Snacks before bed.

I swear my kids are programmed to 'need' a snack before bed. We've always at least offered a banana, but these days, even if it is a half hour to an hour after supper, in which they ate very well, they still want a banana, apple, yogurt.. you name it. It's like they constantly want to eat once you tell them it's time to get ready for bed. I realize all of their requests are for healthy food, but where do you draw the line? I've told them pick wisely, or only one snack, but somewhere it is getting confusing. Breakfast is fine for everyone except Audrey. She rarely has an appetite for breakfast. I seriously give her 1/4 cup of cheerios and some cut up bananas and she will MAYBE eat half of it. She will eat french toast or a pancake with no real problems. I don't get it.

Where do you draw the line with the snacks at bedtime. I am afraid we are setting up a bad habit of eating before bed.

Basic schedule:
Supper around 6pm
bedtime - 7:30.

 

We don't eat supper until dh gets home from work, which is at 6:45, so it's usually 7pm when we eat. My two older kids go to bed at 8-8:30, so they don't get a snack before bed. The twins stay up until 9:30-10pm, so sometimes they will ask for a snack if they didn't eat supper good. Not always, but occasionally.

 

my boys have a snack before bed every night,even if we just ate lol. we only allow healthy snacks so i am not worried about that. we start getting ready for bed an hour early just so that we can have time for a snack. I would suggest that maybe you start bedtime a little earlier so that you can allow time for a snack. I don't see a big deal with a snack,and it seems to help my guys sleep a bit better(or so they say lol). they have been having a snack before bed since they were pretty small. I don't like for my boys to be hungry so like i said I don't see a concern for a healthy snack. bedtime for us is 9 so we start at 8. even if we eat late they literally could eat again 45 min later. I don't know where they put it but they can. I don't like to limit their food intake at any tijme,if they are hungry or want to eat i think they should be able to(with in reason). they are growing after all,and its all healthy. at times k will not eat much at dinner,but he will still be allowed to have a yogart for a snack. again limiting food is just not our thing here.
good luck

 

i should say that the boys are both very active. and very skinny actually need to gain some weight. the snacks they get our like granola bars, a small bowl of cereal, small bowl of popcorn, yogart,piece of fruit. we don't do anything with unnatural sweets. they don't get anything that is junk type food. and they can't just sit and eat and eat. it is a small amount. they are both on the small side. i'm diabetic and was told a long time ago the best menu for people is the diabetics menu. a diabetic should eat something before bed(small snack). so i think it is a wise idea and not a bad idea. I don't have one every night,but from time to time i do. i'm not over wieght acutally under weight so again not something i need to worry about here.

 

We allow a snack before bed. They always get a graham cracker and a glass of milk, but if they are actually hungry, they also can have fruit, cheese, or yogurt.

 

My girls eat at six but don't go to bed till nine so a snack at eight is fine

 

I've always given a snack. I found that my girls were late in the day eaters. Never at much for breakfast, just a little for lunch, good eaters at dinner, and great in the evening. I fussed over getting them to eat early in the day for quite sometime, tried a lot of different things, and finally just accepted it.

 

By the way I don't go around trying to sound like a dr Seuss book...drats I did I again

 

None of my little ones have anything after leaving the table from dinner. Dinner is 5:30-6 and bedtime on school nights is 6:30-7. When weaning from 4 hour feedings as babies to mealtimes with the family, they only kept a sippy of milk at bedtime until about 15 mos then dinner was it for the day. My older 2 stay up later and will sometimes have a fiber or protein bar around 8 while finishing up homework or watching tv if they ate well at dinner and are still hungry.

 

We allow a snack before bedtime, we have always done it, it's just part of the routine now. We eat dinner fairly early around 5:30pm and my twins go to bed at 8pm. So they get a small snack (goldfish, crackers, dry cereal, apple) around 7:45pm. They know that it's not a meal and it's just a small amount. Even my oldest DD still has a snack before bed, she is 11. She goes to bed at 9pm and has a small snack around 8:45pm.

 

On the days that my two ask for a snack before bed, they get it. Other days, they don't. Last night, Royce asked for more dinner 15 minutes before bed. So since he was obviously hungry (asked for another bowl of rice and chicken) we let him have it and he ate the whole thing (that was his 3rd bowl in 2 1/2 hours.) Alice didn't want any, so the last thing she ate was marshmallows around 6:30.

