SSLLOOWW Eater... Suggestions?

Both of my kids are the same way. I let them eat at their own pace. sometimes I'll leave their plates on the table for the evening and they just keep going back and picking at it. Try it out. My kids usually end up eating all of their food but at their own pace. Good luck!

V.,
Have you tried to give him a set amount of time to eat, then at the end of that time give him a 5 minute warning and set a timer (this will prepare his heart to be ready to be done with his meal) If he is not done with his meal once the timer goes off he still needs to leave the table. My son started to develop the art of stalling until I started to use the 5 minute warning and the timer. Now he knows that if he is not done he looses out on the rest of his meal whether it is the main course or dessert that he is working on. I usually give Aaron 30 minutes to eat his meal and use the warning if I am noticing that there is a problem. Sometimes he is upset when he has to leave the table but I don't have any issues with the next meal. I hope this helps. J.

Hi V.
It's nice to know my family isn't alone (sorry for you to be in our boat). My 5 yo is the same way, unless she'd miss playing w/ the girl across the st. It takes her an hour to eat a hot dog no bun! I do get up and clean the kitchen, do laundry what ever I can do close by her. Now I'm not much into tv, we have a limit and all. But I have found she eats better in front of the tv. I know it's not the best habit to form. And I only struggle to get her to eat enough to maintain her blood sugar/mood. Thank god were in pm K or she wouldn't eat before school, and would have a rotten time for it.
I give her protein powder in her rice milk days she won't eat much. We don't allow any processed food snacks, as theres not enough real food in them for such a slow eater. I make most oof our food from scratch so it's the healthiest I can make it, so if she only eats a bit I know she got something real.
I used to use 3 mnm's as a reward for eating dinner.
And the good news is she's getting better about eating.
Good luck! It's hard to see kids eating so little or so slow, but they say they won't starve them selves.
A. H

Dear V. K.,

If your 4-year old son would not be unsafe to leave him sitting at the table alone, I would find other things to do (like wash dishes, etc.) and allow him to eat at his own pace as often as your schedule will allow. Most fat people eat too fast. If we were all very slow eaters, most of us fat people would not have a weight problem.

I say let him eat at his own pace. He will likely be healthier than I am. You could possibly learn something by copying his eating habits.

Sorry you have to get up so early to allow him to have time to eat breakfast and go out the door at 8 a.m., but I don't see a problem with him being such a slow eater.

Now that I am older I wish that I had allowed myself to enjoy the simple things in life while they were happening and not wanted things to rush by as they literally did. I felt like all I did was change diapers when my two daughters were really young, and now they are over thirty and nearly thirty years old.

Enjoy your little one while he is little. He will be grown up and married before you realize it.

L. C.

When we go out to eat I am always amazed by how fast you Americans eat! Take it easy - he is just eating at a European pace! You guys are in and out in 30-45 minutes and we are still there after 1 1/2 hours!
Annoying I know when you need to get out the door in the morning but as another responder said, it gives you more time to chat at the table and catch up as a family. My son eats slowly too and if we really have to be out the door I will set a timer and let him know that when it goes off we have to leave even if we have food left. Doesn't always help but sometimes it will speed him up, especially if it is something he really likes. Good luck!

Let me start by telling u I am 28 and i eat slow i told my doctor about how slow i eat because my sister said i might be losing the nutrions by chewing my food so much my doctor said there is no problem with it i think u should just let him eat as slow or as fast as he wants it takes me about 30-45 minutes to eat a meal and no i dont eat alot i just chew slow i dont do it on purpose i just cant help it ive always ate slow my mom just let me be and your really spost to chew your food 30 times for each moutful anyway i just wanted to share with u that im a adult and i eat really slow i wish u the best

I am going to chime in on what is already being said! My son, who is now 7, has always been a slow eater, exactly as you describe. We still do what some others have written, and that is let him eat slow. As a baby he had reflux and we think that over time he understood that he felt better when he ate very slow. He RARELY has reflux anymore and it could be due to eating slower. My husband is a very fast eater and has alot of gastro issues so if my son eats well, but slow, we feel that is best! Although not always convenient, we remind ourselves of what is best for his little body.

Wow, hard to answer without all the facts, but I'm just going to give some information instead of an answer. Make sure you are checking actual portion sizes. Too many people in America are giving 2-4 times what the portion size should be and expecting their kids to eat it all...not saying that this is what you are doing, just saying too many people in America are doing it and wondering why America is fat. If he says he is full, trust him, but make sure you are offering good food 5-6 times a day. If you do a lot of driving, let him eat in the car. It will keep him busy and give him time to eat while you get to where you have to go. Remember: Sippy cup, dry foods that won't make a mess, and carry wet wipes in your vehicle at all times and an extra set of clothes, just in case.

By the way, my husband and his two kids eat so fast that I don't think they even realize what they ate sometimes...lol. Me and my three eat really slow. I think it is better to eat slow and enjoy the taste of my food. But, to each their own...seems everyone eats at their own pace and there just isn't anything you can really do about it.

Honestly, if more people were slow eaters, we wouldn't have such a crisis on our hand with weight! His brain will tell him when he is full in the right time where we are over-eating by the time we know.

Just hang on to that, I guess.

Good luck!

S.

Hi V.!

I'm responding to you, not as the mother of a slow eater, but as a former super slow eater myself. I chuckled when I read the comment about the soggy cereal flakes, that was me. My poor mother also used to get me up early and I swear it took me 45 minutes to eat about 6 flakes.(we had to be out the door by 7:30) I'm writing you to suggest that, although it is frustrating, it might be better in the long run if you did not make an issue out of his slow eating. Honestly, that is just the way some kids are. If you continue to make an issue out of it, meal times might start to become stressful for him, which will not increase his speed, only his anxiety. Mealtimes became a battleground when I was little, also because I wasn't eating very much. I ate even less, for a while. I would suggest that you just praise him for eating all of his food, no matter how long it takes, and also find other ways to praise him at meal-times or just let him be. My eating speed actually increased when I got closer to puberty, although I still ate slowly. There is an upside to slower eating; people who eat more slowly also tend to manage their weight better because they are more aware of when they are full. In some ways your son is instinctively using healthy habits at a young age and that is to be celebrated! The funny post-script to this is that I married a man who eats far slower than I do now, and sometimes I find it frustrating! The good part is that we are both over 40 and have (so far) maintained our weight, in part because we don't eat very fast.

Hope this perspective helps. Good luck!

M. M.

Giving him extra time was a great idea! He might be more of a grazer or finger food type of kid. I'd definitely stop pressuring him. This should not be a discipline issue! You're probably making it worse by intervening, timing him etc. Actually, the TV might help because he won't focus so much on the food. There are a lot of young kids who dawdle over their food. What you don't want is to make it a battleground, which has already happened. Relax! A lot of kids eat something portable in the car on the way to school/daycare or skip breakfast when they're rushed. Make food available and put him in charge of what he eats. It sounds like it's partly about control (on both your parts) so I'd just give him the control and let it go. He won't starve if there's food available.

Hi V.,
I have the opposite problem. I try desperately to have my son slow down and eat. He has been this way since he was a baby. As much as I try I don't think there is much I can do about it. It's just who he is. He even breastfed this way frantically and often. The same way he eats now.
My husband and I would work with him so much at dinner time to slow down that it just became stressful. That is not the point of family dinners. So now he eats super fast but he still has to sit at the table and chat with us in order to get dessert. He has come to accept this.
He is such a amazing person so if he eats fast I have found it best to just let it be.
I know it is extremely frustrating, I do understand that.
m.