Do you still feed your kids?

My girls are not quite two and a half, and I still end up putting about half of Piper's food in her mouth. She's never been very interested in food so we've always helped her along by popping food in her mouth and negotiating with her (two more bites and I'll tell you a story, etc.). Cricket usually feeds herself the entire meal, using a spoon, fork and fingers. Piper is capable of all of this too, but without assistance she doesn't actually eat much. She'd much rather play with the spoon, smear hummus all over her face and tell us she's wearing makeup or turn around backwards in her high chair and make shadow puppets on the wall.

Am I the only one who is still feeding a child at 2.5? And for those of you who did feed your kids at this age, when were you able to stop?

 

We don't have this problem, and even when our kids do refuse to eat they won't let us feed them. They're highly independent little guys when it comes to eating! It sounds like she's just too busy and curious to eat, which is great, and totally normal toddler behavior. From what I understand, from around age 2-4, their metablism slows down a bit because they are not growing as fast as they did as infants, and they become even less interested in food... but eventually it picks back up. I am sure it will improve in a couple of years!

 

Ezra is a player and I do pop food in his mouth. For example, they love olives so I made an orzo pasta with feta cheese and olives for them (and it's rare that I do anything that creative for these ingrates) anyways, Ezra just started picking out all the olives so I shoved a few spoonfuls in his mouth to make sure he got some of the other stuff too. I did find out that my nanny actually used to let them play and run around the room at meal time and she would follow them and pop food in their mouths. I did put an end to that.

I've tried taking food away but Ezra just doesn't seem to care one way or another if he eats...and he is skiiiiinyyyyyy.

 

I quit feeding them when they became much more proficient with a fork/spoon or fingers. That was before the age of 2. Personally, I would stop feeding her and see if she gets hungry enough to eat on her own since you know that she is capable of it.

 

We quit feeding the girls before they were 2. I honestly believe that when she gets hungry enough she will eat on her own. I swear Mattie has gone two days on 1 bowl of cereal and a couple of apple slices. :laughing:

 

We still occassionally feed our kids. They can feed themselves, but are not great at it. Depends on the food. My son will eat a lot of things with his fingers and that's okay by me. My daughter is more particular and does not like to get dirty. She gets discouraged if the food falls off the spoon/fork. Often times, we'll scoop food into the spoon for them to help them along and make less of a mess. We are guilty of enabling them, I'm sure.

One thing that our nanny discovered (they eat much better on their own for her BTW!), is that they like to use "grown up" utensils. They are better at eating with real forks and spoons instead of the plastic kid ones we have been giving them. Especially forks - the can stab better with the metal forks than the plastic ones and seem to be more successful.

Hope that helps!
Jess

 

All I thought when I read this was "Nah, we don't feed them anymore. They were too picky so we decided to stop giving them food all together. Plus, they were getting too fat." :laughing:

So, we don't feed them anymore. But Hailey gets in these moods where she HAS to sit on Daddy's lap and he has to feed her. It's annoying and I try to not let her do it ... but Daddy is a sucker and usually gives in.

Occasionally if they are having a hard time getting something on the spoon/fork we will help them. And occassionally they just revert to picking stuff up with their fingers.

 

I stopped feeding mine around 20 months when they got good at using the fork and the spoon.

 

Yes, but not finger foods or things they can eat themselves -- I mostly feed soups or stews or spaghetti/lasagna, things they really can't self-feed yet.

I'm a bad person to ask, though. For one thing, feeding kids is very much the norm in Indian culture, and it's because they eat rice with their fingers -- which young kids just don't have the motor skills to do. I think my mom must have fed me until I was 7 or 8, easily.

And then, Nadia was just like Piper, except worse. She would have eaten *nothing* most days if I didn't feed her. And, as hard as I tried to let it go, figuring she'd eat if she got hungry -- well, she didn't. And then it became my problem, because I had a kid who was having a tantrum because she was starving to death.

