Serving Up The Right Bedtime Snacks

 

If your child is complaining about how hungry they are, there’s a 50/50 chance it’s for real! How do you tell the difference? Amy Palanjian of Yummy Toddler Food helps us find out! 

Amy is a mama to two girls and a baby boy and works as a writer, editor, and recipe developer for magazines, books, and websites. She understands that feeding toddlers is a huge challenge that can be so stressful. Through her blog and social media accounts she offers reassurance, encouragement, easy recipes, and tips that make feeding toddlers feel more manageable.

Maybe you are struggling with your child wanting bedtime snacks and you feel like it’s rolling over your bedtime. Perhaps you’re wondering when to start offering a bedtime snack, or if you should be doing that.

Or you’re asking the classic question: Is my child legitimately hungry? 

We’ll be discussing all tips when it comes to the topic of bedtime snacks from when and where to offer them to scripts you can even keep in your back pocket to use in specific situations with your child. I love how Amy talks us through this today, so let’s jump in!

WHEN TO OFFER BEDTIME SNACKS

Typically if you have 1.5-2 hours between dinner and bedtime, your child truly may be hungry, depending on how much they ate at dinner. With that window of time, I think it can be very difficult to figure out whether the child is trying to stall. Do they just want a “snack” food or are they truly hungry?

So keep that timeframe in mind. 

If a child is getting up from dinner and asking for a snack, they may be in the habit of just expecting you to give them what they prefer vs. filling up at dinner. In that case, be sure there are 1-2 foods at the table that the child usually likes and will eat if they are really hungry. That way you can avoid getting in the habit of immediately handing them another food right after dinner.

It’s so easy to be tired at the end of the day and giving into something mindlessly! So paying attention to the 1.5-2 hour timeframe after dinner can be really helpful!

WHICH SNACKS TO SERVE AT BEDTIME

A common go-to for a bedtime snack is bananas. If they’re hungry, they can have a banana. If they don’t want a banana, they can be hungry for breakfast. For most kids, a banana is just fine – it’s not their favorite snack, like goldfish or something. So you can tell that if they sit down and eat the banana, they’re truly hungry.

Other foods that can work are basic foods that are not super fun like a plain cheese stick, plain yogurt, some applesauce, plain cereal, a piece of toast. 

This definitely depends on the child because some kids will like some foods more than others! 

Pro tip: Have 2 regular snacks to offer so you’re never in a battle of deciding at the moment! 

Always offer something basic that can satisfy their hunger, but not make a child refuse to eat dinner just because they’re holding out for a snack.

WHAT TO SAY TO SET EXPECTATIONS FOR YOUR CHILD

Here are a few phrases to keep in mind when you’re facing the bedtime snack question with your child. 

Using the phrase, “You can be hungry for breakfast!” can help remind some kids that they do get another chance to eat in the morning. So they might respond thinking, “Oh, right. I do want to wait and have pancakes!” or whatever it is. 

If this is a thing that happens every night in your house and your child always asks for a bedtime snack, try to talk about it before that time happens. Set their expectations when you’re on the drive home from picking up your child or you’re sitting and reading a book, or whatever it is. 

You can say, “Tonight for a bedtime snack, we’re going to try something different. If you’re hungry, you can have a banana!” (This can work for any time of the day!) 

You may also need to remind them they can have access to that food at another time in the not-too-distant future. If they’re asking for yogurt, and that’s not one of your chosen bedtime snacks, you can say, “I hear that you want yogurt, but we’re not having that right now. You are welcome to choose that for breakfast tomorrow morning, or to pack one with your lunch.” Make it not too far away so that they can grasp when that’s going to happen. 

Usually, if you’re consistent, that will set the expectation for them. The first few nights they may need to get the hang of the new system, but stay consistent and the routine will kick in.

FOODS TO AVOID BEFORE BEDTIME

What about foods to avoid? The bottom line is that you can really use any snacks you want as what you offer, as long as it’s not too exciting. 

If you’re working on nighttime potty training, then you may want to avoid giving liquids. And anything that is really sweet or more of a “fun” food that will make them want to start refusing dinner is something to avoid.

We don’t want to track nutrition too closely, so that’s a disclaimer here, but if your child has a hard time eating an entire food group, this could be a way to offer it into a more special time.  For example, if they don’t eat any dairy at all, and you want them to be eating dairy, you could pick two things and give them a choice.

THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN BEING HUNGRY & STALLING

What’s the difference between being hungry and stalling bedtime?

This is such a big question that we get asked all the time! This can be a little bit hard to figure out, but a lot of the time, when a child says they’re hungry, they’re hungry not for food, but for something else to fill them up. 

A lot of the time, that’s us! That’s our attention, especially if we haven’t been together all day, or we’ve sort of rushed through dinner and are just here to get them into bed. 

If a child says that they’re hungry and they immediately go into a whining and fussing mode, I assume that they are actually not hungry. There’s something else going on. If they come in and say really calmly, “I’m really hungry and I didn’t eat enough for dinner,” that’s a totally different ballgame. 

But especially with an older child, I would recommend saying, “I hear you saying that you’re hungry. Why don’t we go read a book?” If they’re appeased by that, then they’re not actually hungry.

Keep in mind the time frame also. If it is 45 minutes after you ate dinner and they had a decent meal, try to do something as part of winding down from the day to help. If you’re offering a fairly boring food and they eat it, they probably really are hungry. 

What you don’t want to say is, “You’re not hungry! I don’t believe you.” You know your kid best, but sometimes they really are saying they’re hungry because they want one-on-one attention.

WHEN TO SERVE THE BEDTIME SNACK

A last tip when it comes to bedtime snacks is to pay attention to where you’re serving this snack. We recommend sitting down at the table where your child is not looking at books or a screen. If they’re hungry, they need to focus on the food.

Otherwise that can quickly spiral into wanting more or wanting something else because they’re looking at a screen and not really paying attention. So have them sit down and make it like any other snack or meal would be.

CONCLUSION

Bedtime snacks – if you have a toddler or preschooler, you’ve probably already hit this milestone, or you will soon if you haven’t already. They will one day ask for a snack before bed and it can quickly become a habit!

So how do you handle it?

Here are some of the top tips from Amy Palanjian of Yummy Toddler Food:

• Pay attention to the time frame before dinner and bed. 1.5-2 hours after they’ve eaten dinner is a good rule of thumb for when they could be legitimately hungry!
• Offer something plain and not super exciting so that they don’t begin wanting to replace dinner with their bedtime snack.
• Keep 2 snacks as options for them to choose from to eliminate the battle of making that decision.
• It’s possible your child isn’t actually hungry and what they truly want is attention or one-on-one time.
• Serve a bedtime snack at the table or somewhere where they aren’t looking at a screen or reading a book so that they can satisfy their hunger.

We hope these tips help you to navigate this while keeping your child happy, healthy, and well-rested!!

 

 

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