Food for Thought.

Awake at midnight, 1am and 2am, when I gave up and brought Grandson into my bed - not that I mind having him in my bed, but he wanted to sleep in the other room to begin with! Then he was fully awake at 5.30am!!! I just can't take these sleepless nights any more. When I had two small children on my own, I must have managed it. But now I'm 25 years older, as I remind Daughter. Of course she can't imagine what it's like to be as old as me..

Thinking about yesterday and last night though, I have a theory that he is actually hungry. He drinks a lot of juice (diluted) but seems to do this instead of eating. He is confusing hungry with thirsty, and filling his stomach with liquid rather than solid stuff. Yesterday, while he was out with me, he had masses of juice, a piece of flapjack, a bite out of a sausage roll and an ice cream. Not very nutritious. And then I gave him a small pizza and some smileys (potato), a carrot and some cucumber. He ate about half of it, and left the carrot and the cucumber, so no real nourishment there either. As I said to Daughter, his diet is mainly carbohydrate and sugar - little or no protein for his little body to grow on. When you look at that intake, no wonder he was wakeful last night. I'm sure I would wake up starving. Having talked it over, Daughter and I have decided that we will give him "real" food from now on. Proper meat and fish meals with real vegetables. She is going to work out menus for the week and stick to them - and give him less juice! This morning he asked for juice, but I said he could have some if he ate his breakfast first. I gave him a scrambled egg and wholemeal toast, plus a cut up apple and some raisins. He probably ate about half of it, but that was a real improvement on yesterday already. And he didn't ask for a drink after he had eaten, so maybe the theory is right. Anyway, it's worth a try, and perhaps he won't wake up so early if he has had some decent food during the day and goes to bed on a comfortably full stomach.