How much time do you give them to eat?

[tu123]

Me again with my boring "my daughter wont eat" thread yet again.

So today, she ate half a yogurt, 10 grapes and half a sandwich. Humpf. This "phase" is going on 2.5mths and driving me potty!

Anyway. I want her to get the mutivits, etc, and i realized tonight that she had been in the highchair for thirty minutes, and getting peeved off!

I know they need longer to eat but maybe i am being silly and worryng too much.

When do you say enough is enough for eating time? And what do you think is acceptable?

Thank you.x

 

[_Vicky_]

I leave the boys till they tell me they are done (words and actions) ie throwing their plates on the floor etc etc

Sometimes its up to an hour tbh eating, drinking and then i give them their little laptops so I can get something done x

 

[tu123]

I leave the boys till they tell me they are done (words and actions) ie throwing their plates on the floor etc etc

Sometimes its up to an hour tbh eating, drinking and then i give them their little laptops so I can get something done x

But what do you do if they throw their plate imediately? LO's love at the moment.

Thanks hunny!

 

[QTPie]

I am with Vicky

If DS refuses to eat for any reason (includes throwing food - he doesn't throw it if he is interested in eating it ), then I clean him up, get him down. If he starts tapping on the snack cupboard then he gets offered his original dinner again (I keep it): I refuse to let him snack after turning down a good dinner. Assuming he isn't ill, the tactic works (although he normally ends up eating it sitting at his little table)

QT

 

[tu123]

I am with Vicky

If DS refuses to eat for any reason (includes throwing food - he doesn't throw it if he is interested in eating it ), then I clean him up, get him down. If he starts tapping on the snack cupboard then he gets offered his original dinner again (I keep it): I refuse to let him snack after turning down a good dinner. Assuming he isn't ill, the tactic works (although he normally ends up eating it sitting at his little table)

QT

It is a good point. I have been questioning the fact that i get out the fruit (as i know she will eat it) as soon as she refuses her meal. I shouldnt do it!

 

[iceylou]

when queen nicole shouts DOWN or NO and i get food flung at me. sometimes shes barely finished and she wants out.

 

[Blah11]

i leave amelie as long as she wants. Its easier when theyre out of the highchair stage, but she does take ages and ages to eat and sometimes she leaves it and goes back to it.

 

[QTPie]

Your LO is younger than mine, but another thing that can work for us is saying "do you want some pear?". He will say yes and I say "ok, a spoon of fish pie (or whatever), first" and then I alternate a spoon of main course with a piece of pear. That really works with DS.

 

[RachA]

Because i have an older child as well, we sit at the table until we have all finished. As DS is a very slow eater i would say that we are usually at the table for between 30 and 60 min (apart from breakfast which is eaten pretty quickly as we have to get out of the house at a certain time).



Esther has been a pretty bad eater for probably about a year. She has been much better since she was about 23 months old. She just suddenly got a bit more of an appetite.

Try not to worry too much - as long as she isn't loosing weight then it should right itself as long as you don't go down the route of 'i'll just give her what she wants to eat'.
I will offer Esther a meal, if she refuses it she doesn't get anything else until her next meal time. Therefore this evening she didn't eat any of her dinner so she's gone to bed having not eaten anything since about 1pm - i feel so bad doing it but i know that tomorrow she will eat pretty much everything i put in front of her.

 

[RachA]

Your LO is younger than mine, but another thing that can work for us is saying "do you want some pear?". He will say yes and I say "ok, a spoon of fish pie (or whatever), first" and then I alternate a spoon of main course with a piece of pear. That really works with DS.

I had to laugh when i read that. We tried that we Esther and she'd get all excited about the thing we were using to entice her with but when she realised she had to eat a spoon of dinner to get it she totally refused the enticement i have such a stubborn child!

 

[hattiehippo]

Tom is a really, really slow eater and sometimes meals take 45 mins plus but as long as he keeps going and is still eating then I leave him to it. Usually if he starts pushing his food around or showing me he's bored or had enough then I tell him I'm taking the food away - this normally gets him going again. And if he's really fiddling with the food I will give him time limits like '5 more minutes and tea is over'.

