Slow Eaters...

Anybody have experience with slow eaters? One of my DD's is VERY slow about finishing her meals. She will eat fine for a little bit, then just pick and pick or play. When DH or I ask her if she is done and ready to get down from the table she says, "NO! I'm not done eating!" Then she will eat a few more bites but a few minutes later she is playing again. Tonight, DH finally got her down when she had not taken a bit in several minutes and was just playing with her fork. She had eaten but there was still some food on her plate. She cried and threw a fit because she was not finished. I don't want to send her to bed hungry but she wasn't really eating... ugh. Somebody please tell me this is a phase. (BTW, tonight she spent nearly an HOUR "eating" supper)

Thanks for any insight!

 

No advice, but I'll be watching this thread. My son is the sloooowwwwest eater, I swear. His problem is he takes little bites, chews forever (he's very careful about everything, rarely makes any mess or spills any crumbs) and he talks NON-STOP!!! It's just habit and he can't help it. I remind him every 2 minutes to stop talking and just eat, but 30 seconds later he has something else to say or another question to ask, or another song to sing...and then he has to go potty and that takes another 10 minutes. I swear he can hold it all day long, except for when we sit down to eat. And he does the same thing you described about "playing" and rarely taking a bite, but when you ask if he's done he says no and takes another bite. I'm happy to get anything in him because he's so small (7th percentile for weight), and whatever he does consume is probably burned away by all his talking! It doesn't help with the two of them there, they find everything hilarious and try to crack each other up. My daughter is an even worse eater - but she's not slow. She's just picky and rarely eats. If I threatened to take her plate away, she'd gladly give it up. I get tired of telling them over and over that it's time to eat. I keep telling myself I'm going to set the timer for 30 minutes and when it's up dinner is over no matter what. I know there will be tantrums at first, but I think they'll learn quickly. But then we'll have a couple good days/meals and I put it off again.

 

It sounds like we are living in the same house! I'm thinking that distraction may be a big part of her problem. She tends to zone in and focus on one thing, so if there is something else to get her attention other than food, she struggles to focus on eating. My other DD however, will eat but will often say she doesn't like something, even though she liked it last week.

The problem I see if this continues is starting preschool in the fall... she likely won't be given an hour to finish a meal/snack.

 

Our peditrician was the one that told us that when they start playing with their food they aren't hungry anymore. When my two start doing this they get one warning. And then we take their plates away. When they are hungry they scarf it down. When they aren't - they aren't. I try not to stress about it anymore.

Ironically at school they scarf things down because other kids take their food if they leave it too long. Go figure.

 

Maybe put less on her plate and give her more if she finishes and asks for more. I have one that likes to linger when she has only a little bit left too.

 

I'm so glad I found this post! We deal with this every day too. My husband gets so irritated by it. He swears we are the only one with children "who don't know how to eat". It always makes you feel better to know you are not the only one dealing with an issue.