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Food

26th Jul 2018

Do your kids’ eating routines change during the summer? Should they?

Olivia Hayes

Do you change up your child’s eating schedule during summer?

For the most part, we have the same routine all year round – with the kids in school, they’re used to eating something in the morning, during lunchtime at school, and then when they come home.

And, of course, there are a few snacks thrown in throughout the day…

However, when summer rolls around, routines change and the kids are out more, so is it necessary to change their eating routines too?

This mum is asking for advice when it comes to her children’s meals. She writes that she’s “obviously not starving them,” but “in this heat” is it OK to just give her kids two meals throughout the day.

She said:

“We’ve been pretty relaxed this holidays- getting up later so maybe having breakfast at 11, or not having it at all and then having an early lunch and dinner, or having breakfast and then a later Big picnic lunch and then they don’t feel like dinner so might have a snack in the evening instead.

“Basically not sticking to the breakfast at 8, lunch at 12, dinner at 5.30 routine of school term time. AIBU to think it’s totally fine not to have set meal times in the holidays, and if they don’t feel like eating dinner it’s not a big deal? They are not snacking on endless food during the day although maybe have more snacks than normally allowed.”

Many mums agrees that since the kids daily routines have changed, so should their eating schedules.

One said:

“When your routine changes, there’s no need to set your stomach by the clock anymore.

“If they were hungry, I’m sure you’d hear all about it!”

While another wrote:

“That’s fine. Mine are eating breakfast around 9ish (usually huge amounts of porridge) so then not having lunch until 2ish then they may just have toast around 6ish. I’m going with flow and feeding them when they are hungry.”

Have you changed up your child’s eating schedule during the summer months?