I do offer him other things is he really won't touch his tea, things like toast, yoghurt, fruit but on the days he won't eat his main meal he generally isn't really hungry and doesn't want anything else. He doesn't get snacks etc anymore once he's turned everything down.

 

[hattiehippo]

Your LO is younger than mine, but another thing that can work for us is saying "do you want some pear?". He will say yes and I say "ok, a spoon of fish pie (or whatever), first" and then I alternate a spoon of main course with a piece of pear. That really works with DS.

I had to laugh when i read that. We tried that we Esther and she'd get all excited about the thing we were using to entice her with but when she realised she had to eat a spoon of dinner to get it she totally refused the enticement i have such a stubborn child!

Me too! I've tried this with Tom and he wasn't having it either! So much for negotiation

 

[QTPie]

So it wont make either you feel any better if sometimes I bribe with cooked broccoli then???

*you can have another piece of broccoli IF you eat your cottage pie"...

Yes I know that my son is very odd!

Your LO is younger than mine, but another thing that can work for us is saying "do you want some pear?". He will say yes and I say "ok, a spoon of fish pie (or whatever), first" and then I alternate a spoon of main course with a piece of pear. That really works with DS.

I had to laugh when i read that. We tried that we Esther and she'd get all excited about the thing we were using to entice her with but when she realised she had to eat a spoon of dinner to get it she totally refused the enticement i have such a stubborn child!

Me too! I've tried this with Tom and he wasn't having it either! So much for negotiation

 

[hattiehippo]

So it wont make either you feel any better if sometimes I bribe with cooked broccoli then???

*you can have another piece of broccoli IF you eat your cottage pie"...

Yes I know that my son is very odd!

Now that would work with Tom if it was broccoli cake!

 

[QTPie]

Broccoli cake??!

Saying that, who would have believed that Carrot Cake was so amazingly delicious?

So count me in for a slice of broccoli cake!

Now that would work with Tom if it was broccoli cake!

 

[pinktaffy]

i leave my little girl in her high chair(well table and chair) till she says all done.


my little girl had a high low highchair that turned into a table and chair so she uses it like that now only we still use the harness on the chair.

 

[RachA]

So it wont make either you feel any better if sometimes I bribe with cooked broccoli then???

*you can have another piece of broccoli IF you eat your cottage pie"...

Yes I know that my son is very odd!

Your LO is younger than mine, but another thing that can work for us is saying "do you want some pear?". He will say yes and I say "ok, a spoon of fish pie (or whatever), first" and then I alternate a spoon of main course with a piece of pear. That really works with DS.

I had to laugh when i read that. We tried that we Esther and she'd get all excited about the thing we were using to entice her with but when she realised she had to eat a spoon of dinner to get it she totally refused the enticement i have such a stubborn child!

Me too! I've tried this with Tom and he wasn't having it either! So much for negotiation

Lol that is excellent. DS is a bit like that. Give him a roast dinner and the only but he willingly eats is the veg!

 

[bungle]

I leave DD in the highchair til she gets bored. I have found recently that she'll only eat sandwiches off a fork!! Sometimes she's happy for me to help her, sometimes she wants to be little miss independent and do it all herself. If she whines as soon as she gets in the chair then I try to distract her but I never give her an alternative - don't want to get her thinking she can decide what's on the menu. I'm very lucky though cos she'll eat pretty much anything. It also helps sometimes if I pretend I'm sharing her food and then she'll often try and feed me, bless! X

 

[amygwen]

Mine's 17 months and isn't that great of an eater, but he does eat and he's gaining weight so I'm fine w/ that. I usually give him about 15-30 minutes to eat, depending on how much he needs. My niece on the other hand is such a slow eater, it takes her like an hour to eat a meal.

 

[llsarahll]

i let ryan tell me when he is finished he will either shake his head to say no or throw everything on the floor lol xx