Any advice for slow-eaters?

[Funz]

If you are already doing the following,


No TV, no toys, no books, eat together with family, vary variety and she is still slow,

give her 30mins to eat. Thereafter, clear everything whether or not she finishes. Schedule in fixed snack times if you worry that her food intake is too little, giving her 15-20 mins to finish her snacks at the dining table. No other snacks in between.

I did that with DD when she was about that age. Yes I worry about her being under weight and under tall. But she was generally pretty healthy. So I decided not to get so hung up about whether she finishes all her food at a single sitting and try something else. We still continued with serving her favourite foods and making it attractive. And with that routine, she eventually picked up and started eating faster and more in quantity as well as variety.

Oh and another thing, 4yrs old, already, wean her off the bottle. She is old enough to drink from a cup.

[matrix0405]

Is she also very slow when eating potato chips and French fries? If this 2 also take forever, then eating slow is her pattern. If not, u need to give her tastier and easier to eat food.

[MOTY]

DS is also a super slow eater.


I am getting sick and tired of nagging him each meal.

Should I just put him facing the wall, which he hates, until he finishes the meal if he doesn’t finish with half an hour? Is this too harsh?

[Imami]

matrix0405:

Is she also very slow when eating potato chips and French fries? If this 2 also take forever, then eating slow is her pattern. If not, u need to give her tastier and easier to eat food.

:goodpost:

My take is slow eating is out of habit rather most of the time. Unless got Some medical/oral Condition.... Get the kid's teeth checked to eliminate this possibility.

Hubby's nephew is five this year. All these years this boy takes ages to finish his food. Before he went to cc at 3, lunches/dinners take two hours! 厉害吗 ? But they got a maid la, so the maid poor thing lor - gotta run after the kid to feed. When the boy went to cc, he suffers. Cos at cc where got let u run around and eat two hours? So initially he had very little food. The cc gave him extra time but not up to two hours per meal, just additional ten min.

Now the kid better already. Can finish his meals wihtin an hour when he is at home. In cc, he just eat whatever he can manage at his pace during the time given by cc.

[Imami]

While I understand the point why we need to serve up more palatable food to help the children speed up their eating, I am a bit reluctant to do this. Tll now, I still serve food that has less seasoning and food that is healthier. I am not a good cook though. I don’t want my kid to grow up being a picky eater either. So I always tell him - eat whatever there is on the table. U don’t get to choose.


I believe, if you let the child grow up thinking that certain things (e.g keeping his toys and books, eating veg and drinking herbal water/soup) are THE way of life, he may just grow into it. So far, it works on my child. He loves his greens, eats heartily, do his chores dutifully.

Being human and a kid some more, of cos, sometimes I have to 出招.

[thetinyseed]

I agree, we need to

1. limit the time given for each meal (Funz suggestion of 30mins is reasonable. I do that too with my own kids)
2. remove distractions (TV, books, etc)
3. limit between meal snacking (including milk feeds)

But don’t make meal times unpleasant and threatening. Other ways to encourage a child to eat up, quickly could be
1. make food presentation interesting. Make a funny face on a plate. I used to use a plate with little ‘compartments’ like a bento box, and place food in smaller portions in each ‘compartment’ to make it look less intimidating.
2. engage the child in food preparation. then when eating, remind them what they did to make it come out like that on the plate. encourage them with "this tastes yummy, the way you cooked it"
3. have the child help out in clearing plates and washing up as well, so he/she knows when is ‘the end’ of eating time.

[mummy so kiasu]

sakura_2009:

nmhmum:

Hi Sakura_2009,

My dd is in P2 now and only weighs around 19kg. I consider her to be very underweight but strange thing is when the Health Promotion Board's nurse came to take her weight in Feb this year, she was only classified as slightly underweight. Also she was not chosen to take the \"special\" milk. So I guess she is not too bad. Anyway, As long she is healthy, I not so worried cos last time her mummy also very skinny, but after giving birth, all the fats cannot be removed

DS is P3 and weighs 22 kg. For a boy, I also thought he's very underweight but MOH nurses also say he's only slightly underweight :? Anywa, as long as he's healthy, I'm ok lar....

Seems like kids who tend to eat very slow, especially on 'proper' meals, but superfast in junk food like fries, chips and other fried stuff, tend to be on the 'lighter' side, - but I always have this perception that junk food makes a
kid fatter/heavier, or have I misunderstood? :?

Kids who chew slowly tend to be under weight & don't eat much. Most kids seems to like deep fried food or crispy stuff that are unhealthy such as fast food. A kid will only grow fatter or heavier if he eats junk food often. It is important to give more milk & vitamins supplement to under weight kids.

[sembgal]

Kids that eat slowly has a disadvantage. Parents can let the child spend one hour eating the food, but think, if your child is in preschool, do you think the teacher will wait only for that slow eater to finish the food while the rest of the children have finished theirs? Your child will be missing out on a lot of things. Start training the child to eat fast between 5 to 6 years old, as you are helping the child to adapt to Primary 1’s recess time.

[Lynn2010]

Funz:

If you are already doing the following,


No TV, no toys, no books, eat together with family, vary variety and she is still slow,

give her 30mins to eat. Thereafter, clear everything whether or not she finishes. Schedule in fixed snack times if you worry that her food intake is too little, giving her 15-20 mins to finish her snacks at the dining table. No other snacks in between.

I did that with DD when she was about that age. Yes I worry about her being under weight and under tall. But she was generally pretty healthy. So I decided not to get so hung up about whether she finishes all her food at a single sitting and try something else. We still continued with serving her favourite foods and making it attractive. And with that routine, she eventually picked up and started eating faster and more in quantity as well as variety.

Oh and another thing, 4yrs old, already, wean her off the bottle. She is old enough to drink from a cup.

This is the way i did it too.

From 1.5 yr old (the time they can hold the spoon without \"accident\"), they sit with the family and eat together. Therefore, \"finish\" together in not more than half an hour.

My dd2 is slow (at age 13yr) if she eats alone. That is because she will play with her iphone or read. She explains that she feels very relax doing this especially after school. I let her be. As after her 1 hr of \"relaxing lunch\", she will do her homework.

[Imami]

sembgal:

Kids that eat slowly has a disadvantage. Parents can let the child spend one hour eating the food, but think, if your child is in preschool, do you think the teacher will wait only for that slow eater to finish the food while the rest of the children have finished theirs? Your child will be missing out on a lot of things. Start training the child to eat fast between 5 to 6 years old, as you are helping the child to adapt to Primary 1's recess time.

Good point on adapting to pri 1 recess time. But I feel that starting to train at 5or6 yrs old is a little late. My child has been keeping to the 30min meal time since he was three. No one hr meal for him, I got no time.