So, I fed her until she was 4. And leading up to her 4th birthday, we warned her quite often that she was on her own from then on...K&K were around 6 months then, and starting to eat solids themselves -- and I surely didn't have time to feed THREE kids, LOL.

Anyhow. Kevan and Karina are both decent eaters as long as it's something they like, so we don't have the issue this time around, thank goodness. (Although last night we had a massive double meltdown because nobody wanted to try the bean-and-cheese quesadilla. They have some aversion to tortillas, for some reason!)

 

How funny that you posted this. Normally, no I don't feed my kids, but last night we were eating dinner late and Meara was goofing off, so I gave her a bite of my pasta. My DH was like 'What are you doing? She has her own food!!' Apparently that morning he was at breakfast with our friends and their two year old and he rolled his eyes as they were feeding her while she was crawling under the table at a diner. I told him it wasn't the same thing, but he was 'apalled' none-the-less. So to answer your question, no I don't do it as a rule, because I don't have the patience to cajole them to eat, but occasionally I do offer a bite of mine and I don't think thats a big deal at all (despite all my DH's )

 

It just depends on what they are eating. They feed themselves for the most part. My DD is VERY independent. She usually doesn't require much help and doesn't want it either. However, I still feed them messy things like yogurt, oatmeal, etc.... DS still prefers to use his fingers for the most part. Although, I have been giving them "adult" utensils lately. They seem to do much better with a regular fork. I will occassionally pop something into DS's mouth while he is eating. For instance last night we had meatloaf, potatoes & green beans. He was chowing down the potatoes (of course) and was able to sneak bites of meatloaf and green beans in. Eventually, he realized hey these green beans aren't bad and started eating them himself. DD, on the other had, we just let her do her own thing. She WILL NOT let you pop anything into her mouth. She eats what she eats and I don't fight with her anymore!

 

Its very rare that I do with my 3 year old, but it does happen on occasion still. But she's basically been feeding herself since about 20 months.

 

I'll occasionally help Jake get out the last of his yogurt or put something on his fork so he will eat it (maybe). I'm of the philosophy that they will eat when they are hungry.

 

Our boys are okay with the fork, less so with the spoon. They use their fingers a lot or we "help" by getting the food on the utensil for them and giving it to them. My husband doesn't like a big mess, so he is more likely to manually feed them messy things like cereal or oatmeal, while I am more likely to let them go for it by themselves. Glad to hear we are not the only ones still feeding our kids though!

 

I let them eat all their food themselves. It's MY food that I end up feeding them though.

 

We stopped feeding them before they turned two

 

I'm in the EXACT same situation. One dd eats pretty independently, although she does not use her utensils consistently. The other dd has never been a good eater, she'll take a few bites on her own but I usually end up feeding her most of her meal, usually with bribes and negotiating as well. If I didn't do it she'd probably waste away to nothing.

I have a friend whose dd is 2 months older than mine and she still feeds her just about everything. I think she coddles her a bit.

 

Nope. If I kept feeding Jessy all the time she would let me and I'd be doing it till she's grown

 

This is me. My mother would feed my brother and I rice/fish/etc with chopsticks until I was around 5-6...it's part of the Asian culture for my mother and now for me.

I do generally let them feed themselves, particularly if it's finger foods, but with more difficult things I will help if they are needing it and I don't really think twice about (this post got me thinking that I must not be in the "norm" with my feeding habits with the boys). Lucas, in particular, has issues with getting his hands dirty (like trying to put spaghetti on the fork) so I tend to help him out a bit more whereas Jonas prefers the challenge more.

I'm also bad because I let them eat off my plate too!

 

Okay, so apparently I'm the odd one out here. Yes, I do But only those foods that they don't like...they have no problem eating the stuff they love, it's the stuff they hate that I have to feed to them. I have put up a chart to reward them for feeding themselves more often. Hopefully that helps...they are very indepedent when it comes to just about everything except eating.

 

I stopped feeding them pretty much after 18-21 months (can't remember exactly when). I figure, if they are hungry enough, they will eat.