My child take forever to eat?

Question

I have a soon to be 6 year old who takes anywhere from 1 hour to 3 hours to eat. Does anyone have any advice? Sometimes she will eat faster but only if we are eating at the mall or having terribly unhealthy food, which is not that often. Any help would be great.

Answer 1

Sounds like she is forcing herself to eat. I would suggest keep changing her diet until you see that she is happy with what she eats. I don't suggest you give her the unhealthy food just cook the food in a different way. Try cutting the  food into fun shapes like dinosaurs or rockets and star and moons or whatever animals she likes. It maybe a pain to do every day  but when you see how happy she is it will be worth it.

Answer 2

thats easy just let them eat slowly or if u want them to hurry up just tell them to eat faster!

Answer 3

SHE DOESN'T LIKE THE "HEALTHY" FOOD.

If she enjoys the food you give her, she will eat it faster. I'm sure that there's something out there, that is healthy, that she enjoys eating.

Answer 4

She can't get enough food.

Answer 5

Put a timer on the table.  Set it for 30 minutes.  Anything not eaten in that time gets removed.  Sooner or later, she'll develop the habit of eating at a normal speed.

Answer 6

make the meals more fun.

This doesn't mean that you have to serve unhealthy foods, just give them something to keep them interested.

Arrange the food on the plate so it looks like a face, or an animal or something.

Serve celery with peanut butter and raisins on it, call it ant's on a log.

Things like that will keep the child focused on how many ants they can eat, and therefore speed up the overall eating process.

Answer 7

maybe your cooking sucks and she trying really hard not to disappoint u

Answer 8

I was like that...my parents would get fed up with me.  It's bc of her metabolism, or maybe she doesn't like the food you give her. I just can't swallow well enough...it takes time and I don't have the appetite. That's my nature. On the plus side, she'll stay skinny if she keeps it up.

Answer 9

umm is there any distractions like the tv of toys becasue she may been to distracted to eat. and it may be that she may not like some foods u give her (not trying ot sound mean) try to give her foods that look unhealthy or mabey she likes certain foods (ex salty, sweet) so really u have to experiment alot until u find the corect food for her

Answer 10

Set a timer for maybe 45 minutes.  Tell him that if he eats his food he can have the snack, make sure it's something that really is not too bad and he will eat.  Fruit snacks are good.  Make sure he doesn't have a bunch of food on his plate.  start with small amounts then as it works move it up to a little bigger portions.  Make it doable at first though.  If he hasn't ate it all by the time it dings he doesn't get it.  You sit down and eat them in front of him.  THAT will make him see he won't get them.  The next time he will try harder!

Answer 11

Some kids seem to be this way. You are the parent so what you say goes within reason. I would give her what others are suggesting 30-45 minutes. My mom would try to keep us on track by saying, no talking, eat, things like that. She would take our drinks away. Just be attentive and stay on her. Make her eat, within reason. You will have to use your best judgment and stay with what is going on. Don't be overly strict. It will come to bite you in the end. You can wrap it up and save it for later. So if she's hungry later then tell her that she can finish her dinner.  No sweets or snacks.

Answer 12

My middle DD used to do this too. I just left her food on the table and told her to put her plate on the counter when she was done. We would all eat and leave the table. Then we would go do something fun together. (Family time was after dinner) She adventually started wanting to come do fun things with us so she ate alittle faster. Now she eats just like we do and shes done when we are.

Is it the food shes having a problem with (Picky)? Or is she just a slow eater?

Answer 13

I would just be patient.

I used to do the exact same thing, but now I eat quicker. I think it would be best not to pester her too much, but you could try to explain to her. It may just be one of those things that occur when going through childhood at that age.

Answer 14

Yes, common problem. A lot of kids do this. My niece at this age does the same thing or she takes 2 bites and says she is full.

I notice though, if she helps prepare the meal and is involved with it, when it comes time to eat she wants to eat what she has made and loves the praise and compliments she gets about it.

Wish you the best.

Answer 15

Unfortunately there isn't much you can do without giving her a mental issue with food...

Explain to her that she needs to eat at a reasonable rate but that you are not mad at her...

If she doesn't finish when the rest of the family finishes eating put the food away and have her eat it at the next meal.

DO NOT MAKE HER "CLEAN HER PLATE" because that will make her eat like that for the rest of her life and that has been proven to be part of the obesity problem in the US.

Even if she is still hungry when the rest of the family is done eating, tell her that she will be able to have the rest of it at snack time or at the next meal.

Set a time... Just make sure that the rest of your family isn't eating at a tornadoes pace...

Have EVERYONE take 30 mins or 45 mins.. Then, at the end of that time, EVERYONE stops eating.

She will catch on...

Answer 16

make her chew to a beat

Answer 17

Give her a set amount of time that she has to eat her food in. After 30 mins, the meal is over, and she can't have anything else until the next meal. Don't give her any snacks, etc

She'll soon learn to eat what's put in front of her and to not mess around.

Answer 18

be patient with them

Answer 19

I'd say try to remove all distractions from the eating area; don't leave the TV on, or anything. I also like the idea of setting a timer; set a timer for, say, forty minutes when you sit down to dinner, and when it goes off, remove her plate and don't give her anything else for the remainder of the evening; this should teach her that if she doesn't pick up the pace, she'll go hungry. It may seem kind of mean, but she needs to learn this skill, because when she gets into elementary school, she won't have an hour to eat lunch; more like twenty minutes.

Answer 20

Its just the way some kids are. I use to take 30 min. to eat my dinner and sometimes an hour. While my parents/brother were done in 10-15. I was a slow person and didnt like to eat fast b.c. it hurt my stomach. I'm seriously the same way now. I can eat a full sub but it will take me an hour to finish, it takes my fiance 15 min.

If you seriously think there is a problem, ask her doctor. :o)

Answer 21

She is a kid they all do that. I am staying with a friend right now and we just had this problem last night with her 4 yr old. She is so picky she has eaten this type of food b4 but didnt want to last night, my friend made her stay at the table til she finished her plate, i tried playing  beat the clock with her to get  her to eat it more quickly that didnt work either my suggestion i guess is which is what i do  with my son is he will eat when he gets hungry enough , right?

Answer 22

Lol she is just doing it so you will feed her bad food. Bc kids dont like health food.

Answer 23

Dont allow her to do it.  Simply take the food away from her and don't allow her sweet snacks.  Eventually she will get the hint that she needs to eat what she is given within a reasonable amount of time.  I would give her 30-45 minutes tops though.