Regarding diet schedule for a 2 year old joining daycare

supreep · Jul 18, 2015

Hi All,

My son will turn 2 next month and we want to start his daycare. Initially for 3 days a week and then 5 days a week.

The daycare schedule says that they provide breakfast @8 am and then a snack before lunch . Lunch is provided at 11:30 am. Then a snack in the evening.

Usually he wakes up between 6:30 - 7:30 am everyday(depends when he slept the previous night). Then he drinks milk by 8 am and then breakfast @ 9 am.

He is a very very fussy eater. He doesn't like all the fruits . Just eats apple, banana and pear. I tried giving strawberry,mango and blueberry but he didn't eat.
He also doesn't eat cheese or pasta. The daycare provides their own food and they don't allow us to send the food from home.

My query is how to make him eat these exotic fruits?
Also how to do you plan your kid's diet?

Do you feed them milk and breakfast in the morning and then send them to daycare?

My worry is he will go without eating and will lose weight. As it is he is in the range of 10-15 percentile of weight.

Mommies please help!

ramyaramani · Jul 18, 2015

@supreep My daughter is 4. She is a picky eater. This is her schedule:

7.00 AM - Breakfast + Milk
School - 8.00 AM
Breakfast - They serve breakfast and milk. She sometimes eats. But I have told the school and that if she does not eat anything, to give her milk in between.
Mid morning snack - She sometimes eat.
Lunch: Initially she did not eat anything. But slowly she has started finishing her meal.
Snack: Eats depending on the snack.
3.30 - Comes home. I give her snack (mostly banana) + milk. After this she is allowed a snack of her choice.
6.00 PM - Dinner
7.00 PM - Milk
7.30 PM - Bedtime

I do understand that your son is only 2. But shared my schedule to give you an idea. My daughter has always been in the <10 percentile.

shyamala1234 · Jul 18, 2015

Dear Supreep,

Give your son milk and sunstantial breakfast before leaving for day care. The breakfast they serve there.....he would eat atleast a little bit or a glass of milk. When children are in the company of other children and see everyone else eating he also would start eating and in a few days he would finish his lunch. Same goes with snack also. When he comes back home give him fruit, milk and some snack. Dinner is at home...so no problem. In this way he would not be undernourished. Try it.
Syamala

supreep · Jul 21, 2015

Hi ramya and Shyamala,

Thanks a lot for sharing the diet schedule and ideas!!

The issue is my son is not very fond of milk.

We make him drink 2 small glasses (kid size) in 1 day. One in the morning after he gets up and the 2nd one as an afternoon snack.
So, my worry is he won't drink milk in the daycare too.

From the schedule mentioned above I got an idea how to manage the schedule now. Atleast breakfast and milk I can give in the morning.

For 1 month he will be going only for half day but we plan to pick him up after lunch so that he gets habituated with eating with other kids. He doesn't eat all the american food like pasta, pizza, waffles etc. He is a kid who takes lot of time in adjusting to anything(even food). :|

After 1 month he will start full time and I will pick him up @4:30 pm . then I can feed him something before dinner. I think we need to add another cup of milk post dinner. That will be very difficult but lets see how it goes.

Any suggestions??

supreep · Jul 21, 2015

@ramyaramani - What time does your daughter get up? I am asking because after what gap of getting up do you give her breakfast + milk?

Chitravivek · Jul 21, 2015

@supreep First thing get the lunch menu list from your day care. Since there is strictly no home food you may want to try all there food and prepare your son before he starts day care. Try to introduce those food at home and see. To me leaving a kid whom you know will not eat Americanized food and if you know the school serves only Americanized food then that's no no to me. You have to explore options like if your SAHM then send him by breakfast and pick by lunch so that he can eat lunch at home and sleep and relax. All that kids do in school at his age after lunch is nap and wake up by 3 PM. So nap can very well be taken at home if there is some care available and slowly you can introduce to all those American food and then transition him full time when you think he can eat any kind of food.

My kids don't eat pizza or marinara pasta but our school is flexible and I send what I make at home. Kids at that age need to eat proper food especially since your son does not even like milk.

CrayoNess · Jul 21, 2015

Kids usually eat well at daycare as they see the other kids eating. He is already 2 so no need to give milk in the morning. Let him have breakfast in the daycare with the other kids. There is no need to take stress about the food intake. Children are very good in regulating that themselves.

supreep · Jul 23, 2015

@ramyaramani and others - could you please give me some examples of breakfast that you feed your kids before they go to daycare/school? It should be easy and quick to eat.
For e.g. Parathas will take long time to finish in the morning.

vidhya1984 · Jul 24, 2015

@supreep -

Some ideas for quick breakfast for 2 year old ( I make some of these for my 19 month old now for breakfast before he goes to daycare). Most of these take less than 10 minutes in the morning.

1. Oatmeal + Milk + Apple chopped finely + Cinnamon ( if he is not allergic ) - Mix everything together in a bowl and MW till the oatmeal is creamy
2. French Toast/ Eggs in a window ( Many recipe variations are available on google)
3. Pancakes/ Dosa/ Pesarattu/ Dal adai ( for last 3 its really quick if you already have the batter on hand)
4. Breakfast burritos ( Use readymade tortilla and pre-shredded cheese- and precut any veggies you want to add night before)
5. You can make and freeze stuff like mini quiches/ muffins and warm them up if you are ok with frozen items.
6. Same for waffles ( I don't use but generally frozen waffles can be put into toaster and topped with some syrup)
7. Regular bread jam/ bread nutella/ bread peanut butter ( if not allergic)
8. Yoghurt + Granola is sometimes an option
9. Sometimes hardboiled eggs works out for my son ( he will eat the yolk only and use the egg whites for throwing practice )

If you have more time - stuffed parathas/ idly/ chapathi roll ups all are good options to give.

Kids usually start eating if they see other kids eating around them. I always get reports of "he ate well" for my son for items he won't even touch at home :idontgetit:... It will take some time though.. But try and transition him to some of the daycare menu items from now itself so it is easier for him...

For the milk thing - if he is not drinking milk, make sure to give other dairy items like yoghurt to make up for that.

Hope this helps and all the best with the daycare transition!!!

Udasgirl · Jul 30, 2015

If he is going to day care early then it might become hard to feed him brekky before leaving.. my son is 2 yrs and here is his food routine

Gets up at 7.15
Drink Milk at 7.30 (250 ML)
Goes to day care at 7.45
Morning tea - Toast + fruit at Daycare at 9 AM
Lunch at day care at 11.30 AM
Snacks at day care 2.30 PM (dry fruit, nuts, fruits etc)
Milk at Day care 3 PM

Evening snack 5.30 (mostly biscuit/crackers)
Comes Home at 6.15 PM
Banana/energy ball/laddoo at 6.30 (small portion)
Dinner - 7.45
Sleeps at 8.30 to 9

I guess you can give him milk in morning or milkshake to make it more filling or Milkshake + honey toast or something that is easy to eat and make