My daughter is 3 yrs. old. She takes Cortef 3x  a day and we never have been strict about giving it with food. I know the bottle says to give with food, but she never has had a problem with it. If she’s asleep in the morning for her am dose or napping during the afternoon dose, she takes it right on down and doesn’t even wake up. So,  she gets it alot of times without food. As far as the schedule goes, my endo’s time frame is not strict. He gives a 2 hr. time frame around the time of her dosing. For example, these are the times he gives us-- First dose in the morning is 6am-8am, afternoon dose is 3pm-5pm, and pm dose is 8-10pm. You don’t have to be really strict on the time, I don’t think, as long as you stay close to it. Now, when she is ill, with a fever and such, and she gets more medication and more often, we pretty much give it at the same time every 6 hours. Every endo will tell you something different, so you have to find out what works for your child... Good Luck.