Feeding Littles
  • Home
  • About
    • Meet The Experts
    • Baby Jack
  • Online Courses
    • Babies
    • Toddlers
  • Store
  • Success Stories
  • Blog
    • Featured Blog Posts
  • Favorite Products
  • Contact
  • Social Media

How to Handle Overtired Babies and Toddlers at Mealtime

9/17/2019

 
Feeding Littles | Overtired children don't eat well when they're tired, even as young babies. Here are some tips to help navigate overtired babies and toddlers during mealtime.

Easy ideas to try when kids are overly tired.

Anyone else have a case of the Mondays recently? This was my almost 3-year-old after her first day of full-day preschool school (9-3) during which she refused to nap. I took her sleepy body out of the car at home, set her on her feet, and when I turned around after unloading the car she was passed out on the floor.

Feeding Littles | Overtired children don't eat well when they're tired, even as young babies. Here are some tips to help navigate overtired babies and toddlers during mealtime.

Can we talk about feeding overtired children? As you have probably learned, kids don’t eat spectacularly well when they’re tired. Even young babies struggle to focus on a feed when they haven’t had enough sleep. So, what’s a tired (and frustrated) parent to do when your child is crazy and overtired but needs to eat?

  1. Prevention is the best medicine - if you have a young child, you are absolutely crazy if you don’t check out Taking Cara Babies. She is a magical sleep wizard who can help you prevent the majority of these meltdowns by being smart about sleep (but no rigid schedules)!
  2. Overtired babies may not do well in the feeding chair. It’s OK to take them out and try again next time. Sometimes a milk feed is what they need more.
  3. Toddler melting down before dinnertime? Sometimes we have to offer dinner earlier than planned and put them to bed. Try to serve what you’d be having normally and at least sit with them if you’re not hungry for dinner. Make it as positive as possible and get that child down! This is where you use the strategies of routine and novelty to make the meal as manageable as possible. Tomorrow will be a better day.
  4. Go easy on yourself if you have nights where you fill ‘em up with mac and cheese and praise God that they’re asleep early.

The overall goal is that we have family meals *most of the time* and serve our kids what we eat *most of the time* (maybe with some special considerations), but we’re also real parents with real kids who sometimes just need a full tummy and a good night’s sleep.

​Tomorrow will be a better day. Get that sweet babe to bed and get down with some mindless TV or a good book, because you deserve to celebrate surviving a day with an overtired, adorable little lunatic!

Picture

Comments are closed.

    Authors

    Megan and Judy, co-owners of Feeding Littles, bring you helpful info on food, nutrition, picky eating, and feeding young children. Megan McNamee MPH, RDN is a Registered Dietitian Nutritionist based in Scottsdale, Arizona. Judy Delaware, OTR/L is an Occupational Therapist specializing in feeding therapy with children 3 and under in Boulder, Colorado. Megan and Judy are both moms of two and love helping families develop a healthy appetite for all foods! 

    Archives

    August 2020
    July 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    March 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017

    Categories

    All
    Allergy Friendly
    Appetizers
    Babies
    Baby
    Baby Food
    Baby Led Weaning
    Baby-led Weaning
    Birthday
    Bottle Feeding
    Breakfast
    Breastfeeding
    Constipation
    Cups
    Desserts
    Dieting
    Dinner
    Drinking Water
    Family Meal Toolkit
    Feeding Therapy
    Gagging
    Grocery Shopping
    Halloween
    High Chair
    High Protein
    Holidays
    Hydration
    Infant Feeding
    Intuitive Eating
    Lunch
    Meal Planning Tips
    Motherhood
    Offer The Rainbow
    Omegas
    Popsicles
    Pregnancy
    Printables
    Recipes
    Safety
    Salad
    School Lunch
    Selective Eaters
    Self Love
    Sensory Processing
    Snacks
    Spoon Feeding
    Sugar
    Supplements
    Teething
    Toddlers
    Trader Joe's
    Traditional Feeding
    Travel
    Vitamin D
    Yogurt

    RSS Feed

The contents of this site are opinions of Feeding Littles LLC partners unless otherwise noted. The information on this site and the products featured are not intended to diagnose, treat, or prevent any type of disease and are not intended as personalized medical advice. Any decision you make regarding your health and medical treatments should be made with a qualified health provider.
© COPYRIGHT 2019 ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
  • Home
  • About
    • Meet The Experts
    • Baby Jack
  • Online Courses
    • Babies
    • Toddlers
  • Store
  • Success Stories
  • Blog
    • Featured Blog Posts
  • Favorite Products
  • Contact
  • Social Media