Toddler Meals // Little Lunch

I mentioned in the first Toddler Meals post I shared in August that Romy's nap time is smack bam in the middle of the day and she doesn't wake up until around 3.30pm, but  lately with this bout of teething I've been getting four hour naps out of her. So by the time sleeping beauty wakes up, it's actually not too far off dinner time. So we started giving her a 'little lunch' around 11-11.30 am, and a lighter 'lunch' after her nap. So basically she eats two small lunches & sleeps for 3+ hours - she really is living the toddler dream!

We're always up for trying different methods to try & achieve success at meal times, & currently the two-part lunch method is working best for us. Before we implemented the 'little lunch' - which is different from a snack - we were finding that after a long nap & a late lunch come dinner time Romy just wasn't overly hungry, and it was making us all frustrated. I really didn't want to accept that we had a fussy eater, because I think that you can get a little too deep into the 'fussy eater' hole and it ends up giving the 'fussy eater' power to pick and choose & ultimately they won't try anything new. So before we gave into that idea, we tried a different method & it was that simple. Now (most) evenings Romy will eat her dinner, which has taken a lot of stress out of the evenings. 

I know this looks like a lot of food to be 'little lunch' but it is actually only a small amount. On this little lunch plate is one slice of cheese cut into super small pieces, grated apple, a couple of strawberries cut into smaller pieces and a small slice of toasted homemade banana, blueberry & orange bread. 

And as you can see, the grated apple was not a hit. Romy cannot get her head around apple, every time she tries it she pulls this shocked look as though she is thinking, "what the heck have you given me!". Every. Time. So I tried a different approach and grated the apple to serve and she still wasn't sold on it. You win some you lose some right?