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Lunch seems really late to me. Can you move up lunch and then do snack earlier?

Does your daycare do lunch at 1-1:30? That seems really late. My kids have lunch at 11:30. Then they have a decent snack at 3:00 (with milk), which really helps tie them over for dinner at a decent time.

ETA: Just say your response. Can you try pushing the nap until 11:30 and have lunch at 11:00?

@snowjewelz: I would do lunch at 10:30. Then a big snack when she wakes up and then another little snack at like 4 to hold her over till dinner.

I agree about lunch being kind of late, and I also wanted to add that for a long time,cry LO was having dinner at 5-5:30 pm while me and DH would eat after LO went to bed (DH gets home around 7). Now that he's a bit older, bedtime and meals have shifted so that he and I often eat together and DH still has to eat later. Not ideal, but it's what we have to do for now.

@snowjewelz: they do lunch at 10:30 in elementary schools!

What about doing leftovers from the night before for at 4 and letting her have a snack at the table with you at dinner time? I'd rather just feed when hungry for a kid that young. But, also, try not to fret too much because this stage will pass!

DH is 18 months, but he's been on the same schedule since about 16 months since starting daycare.

-Breakfast 730am with milk
-20 minute car ride to daycare with the other 1/2 of his breakfast waffle to gnaw on and water
-Light snack 10am like Cheerios with water
-Lunch 1100-1130am with water
-Nap 12:30-ish to 2:30ish, give or take 30 mins
-Heavier snack at 3pm (yogurt and cereal, fruit)
-20 minute car ride home with a rice cake and water to gnaw on
-Dinner 5pm-ish with milk.
-Light snacks like puffs and water if he's snacky while playing after dinner.
-Bedtime at 730pm.

FWIW, we also did a late 1pm lunch when DS first transitioned to one nap. We just gave him a heavier 1030am snack before he went down. As soon as we were able to keep him awake until noon, we switched to lunch at 11am and hoped he pooped before nap! So this could just be a temporary annoying phase until she can stay awake a little bit longer. Nowadays, he goes down closer to 1pm and sleeps until about 3pm, which is a lot easier for traditional meal times.

You may want to ask daycare to bulk up her afternoon snack like mine does - they tend to go for a serving of yogurt, granola, and apple slices around 3pm because most parents pick up around 5pm and they know its gonna be a minute before dinner time. DS also usually has 1-1.5 rice cakes in the car on the way home, and if he's screeching about dinner when we get home, I can usually fend him off for a few minutes by handing him 1-2 frozen mini pancakes from the freezer (he gnaws on them frozen!) If we do that, then I don't stress about his carb intake at dinner and just try to get him to eat his protein, fruits, and veggies.

But yeah, we usually don't do dinner later than 530pm. I keep food ready to heat up for him IMMEDIATELY as I walk through the door so he can be fed within 5 minutes, and generally I meal prep for DH and I in advance so that we can just reheat something and eat with him (although I usually ACTUALLY eat after DS is done because I have to supervise his mess).

We struggle with this too! I think we are gonna try to think of all his meals as larger snacks, it seems to work better for him.

I think lunch will work itself out as the one nap gets pushed later, so that she can eat lunch earlier/normal (somewhere between 1130 and 1230?)

For dinner, we have had 2 different approaches.

With LO1, we liked to eat dinner ourselves after she went to bed. So I would prep dinner for LO1 around 530ish (usually leftovers), then we'd put her to bed 630ish, and then we'd cook and eat at like 730. We were used to eating later, though, and DH didn't get home until 6 most nights. I would either sit at the table with her while LO1 ate OR i would put her highchair in the kitchen and do random dishes/clean while she ate. Eventually as she stayed up later, we started to eat dinner altogether around 6.

With LO2, we typically eat at 530-6. If DH isn't going to make it home for dinner, the girls and I eat together by 530 for sure. If we eat later than 6, LO2 ends up snacking a lot and not eating real well. Which is fine some nights, but I don't like as a general rule. We no longer have grown-up dinner after the kids are in bed because I think it's important for LO1 to eat with us now that she is older and can talk about her day, etc...and because kids aren't down for bed until 8!

TL;DR...do whatever makes you happiest/works for you for now (and in general! ha) because things can change. So if she needs an "extra" snack right now, just make it a healthy one and nbd what she eats/doesn't eat for dinner.