Originally Posted by Starburst:
What time do they nap? Is snack usually right after nap time?
At a home daycare I worked at (she was on food program) breakfast was around 8am lunch was 12pm and afternoon snack was at 4pm (she didn't have a morning snack), nap time was between 1pm-3pm. Breakfast wasn't manditory if they arrived fed before breakfast time, but lunch was manditory (to at least sit at the table and try some food) and with snack (which was optional) they either could eat or take a little gummy-fruit or ceral bar snack pouch home (rules may be different in some states).
But some people are just picky eats- some people are snackers (also called grazers) which means they don't like big meals but just like munching all day on small snacks. And some people perfer meals because they get full after eating a meal
We usually wait at least a half hour after nap to have snack, if not longer. We nap from 12-2 (or a little later if we push it). We can't have snack later than about 3:30 because at 4 is when the dishwasher is run so that it has time to wash and dry and be put away before everyone leaves for the day.
Originally Posted by renodeb:
Are you on the food program? If you are than all you have to do is offer it. They may not eat it but it was offered. I wouldnt worry about it to much. If they are hungary they will eat.
Deb
We are not on the food program. It just baffles me because it isn't a few children who don't eat snack, it is most of them.
Originally Posted by Play Care:
I would caution not to only give them pretzels though. Still continue to offer SMALL amounts of other, more healthy options. Give them the choice to eat or not.
I worry more about this trend of constantly offering/giving kids food (and mostly cracker type snacks) so they don't even recognize when they are truely hungry because of the all day snacking.
We definitely do not give pretzels every day, though they would be happy if we did. At least 2 if not 3 days a week we have some kind of fruit. And usually when we do pretzels we have raisins too.