 

This is exactly what we do.
I dont think you are creating any bad habits so long as its a healthy snack...and they actually eat and arent trying to just prolong bedtime (I think that's what my kids agenda is half the time). opcorn:

 

We don't typically give snacks before bed-time. We eat dinner around 6:30 and the kids go to bed around 8:30 ish.

 

We got into this habit too (with Sarah -- Amy is allowed a snack if she wants it, but usually says no).

When they were in daycare and still napping (which they did till age 5.5), they went to bed around 9:00. So if dinner's at 6ish, I could understand that they might be hungry by bedtime. However, now that they're in K, we eat dinner around 6-6:30 and they are in bed by 7:45. I would love to put my foot down and say, "If you didn't eat enough dinner, you will just be hungry, tough."

But Sarah is such a picky eater, she will often eat a piece of bread or 1/2 cup of rice for dinner and that's it. So I can't bring myself to send her to bed without something else in her stomach. We read her bedtime story at the table while she eats, so it doesn't really take extra time, it's just one more thing to deal with.

We only have two snack choices: cold cereal or yogurt.

 

We do snacks before bed also. Always healthy so I'm not worried.

 

You said the wanting to eat starts when you tell them it's time to get ready for bed, do you think they might just be stalling?

What I would do is build into your routine a set time for them to snack in, say 15 minutes before you start your normal bedtime routine, and then that's it. You could even set a timer for it and tell them "It's almost time for bed, when the timer beeps we will be going upstairs to get pyjamas on, so if you would like a snack you need to come and have it now." Then allow them to have as much of a healthy snack as they want in that time. That way they have plenty of time to eat a bit more if they are hungry but you are not having to deal with constant requests for food.

 

Mine are younger but we've never given snacks after dinner. But mine don't usually eat well at dinner and I don't want to encourage them to wait for something yummier later. The only time we gave them a snack is because they finished their plate, so they might actually still have been hungry.

 

We try to avoid snacks before bed. We don't usually eat dinner until sometime between 6:30-7pm, and their bedtime is 8:30pm. If they ask for a snack but did not eat their dinner, I normally will not allow a snack. But if they ate their dinner well and are hungry again around 8~ish, I'll let them have a banana, piece of cheese, yogurt, or an apple.

It's not a regular occurrence, maybe 1-2 times a week at most.

 

My kids have snacks before bed. I always give them a 15 minute warning that will basically cut them off, if they don't get their snack then. My kids are thin and active, so it doesn't really bother me. I'd to think they were going to bed hungry. Sometimes my kids eat a huge dinner, get up from the table and are hungry within 10 minutes. I don't understand it, but it happens quite often here.

 

We have about the same schedule as you and they do not get a snack before bed. Maybe a glass of water, but if I call bedtime and they say they are hungry, I usually say sorry, it's time for bed.

 

mine don't snack per se but occasionally Ian will ask for a piece of cheese before bed...dinner is around 5-5:30 or so and bed is 8 pm...and of course what one has the other one must so then Abby gets a piece also

 

Mine do the same thing, so our rule is the kitchen closes an hour before you go to bed, whatever your age and bedtime. So for our 13 yo, he has to be done by 9, the twins by 7:30.

We normally eat dinner around 6 but with baseball, football, etc it varies.

 

What would you do in this situation? My kids have never used food as a way of manipulating their bedtime, which is 8, especially not Al who loves her sleep as much as I do. Last night, Alice ate dinner finishing at 6:30, had a snack at 7:30 and was in bed at 8:10. At 8:30 she came downstairs and said that she was hungry. I'm still not sure if she was trying to play around with bedtime, or if she was legitimately hungry. We gave her some pretzels. She ate a reasonable amount, then went back to bed.

ETA: Ooooooh, now I see it, she was having bad growing pains the day before, screaming and crying. Growth spurt.

 

Nothing wrong with snacking before bed! We always allow it if they ask. Healthy food, of course. My kids are tall and lean with a crazy high metabolism just like me, and heck, I even need another meal right before I go to bed! I wind up eating like 4 meals a day, and snacks, so I know what it's like to NEEDTOEATRIGHTNOW!!! And I'm not even in the middle of growing inches every year.