. If he has eaten a really good tea earlier at nursery, you could try offering him a snack such as healthy carrot or banana cake. Toast or muffins are other good options, or even a small bowl of breakfast cereal. If for some reason he has not eaten well at nursery, then you could offer him something like thick soup served with either rice cakes or bread, pasta and mixed vegetables, vegetable bakes, mini pizzas or a small baked potato. However, you should take into account that he has already had something at 3.30pm, so it would be advisable to offer him a slightly smaller portion than normal, so that his bedtime milk feed is not reduced.
If you ensure that the nursery staff record the exact amounts of solids and fluids that he is having at 3.30pm, this will enable you to work out which foods and how much you should give him when he gets home. At this age, as long you balance the solids out between the nursery tea and his snack and ensure he takes around 180 mls of formula at bedtime, you should not have the problem of him waking up earlier due to hunger.