I’m struggling with this one!
My daughter is 2.5. She has started a habit of saying she’s hungry right when we put her to bed so that she can delay bedtime. I offer her food round the clock all day, I would never withhold food. But it seems she’s started doing it simply to push bedtime. If I give her food at this time, she will just want to sit and chat with us while she eats and has to be reminded to eat, and it will push bedtime over an hour by the time she’ll finish eating and we brush teeth again and get back to bed.
I’m at a loss here. I offer her a variety of food before bed. She’ll eat dinner and after dinner I offer her a choice of snack (typically a homemade muffin from the freezer or toast or something) in case she needs a bit more before bed. She’s not eating that well beforehand but then the second we lay her in bed it’s tears and “I’m hungry”.
Do I draw the boundary that we aren’t doing this anymore?! I feel awful saying “no” when she says she’s hungry but I feel like we’re creating bad bedtime habits here I don’t want to continue.