I’m hungry.....

DD is a fabulous eater, will eat anything and pretty much always eats everything put in front of her.

Lately if she is tired she will only eat half of her dinner and then tell me she is full. Very rarely does she ask for anything else before bed. Dinner time is between 5 and 6 and then bedtime at around 7:30-ish.

The last month she has been waking up during the night screaming that she is hungry. Last night she got up at 10:30pm and ate a muesli bar, a huge peice of cheese and still wanted more food. She is a very tall 3 year old at 107cms (like way off the charts) and 20kgs, although she is heavy she isn't fat IYKWIM.

What can I do to fill her up just before bed? I was thinking of trying complan?? If you have experienced this with your toddler, what did/do you do?

TIA

Yeah I would be more inclined to go for something like a banana smoothie, bananas are quite filling too.

On days when she is more tired than normal can you give her dinner earlier so she eats more?

Thanks for the tips ladies.

I have tried the banana smoothie tonight just before bed. Fingers crossed its enough to keep her full overnight

Linzy I do tend to give dinner to her earlier on very tired days, I will keep trying that though.

I also wonder if she eats less at dinner at the mo because its so humid? I know I don't feel like eating when its muggy.

Thanks for your thoughts anyway, its always helpful to hear others ideas

if it were me i would give her a drink and send her back to bed. kids that age dont really know if they are hungry or thirsty.

We've had this a few times and once we gave in to the sandwich reqeust... Well....the next night we got asked again and in a weak moment gave in. Next night again (DH gave in)...night after night it was asked for so I started saying NO! got quite a few tanties and then nothing. Since then we have woken upset one night saying he was hungry and wanting a sandwich so I said he could only have a banana as "thats all you can eat in themiddle of the night" he eventually accepted it (not a huge banana fan) and we havent had a request since then.

We also always have a glass of water in their room so they can sip as needed.

Just a slight word of caution about the water in their room - we used to leave a drink bottle for Ashleigh next to the bed which I think she just drank before going to sleep. But it was a huge issue to take that away from her when we started night time TT as she was so used to it and it's hard to say no when they are crying that they are thirsty (but therefore going to wet the bed!!) In hindsight I don't think I would have started giving her the drink bottle in her room.

I would try a nice warm milky milo about 1/2 hr before bed, so it gives her time to go to the toilet before going down.