Finishing food

[Ghie]

Hello,


What can you advise if your child doesn't finish her food quickly? My 7yr old daughter usually takes an hour before she can finish her meal.

We're encouraging her to finish her food as fast as she can so she won't be late in her school.

I know that I can learn so much from your end.

Thanks.

Jhing

[mom2many]

We generally do not teach our children to eat fast since it can cause issues with metabolism and lead to bad habits. However, I see your point about it being an issue at school. I am very interested to hear how other people would handle this issue in a gentle way.

[ljmarsden]

For children eating food, I believe it is best to follow a gentle approach. So many children and adults have issues with food/ eating disorders in later life and these have been linked (in some cases) to the way they ate meals as a young child.

I would allow your daughter lots of time at this age. Does she eat her meals with you and the rest of the family? This is a good way of teaching children that a meal is a family time, to be enjoyed, and she may copy how you eat if you do this. Also, it is useful to note that lots of children eat slowly - so she won't be the only one at school. When she is at school with others she may eat at a different pace anyway.

[Ghie]

Hi,

Yes we eat along together, Thanks for your post.

[5Homebirths4Kate]

Is your daughter hungry at meal time, or does she eat between meals? Eating between meals can be a very good thing if the snacks or "mini-meals" are healthy ones like cucumber sticks, cherry tomatoes, natural peanut butter on a whole grain cracker, etc.. If she's eating a lot of sweets, crackers and cookies in between meals then she may not be very hungry for healthy foods served at meal time.

Let me know more about her eating habits during the day and I'll see if I can't give some other suggestions.

Warm Regards,

Kate

[AysLittleManMomi]

Hello All,

I already have some questions a while ago and I hope my another concern is allowed to be posted here.

I was told by my son's pediatrician that he must eat now - like rice, fruits, veggies and not just milk alone. I always tried to feed him some food that we usually have in the table, but it seems he doesn't want to eat anything yet. He will just taste the food and then he will take it out and just played with it. All he wanted to have is just soup or his milk.

Do you think I need to force my son to eat some food, since it was suggested by his pediatrician? Thanks for any advise in advance..

Sincerely,
Ays

[ljmarsden]

Hi Ays,

How old is your son? This will help us to answer your question better.

Thanks,

LJ

[ljmarsden]

Hi again Ays,

I've just seen on another post that you say your son is now 15 months old. I would certainly follow your paediatricians advice. By the time your toddler is 18 months old he should be getting around 50% of his nutrients from food and 50% from milk/milk sources: see this link about the nutrients a breastfed toddler gets from food. Is your toddler breastfed or is he having cows or formula milk?

If he has not had much solid food before then you could try purees for the food you give him. This can include: fruit, veg and even meat and rice. Then you could gradually introduce finger food and allow him to try eating this himself. If he has not done this before then do not worry if it takes some time.

You could also mix the milk with the purees if he particularly likes the milk taste.

I hope this helps you - let us know how you get on.

LJ

[AysLittleManMomi]

Hello LJ,

Thank you again for you suggestion I will surely try it out and observe him if he'll love it....

Thanks!
Ays

[5Homebirths4Kate]

I agree with Laura-Jane. Try pureeing the food first and see if he likes this texture better. Please try one thing today and post back to let us know how he liked it.

Warm Regards,

Kate

[Bridge85]

Morning all

My daughter has a habit of spitting her food out half way through her feed and then won't eat anymore after that but it seems that she only eats half of a 250ml bottle of pureed food instead of a full bottle, But straight after her bath at dinner she'll drink a full bottle of milk. and she gets weighed in every month at the clinic and only seems to pick up 300 grams a month. she is 13 months old.

Bridgette

[ljmarsden]

Hi Bridgette,

I was wondering if your daughter may get on better with food that she can feed herself?: like in the Baby Led Weaning approach. Sometimes toddlers like to control what they eat and they spit out food they are spoon fed because they have not been given the chance to explore the texture and feel of the food themselves.

It's also worth noting that, at 13 months old, a baby still gets the majority of her nutrients from milk. Is your daughter having breast milk (expressed - as you mentioned a bottle) or formula or cows/goats milk? So, at this age, it's actually more important to make sure your baby is getting enough milk than food.

Does your daughter eat any 'finger food' at the moment? You could try her with some steamed vegetable sticks. They need to be long enough so the end of the vegetable protrudes about 1.5-2 inches beyond her grip. Cucumber sticks are also a favourite and roast chicken!

Let us know how you are getting on and we can offer you some more advice,

Thanks,

LJ

[ljmarsden]

Dear Ays - I'm so pleased you found this helpful.

Do keep us updated on how your son is getting on, .

[5Homebirths4Kate]

Is your daughter showing any interest in eating foods that you feed her from a spoon? I wonder if she might be more interested in eating if she had interaction from you, playing with her and feeding her from a spoon.

Is she ready for more textured foods rather than purees from a bottle? Are you giving her plenty of variety? If she's getting the same thing time and time again, her body may be lacking nutrients from foods she's not getting (i.e. if she only likes carrots and sweet potatoes and she doesn't like green beans or spinach she may not need any more of the nutrients in the orange foods, and she may be craving nutrients like chlorophyll which is in the green foods.

I'd offer her a little bit of green smoothie and see how she does with that. This will be made from fresh and/or frozen fruits, with a handful of fresh spinach (not cooked), chard, romaine lettuce or other deep green leafy vegetables.

She may love the smoothie which can be given from a straw. I would put the straw into the smoothie and then put my finger over one end of the straw, draw it out of the smoothie and let my daughter suck on the other end while I released the pressure with my finger. All of my children loved green smoothies.

Banana, strawberry, orange juice concentrate (or fresh orange juice), water and a handful or two of baby greens (I use 6 handfuls in mine, but start slow). This would be really good for you to drink too, and just offer some to baby. The only time it would not be good to drink is if you have diabetes or PCOS because this is made with fruit.

Warm Regards,

Kate

[5Homebirths4Kate]

I wanted to add that I agree with Laura-Jane's response to Bridge85 (I didn't see her post before I posted mine).

LJ - Bridge85's 13 month old baby is getting whole cream milk in her bottle.