Timing question -

We generally eat dinner between 5 & 5:30pm. Bath is around 6ish. Bottle at 7pm and Bedtime at 8 Pm. This has been working great. But I am trying to phase out the 7pm bottle. Some nights, if we are out and about or at grandmas house, they will go just fine without the bottle. But at home they are GROUCHY waiting for that bottle. So I was wondering, how far inbetween dinner and bed? Do you give a snack in between instead of bottle? I just want to make sure they are not hungry. They have started this crummy little habit of waking between 4-5 am for a bottle and then sleeping until 7am!! I want to be sure that they are not really hungry because of no nite time bottle and early dinner.

Sorry for rambleing...I hope this made sense

 

If it were my kids, I don't think I'd phase it out yet (but YOU know your children best!). I know that even at 2.5, my kids still need a bedtime snack to make it through the night. Mine eat dinner around 5-5:30 and go to bed at 8 but don't get breakfast until 7 the next morning. 14 hours is too long for their tiny tummies to carry them through

 

I woulden't phase it out yet either. We eat at 5:30 then let them have sippies of milk again at 6:30. They usually hold onto those sippies until we brush teeth at 7:00. Bedtime at 7:30.

 

They still take an afternoon nap usually 3-4:30, we eat at 5pm, bath 5:30, snack w/ water in sippy at 6:30, bed at 7:30.

 

K&K get a yogurt before bed and have since we did away with bottles at 1 year. The amount of time varies now that they are older, sometimes there is only 30 minutes between dinner and bed and sometimes there is 2 hours (at that age it was usually 2 hours). They are offered a yogurt each night and it is up to them if they would like it (no matter how long it has been since dinner). When we first were done with bottles I also offered a sippy of milk if they wanted it (I don't offer that any longer as they don't have any desire). When they wake in the morning they are not hungry right away, I wait to offer breakfast or they won't eat much so I know there is no issue with their tummies being empty.

 

Our boys start eating dinner around 5:15. They still get warm milk at night around 7 and go right to sleep.

 

We have dinner at 5:45 and bed at 6:45, so there isn't time (or a need) for a snack. We do offer their dinnertime milk sippies again just before bed, and they usually drink a fair amount. I think it is partly a comfort thing and partly also that they're thirsty, because during dinner they were more focused on eating than on drinking. Breakfast is at 7 and they are hungry by then, but not so hungry that they wake during the night.

 

We have dinner at 5:30 and bedtime is 7:00. They get a sippy of milk after their pajamas, normally about 6:15 and hold on to it until we brush teeth, a few minutes before bed. Bea almost always drinks hers, Ainsley not all the time. We did away with bottles at 13 months, just changed over to sippies instead and they were fine. I keep up the milk sippy because they don't always eat a lot of dinner, so it's a little bit of insurance that they won't go to bed hungry. You might want to make bedtime a little earlier. I try to keep the night sleeping at 12 hrs, so if they wake generally at 7:00am, they go to bed at 7:00pm. It actually might help with that early morning waking.

 

We eat dinner at 5:30 and bedtime is 7:30. Right now we still give them a bottle of milk before bed. When we drop that it will turn into a small cup of milk and a snack.

 

My response is the same as Dianne's only the snack varies each night. When they were 1-3 years old I gave them oatmeal as a snack. Around 3 they started asking for other things. Tonight they had apples with peanut butter and chocolate milk about 2 hours before bedtime.

 

We eat dinner at 6pm and they go to bed at 7:30pm so there isn't much time for a snack for us either. They wake up around 6-6:30am and have their milk and morning snack at 7am.

 

Up until recently, mine always had dinner between 5 and 5:30--lately they have been eating dinner later. We stopped the bedtime bottle at 11 1/2 months, when we stopped formula. I have never formally offered them anything after dinner--and usually all they ask for is a sip of water. They are fine until breakfast between 8 and 9 the next morning. Although at that age, breakfast was always around 8.

 

My 2 get their dinner about 5.30 pm and then bath about 6 - 6.15 then in bed for 7pm. They kinda phased out their own bottle so i just give them milk with their dinner now. x

 

I give mine a sippy of milk and graham crackers around 7 for their 8 pm bedtime. I just replaced the bottle with that and mine never seemed to mind.

 

Our girls usually have dinner between 5:00 and 5:30 and are in bed between 6:30 and 7:00pm. After they eat dinner, I give them a sippy of milk that they can drink up until the time we brush teeth right before bed. Sometimes they drink it and sometimes they don't, but I like to offer it because they usually don't seem to eat much dinner. I think the little bit of milk helps keep them full before going to bed. During the week we get them up at 6:30am so we can get them ready for daycare and we can get to work. We give them a sippy of milk after they are dressed for the day and they eat breakfast at daycare between 7:30 and 8:00am.

 

My boys still get a cup of milk and a graham cracker before bed. Its just a part of their bedtime routine. But they eat dinner at 4:45, bed at 7, and breakfast around 8, so they need a little extra something.

 

We eat dinner around 6:15-6:30 (they have a snack at 4-4:30pm). Then bedtime is usually around 7:30pm. Sometimes we give them a sippy of water before bed, sometimes not. They can usually convey to us if they are thirsty, so then we give them the water.

We stopped the bedtime bottle around 12.5 months. They usually drink a good 6 ounces of milk with dinner.

 

QUOTE(littletwinstars @ May 22 2007, 08:56 PM) [snapback]265466[/snapback]
We eat dinner at 6pm and they go to bed at 7:30pm so there isn't much time for a snack for us either.


Same here. DH doesn't get home until 6 so I will give them a snack to tide them over to dinner. We do family dinner every night.

They are up at about 7-8am. Breakfast when they get up.

 

if they ask for milk then i give it in a straw cup, just like they have it with their dinner meal. we eat at 5-530 , only if we eat early like at 4 do we get a bedtime snack. try pushing bath time to 630. let them play outside a little bit. it won't hurt for dirt to cling to sticky hands. LOL. I wipe my kids down and out they go for another 30 minutes while we do dishes. then it's bath time, and read books or take a stroller ride, then bedtime at 730ish.

 

We have dinner and then they get dry cereal as a little topper on dinner. Mine still get a bottle before bed, though.... long story as to why!! LOl!

We have bedtime around 7:30 pm.

 

We continued with a night time bottle at 7pm until they were almost 2 years old, then we went to an evening snack, which we still give them. That worked great for us.

 

QUOTE
If it were my kids, I don't think I'd phase it out yet


Ditto. Instead of a bottle, I would offer something to them in a sippy cup. Even if they were grouchy with it, they would eventually get use to that being the new routine.

We have dinner at 5:30 PM, baths around 6:30-7 they play for a little while, and then I give them a snack and juice around 8 and we go to bed no later than 10.

 

We give sippies of milk about a half hour before bed. No more bottles for us. My boys stopped taking them about a week before their first brithday.

 

We give dinner at 4pm and then before bed I give them a sippy of milk. No bottles here, we've been off of bottles for little over a month now.

 

We have dinner between 5:30 & 6pm, baths at 6:30pm. At 7pm I nurse them and then they go right to bed. I am planning on dropping that nursing session very soon though...as soon as they both start drinking more cow's milk with dinner (Joshua has finally come around to liking it, Ethan still won't drink it). My older son sometimes has a snack, sometimes not but he always goes to bed with a cup of water.