I spend my whole day at the kitchen table

LisaMarisa · January 2011

We spend about an hour at the table for each meal because DS takes FOREVER to eat. He is too busy playing with his spoon or his face or whatever is within his reach to eat and it drives me nuts! And he isnt ususally done after an hour, I just give up/get frustrated by that point.

How do other moms handle this? Do you put a time limit on meal times?

We've been here for almost 45 minutes already and all he's had is 4 cut up strawberries and 1/3 of a cup of milk. He still has a bowl of kix which he hasnt touched. He is starting to respond to bribes/threats, for example he is asking to watch Mickey and I said not until he eats his breakfast so he took a bite of cereal but this will go on forever for each bite. It drives me nuts!! Help!

dana316 · January 2011

I wouldn't be able to stand that.

I would probably limit him to 30 or 40 minutes...and start telling him he had 'such and such' minutes left, so he needed to make some progress.

I try to follow Caroline's lead on meal times...but if she starts dragging around, I have to assume she is finished eating, and end the meal.

di0607 · January 2011

Hi! How are you feeling? To answer your post DH and I agree that you can set a time limit after which the meal is over. I promise the next meal he will be really hungry. How often does he eat?

BeccaLandes · January 2011

I don't have a toddler, but it sounds like you are rewarding him, in a way. You sit with him, you bargain with him, you are giving him your undivided attention for hours a day... Realistically, once your baby arrives, you won't be able to do that. So might as well stop now! Give him his food, tell him he has x minutes to eat it, and get on with your life. Clean the kitchen, make your grocery list, whatever. When the time is up, get him out of his chair and off to play, and then he can eat again at lunch time. You don't want to turn food into a fight or a bargaining tool. When he's hungry, he'll eat.

LisaMarisa · January 2011

The reason I let him lag for so long is that we could be here for a half hour before he even starts eating. If I didnt sit him down to eat, he would forget to eat so I feel like I need to make him. I really dont think I am overfeeding him. He rarely snacks during the day, it is just 3 meals, because I thought the snacks were affecting his meal time.

He used to be a great eater, he would eat anything and eat it all without a problem. He basically inhaled it. I guess the change happened gradually but I want my good eater back!

I'll start setting a time limit and hopefully over time it will start to work.

Di - I am doing pretty well but starting to get a little nervous now that I am only 3 weeks away! How are you guys?

sasa625 · January 2011

DD is a horrible eater as well... somedays she'll ask to eat, somedays she could go all day without eating (other than crackers, pretzels, and dry cereal of course). But we have the opposite problem... we sit her down to eat and after 2 minutes she's saying "up-y, up-y" and telling us she's done. We encourage her to sit longer, and if I eat at the same time it sometimes helps. But often the food ends up all over hte floor!

Maybe you could set a timer for him (if it works, they even have visual timers so that he can see the time slipping away I work in special ed and we use them all the time) He may just need to break up his meals into smaller meals though. Maybe he's not that hungry. As long as he's growing ok and the pedi isn't concerned, I would try not to worry too much (easier said than done, believe me, I know that!!)

Toddler eating is definitely a challenge, at least in our house!!

WhiteysWifey · January 2011

We do a time limit. If she's not done in 15 minutes (sooner if she's throwing it on the floor), she's done.

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