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My 4 year old takes forever to eat
My 4 year old eats very slowly, no matter what we try he still takes forever to eat. Like tonight we sat down for dinner,everyone else has finished and had dessert he was still eating the same thing. It was over 2 hours before he finished. I am worried about him. Also is it normal for a child of his age to still eat 1 thing at a time?
Hungry kids seem to eat better than ones with no appetite.
A walk does wonders, but on those days we can't manage that, an afternoon devoid of snacks usually means a faster dinner than one where snacks have been available.
And the quickest meals have been ones where they thought they were going to miss out because I said it had got to late and was about to send them to bed, but we decided to let them stay up and join us. They wolfed it down. Not sure why that one worked, other than they were glad they didn't miss out - or really did want to go to bed because they were tired. Of cousre if they had dwalded it would have been bed straight away, with just an easy to eat snakc offerred in case they were going to wilt away over night.
SOmetimes we just take theplate away and say its available tomorrow same time. They often seem to have had enough and were going slow because it was too much. They happily return to finish it the next day as long as it wasn't spoilt by storage (and the simple foods they eat do keep overnight)
When they are sick they don't like to eat as much, so allowances are made for reduced appetite then.
Good luck.
A walk does wonders, but on those days we can't manage that, an afternoon devoid of snacks usually means a faster dinner than one where snacks have been available.
And the quickest meals have been ones where they thought they were going to miss out because I said it had got to late and was about to send them to bed, but we decided to let them stay up and join us. They wolfed it down. Not sure why that one worked, other than they were glad they didn't miss out - or really did want to go to bed because they were tired. Of cousre if they had dwalded it would have been bed straight away, with just an easy to eat snakc offerred in case they were going to wilt away over night.
SOmetimes we just take theplate away and say its available tomorrow same time. They often seem to have had enough and were going slow because it was too much. They happily return to finish it the next day as long as it wasn't spoilt by storage (and the simple foods they eat do keep overnight)
When they are sick they don't like to eat as much, so allowances are made for reduced appetite then.
Good luck.
My daughter takes forever to eat. The problem is at school she throws a fit when meal times are over. After lunch it is time to take a nap, but she will throw a fit if someone takes her plate away. I don't know what to do, because I cannot continue to devote 2 hours of my day to each meal. HELP!!
I feel for you. I spend 3 hours a day! trying to get my 4 year old daughter to eat. One hour for each meal time! and she only eats at most 10 mouth fulls at each meal. Honestly, she can take 10 to 15 mins just for one mouth full! help
Here are some things you can try:
1) Lead up to dinner the same way every day. I pick him up from his afterschool program, watch 30 minutes of TV while I cook, then turn off the TV, get them to wash their hands and sit down
2) Start at the same time every day
3) Set an exact amount of time to finish. I set 30 minutes. It takes a while, but he needs to understand that dinner has a start time AND an end time. If you let him eat as long as it takes, he'll take that as control over you and push it. I know it's hard, but at first you may need to take his food away even if he doesn't eat anything. He may get hungry later, but then you need to get him to understand he needs to eat at dinner time AND within the time set to finish it
4) Remind him how much time he has left
5) Do not feed him; make him eat for himself
6) If he doesn't act like he wants to eat, threaten to end dinner right then and take away his food. For some reason, my son would protest strongly about this when I tried and then he would eat some
7) If he's playing around or causing trouble, put him in his room and tell him only people who want to eat can sit at the table and he can come out only when he's ready to sit and eat. My son always got straight after that
8) Give him a reasonable amount of food to finish
9) Ask him beforehand what he "will" eat for dinner (you may not want to do this, but for me, if I can get him to agree to what to eat, he usually eats it). I know most people will believe the child should eat what the parents are serving, but I found that kids take a long time to accept new foods, so, I give them what they want for dinner and gradually work in new foods. I can sometimes get them interested by telling them they CAN'T have what I'm eating, which, of course, makes them want it and I "give in" and they try it (I always make extra in case they actually like it).
10) Occassionally, I will have dessert available, but they cannot get it if they don't eat all their food (after all, I remind him, if he doesn't eat all his dinner, he must not be hungry)
11) I try to stick to what is on his plate, but sometimes I will make a deal with him: like if he doesn't finish the whole sandwich, he needs to eat 5 carrots to make it up. The trick is to make the substitute healthy or healthier
12) Making eating fun can sometimes work, but it can also get too carried away. I can get him interested if I arrange the food in a funny shape, or sometimes he "builds a fire" with broccoli stalks (left over after he eats the top) and ketchup.
13) We had an incentive program that required eating dinner on time. That's how we started them to get disciplined for dinner time. We didn't need the inventive program after a while
Hope this helps.
1) Lead up to dinner the same way every day. I pick him up from his afterschool program, watch 30 minutes of TV while I cook, then turn off the TV, get them to wash their hands and sit down
2) Start at the same time every day
3) Set an exact amount of time to finish. I set 30 minutes. It takes a while, but he needs to understand that dinner has a start time AND an end time. If you let him eat as long as it takes, he'll take that as control over you and push it. I know it's hard, but at first you may need to take his food away even if he doesn't eat anything. He may get hungry later, but then you need to get him to understand he needs to eat at dinner time AND within the time set to finish it
4) Remind him how much time he has left
5) Do not feed him; make him eat for himself
6) If he doesn't act like he wants to eat, threaten to end dinner right then and take away his food. For some reason, my son would protest strongly about this when I tried and then he would eat some
7) If he's playing around or causing trouble, put him in his room and tell him only people who want to eat can sit at the table and he can come out only when he's ready to sit and eat. My son always got straight after that
8) Give him a reasonable amount of food to finish
9) Ask him beforehand what he "will" eat for dinner (you may not want to do this, but for me, if I can get him to agree to what to eat, he usually eats it). I know most people will believe the child should eat what the parents are serving, but I found that kids take a long time to accept new foods, so, I give them what they want for dinner and gradually work in new foods. I can sometimes get them interested by telling them they CAN'T have what I'm eating, which, of course, makes them want it and I "give in" and they try it (I always make extra in case they actually like it).
10) Occassionally, I will have dessert available, but they cannot get it if they don't eat all their food (after all, I remind him, if he doesn't eat all his dinner, he must not be hungry)
11) I try to stick to what is on his plate, but sometimes I will make a deal with him: like if he doesn't finish the whole sandwich, he needs to eat 5 carrots to make it up. The trick is to make the substitute healthy or healthier
12) Making eating fun can sometimes work, but it can also get too carried away. I can get him interested if I arrange the food in a funny shape, or sometimes he "builds a fire" with broccoli stalks (left over after he eats the top) and ketchup.
13) We had an incentive program that required eating dinner on time. That's how we started them to get disciplined for dinner time. We didn't need the inventive program after a while
Hope this helps.
My son used to do the same thing every morning and it would drive me nuts. He would take forever to eat and then we would end up feeling rushed the rest of the morning and I would be in a bad mood. I ended up giving him a time limit and setting the timing on my stove. He can see it and knew how much time he had. At first he did not believe me but after a couple of times where he ran out of time and the food went away he got the idea and now I don't have any more problems with it. Good luck to you.
5 yr old girl, same thing takes forever to eat. What I have found helpful was just saying... " I betcha can't eat that piece of chicken before I finish my chicken, but theres one rule... You can only eat it one bite at a time and have to chew it up completely" She thinks it's kinda fun and I almost always let her beat me. So she revels in her victory too. It's fun... Even if we are always the last two at the table, it's like a special bonding time.
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