I have tried everything to get my 8 year old to eat meals in a reasonable time. I dread dinner everyday.Help!

Question

I have tried everything to get my 8 year old to eat meals in a reasonable time. I dread dinner everyday.Help!

Answer 1

Have you gotten her checked out medically?  Sometimes there are physical reasons for slow eating.

Barring that I'd let her sit at the table and eat as long as she needs to.  But she'd also have to clean up after herself.  I have one slow eater, but she's not so terrible it that it bothers me.

Answer 2

Let the kid clean up after his/herself if they take too long or eat at a bad time.

Answer 3

1.  If on, turn the TV and/or radio off.

2.  Put three bites of each entree on the plate-she can ask for seconds of her favorite foods after she has cleaned her plate of all.  In other words, do not overwhelm her with huge portions.

3.  Make the dinner a family time for every member of the family; be it just the two of you, or more.

4.  When the family is finished [1 hour], pick up the plates and carry them to the kitchen sink.

5.  Give her a small snack [fruit] and a small glass of milk prior to bed.  No in between meal snacks.

6.  Praise her when she completes her meal...do not belittle her when she does not.

When she is hungry, she will eat.  Do not argue with her, or make a big deal of it.  YOU are the adult and YOU make the rules.

Answer 4

You really need to say if your kid is eating too fast or too slow and some information about what you consider a reasonable time would be helpful.

Answer 5

mealtime should be family time, a time to share with each other the days events. if you are dreading dinnertime, your child is probably dreading it too.  dont force the child to eat, you making a big deal out it will come back to bite you. the child sees you stressing over food, there could be complications later in life with the child. make it fun, make it lighthearted take the burden off , see what happens.

Answer 6

Who ever finishes last has to do dishes?

Answer 7

When dinner time is over it is over. Take the plate away. She will learn quickly that she needs to eat within the given time. I am sure that at lunch time in school they dont let her sit there and eat while everyone else goes back to class. Explain it to her that way. If you think say an hour is reasonable amount of time to eat, then tell her hey it is 6pm now, by 7pm you need to be finished or I will take the plate away and you wont get to finish the rest. Then if she complains later that she is hungry say Im sorry you should have finished your dinner when you had the chance.

Trust me it will only take a time or two for her to realize that you mean business and if she wants to eat she needs to do it then.

Answer 8

Not sure what you mean by "A reasonable time".  Basically what we did in a similar case was that we set the meal time, ate and whoever did not eat went hungry till morning.  Skipping a meal isn't going to kill the kid.  If you child is taking too long to eat, just serve your meal, eat and tell the child they can either sit by themselves and finish their meal while you go do something else or they can say they are done and wait till morning to eat again.  Either way, kids get the message soon enough and adjust without it having to be a big deal or bribery.

Answer 9

WHAT have you tried?

Make what you want your child to eat. Tell them before the meal that they have a certain amount of time to eat their dinner (say, 25 minutes) and whatever they have not eaten after that time goes back in the fridge until the next meal, and they are not allowed to have anything else before the next mealtime. If they are that hungry they will eat it. If they refuse to eat it fine, but they get nothing for the rest of the day.

Answer 10

Stop putting a time limit on dinner.  Actually it is best for the digestion to eat more slowly.  Also you might want to give the child smaller portions, they can always go back for more if they are still hungry.