What time do you have your afternoon nap?

For a long time, my kids took a morning nap and no amount of trying on my part could move it back. Now, they have started moving it on their own. However, it currently falls right about noon and has for several weeks. The problem with this is when do I feed them lunch? I have offered them food before, but they aren't hungry yet and barely pick at it. Waiting until after their nap works OK on some days, but on others, I think they are waking up early because they are hungry.

When is a normal time for an afternoon nap? Also, when do you feed them lunch? Mine normally don't eat breakfast until about 8:30 or nine, so they just aren't hungry at noon.

 

Mine are on a much earlier schedule than yours, it sounds like, but FWIW:

Wake up 6:30
Breakfast 7:00
Snack 9:30
Lunch 12-12:30
Nap 1:00-3:00
Snack 4:30
Dinner 6:00
Bed 7:00

If mine ate breakfast at 8:30 or 9, they'd definitely be hungry by noon -- they are hungry at noon anyway, and they've usually had breakfast and a snack already!

Is it possible that they are just picking at lunch because they're tired, rather than because they're not hungry? It's counterintuitive, but you might try offering them food earlier, like 11:30.

 

When mine went to one nap, they went down right after lunch. I would not offer them any food after breakfast, and then give them lunch around 11-11:15. If you create the routine, you will find that once you are consistant, their bellies will be hungry at that time.

 

We had this problem initially when we went to one nap too. I did lunch at 11:00 and then nap at 12:00, which has gradually moved later. They were napping at 11:00-11:30, and lunch at 10:00 was way too early. I would initially try no morning snack to make sure they are hungry for lunch. I have also found that I can't put them right down for a nap after lunch, they need at least 30 min or more to digest and unwind, so factor that in too.

 

Try giving them breakfast sooner, like right after they wake up. Also watch the morning snacks (if you do any) and the liquid intake. I do milk at breakfast but water in the sippies after that (no juice or milk). Otherwise they will just fill up on liquids and not eat food. I do lunch around 11:30, and naps at noon.

 

My two nap anywhere from 1:00 - 2:00. Sometimes as late as 2:30. They generally are up by 7:30.

 

QUOTE(krisx2 @ Nov 16 2007, 09:28 PM) [snapback]499574[/snapback]
Try giving them breakfast sooner, like right after they wake up. Also watch the morning snacks (if you do any) and the liquid intake. I do milk at breakfast but water in the sippies after that (no juice or milk). Otherwise they will just fill up on liquids and not eat food. I do lunch around 11:30, and naps at noon.


This is right after they wake up! Kinda. You see, I have sleep apnea, which leaves me very tired. Also, my husband's work schedule is later than the average schedule and is never home before 7pm, normally not until 9pm. So, in an effort to let me sleep later and to keep them up so they can actually see daddy every once in a while, we have striven to move their schedules back.

They wake up at about 7:30 or 8, but they spend about 30 min to an hour just chatting away and having fun in their cribs while I get a little extra sleep. When they are ready, they call for me to get them up and we go eat. They go to bed at about 8:00 or 8:30. I realize that this isn't the average schedule, but it has worked for us until this small snag.

Also, we don't do any snacks. This is per doctor's recommendation, although I admit I was already not giving them snacks based on the same reasons he stated. They are at the very low end of the weight curve. To insure that they are getting the food they need, the doctor said to not give them snacks. You see, they wouldn't eat hardly anything at meals. We also don't give them bread until they have eaten their other food and don't let them keep their milk sippies on their trays, but they have to ask for them when they want a drink. They only times they ever do seem hungry are at breakfast and sometimes at that late (3:00 or so) lunch after a nap. I guess it is good that they are actually hungry because then they will eat, but I just feel bad not feeding them until so late.

I guess that I will just have to stick with things as they are now unless they decide they want to take later naps. Thanks for your ideas, guys. I guess I just have weird kids as far as them never being hungry.

 

You don't have weird kids...or maybe you do, but then mine are weird too! Mine wake up at about 7:30-8am. They absolutely refuse to eat unless they've been up and around for at least a half hour so that puts bfast at about 8:30 usually...sometimes closer to 9. We haven't made the switch to one nap yet so I've been struggling with this too. My girls eat lunch at 12:30 now. I am hoping to move them to one nap also. I'll try doing lunch at noon but if they aren't hungry then we'll do it at 12:30 which means nap would be roughly at 1:30. My girls don't go to bed until about 8/8:30 either. Sorry I'm no help, just wanted to let you know you're not alone. I'm not looking forward to the switch b/c of all the changes!

 

Mine eat lunch at 11:30am and nap at noon. They eat breakfast about 7:45 am and snack at 9:30am.

 

For at least 4-5 months my kids would have their nap around 12:00 and they were too fussy to eat lunch first. I tried, but it didn't work. So what I did was, around 11:00 or 11:30 I offered a snack, and they they went down for their nap right away. They would wake up around 2PM and then I'd offer lunch. I know that sounds very late, but it worked for my kids. Finally, they recently started going down for their nap later, and I can now give them their lunch first before their nap. I think you need to experiment and see what works best for your kids, but keep in mind it could change in a month or so. Good luck!

thea

 

Mine nap at 11 and eat around 1. We need to pick up the older brother at 2:15 so we have an earlier nap. It works great for us.

 

Call us weirdos too then!...LOL
We're late sleepers here too. They're up at 8:30 and eating breakfast right around 9 or so. I give them milk with their breakfast, then around 12, we have a small snack, usually they have a kiwi each (small kiwis) and a sippy of water. Then they go straight down for a nap. Sleep til about 2 or 2:30, sometimes 3 if they goof around and play for the first hour. I don't hardly ever let them sleep past 3.
They then get milk with lunch, usually veggies and fruit or soup of some kind with fruit. Then they will usually get dinner around 7pm. If they're really hungry closer to dinner time, I'll give them their milk first and then wait til 7 to feed them. Bedtime is 8:30 and we start that routine right around a quarter til 8.
Good luck with your two.

 

Lunch at 12.15/12.30 pm, nap at 1.15 pm until 3pmish. Wake up in the morning is 7 am, bed time is 6.30 pm.

 

Thanks, guys. Nice to know we aren't too strange! I gave a small snack before nap today and it seemed to help. At least their nap went longer!

 

Here's our schedules (we have two because we go to EI at school on Tues/Thurs).

M/W/F
7am wakeup
7:30am breakfast
11:00am lunch
12:00 noon nap
3:30pm snack
6:15pm dinner
7:30pm bedtime


T/Th
7am wakeup
7:30am breakfast
9:30am snack
10:30-11:30am EI playgroup
12:00 noon nap
2:00pm'ish lunch
4:30pm small snack
6:15pm dinner
7:30pm bedtime