S L O W Eaters

Are they eating the whole time or are they playing, talking?

They should be eating most of the time.. If they are playing, watching TV, talking.. cut all of that out..

Don't feed them till theyre actually hungry and make sure the portion size is appropriate..... I've never seen a hungry child eat too slow :)

OH my, it's not easy being a slow eater! I'm super slow, always the last to finish and I have one kid who is like that too. Hurrying doesn't help, I just cannot chew and get my food down any faster, it gives me an upset stomach. I hate that it takes me so long to eat, I'd rather use my time doing something else! Uh, so I tend to multi task, like read and answer mamasource questions while I chew and chew and chew.

Why do you want them to eat faster? Fast food and fast eating is what causes obesity (I am in now way saying you feed your kids fast food I was merely comparing the two ideas).

If they take their time and chew properly, then good for them! It means they'll learn healthy habits.

I have always been a slow eater and guess what? It's actually better for you to eat slower.
(Take THAT, mom!)
Meaning my own mother.
It used to irritate my mother to no end that I lingered over meals. Not goofing off, just eating slowly.
To this day, my biggest meal of the day is dinner, and that's supposed to be bad for you, weight wise, but I just can't rush to eat. It upsets my stomach, I don't enjoy what I'm eating. I nibble throughout the day and take my dang sweet time, relaxed, enjoying my evening meal.
I went to a family reunion a year ago and my cousin said she had never seen anyone eat so slowly in her life.
What's the hurry? Where's the fire?
If kids aren't being fussy or refusing to eat something, they're just taking their time, I don't think they should be punished or have their food taken away or timed like it's some kind of race. It might be a little inconvenient, I know my mother thought so. She cooked, she wanted everything done, cleaned up and put away an hour later. I was like, "Gosh, Mom."
I have kids, I understand wanting stuff done in a certain amount of time, but I rush, rush, rush all day and I don't think it's good to rush through meal times.
I don't know if there's a correlation, but I'm very thin. Five days a week, my biggest meal of the day is dinner.
I love food. I want to enjoy it. Maybe your kids are the same way.

Best wishes.

Use a timer, one they can see. When my son was in public elementary school, they had these huge clocks on every table and for the first 15 minutes NO ONE is allowed to talk. This encouraged the kids to eat instead of talking. The last 15 minutes they could talk.

If you wanted to a timer you would show them when the clock hits here, we are done, and then when the timer goes off, you take their plates. no fuss, no muss. You've told them, it's up to them to fit their food eating in the 30 minutes time frame. Make it a race of sorts, not to the point they gulp down their food but you know what I mean. My boys would do just about anything if they thought it was a race or a timer was involved.

Stick to your guns Mom.

why are we needing to rush our children thru their meals? I grew up in a household where our meal times were 'family time'. We TALKED, debated, looked things up in the encyclopedia, and read a loud...all while eating dinner. (Family of 8)
I hate when I go out to eat and am rushed by the wait staff, or at my husbands family's house and we spend more time dishing the food out, then they spend sitting and shoveling it into their mouths. I have just finished seasoning my food to my satisfaction and they are putting their dishes into the dishwasher.
That being said- does their breakfast taking them this long? Are they drinking too much during the day? Are they chewing slowly, are they watching TV while eating?

I was such a slow eater growing up. I wold take about an hour (on average) to eat any normal meal. (That is with me focused on eating... not playing, not chatting, just eating.) It didn't matter if it was food I liked, food I disliked, whatever. I was just slow. I took small bites, chewed slowly, and chewed a lot. My parents tried taking food away after an appropriate amount of time passed, but I started losing a lot of weight because then I wasn't getting the nutrition I needed. (I lost 10 lbs in the 2 months they stuck with it.) I COULDN'T eat faster. They also tried punishing me... didn't help. My step-mom went so far as to threaten to cut off my hair (I had really long hair that I loved) and even that didn't help. Bribery didn't work either. Eventually they gave up and just let me take my time. I would just sit at the table by myself to finish. I grew out of it eventually, now I am what I would consider an average-speed eater. :)

My daughter has three types of "eating days" that I have noticed. There are the times when she's an angel. She likes her food, uses manners and eats while enjoying a conversation. There are the days when she's just not hungry or "into" her food. I encourage her to eat and suggest a few more bites but eventually just let her be done. She doesn't ask for dessert (ever) on those days so I know she's just not hungry or whatever. And then there are the days when she's being a little imp. Pushing my buttons re: manners, not eating, goofing around and just generally being a pest. Those days I ask her TWICE to eat with manners. After that I set the timer on the stove for 5 minutes and when that time is up I take her plate away. She is not starving to death if she's not eating and goofing around! She usually puts up a little fight but I don't give in (by this time she's usually eaten at least 1/2 of what's on her plate). Normally she just eats and we move on!
Good Luck!

To those who are not aware, some kids are just slooooowwww eaters. My otherwise extremely energetic and lively girl is this way. And it doesn't matter if she is really into what she's eating. As a matter of fact, I don't like to give her ice cream cones or popsicles because they invariably melt all over the place because she eats them toooo slllooooowwww. sigh.

This will probably serve her well in the future. But it's a tad frustrating now.

No ideas for you. Just empathy.

I do think a half hour is a reasonable amount of time (of course the portion sizes need to be correct for a child) I have done lunches in kindergarten and preschool classrooms where kids would take 2 hours to eat if i let them and if there wasn't something fun to do dangling in front of them.

I don't feel you are asking them to bolt their food, BUT to be attentive to the task at hand. Although having conversation at dinner that doesnt' consist of "stop poking your sister, put your napkin down, watch you don't spill your milk, stop telling jokes now, take a bite of peas" would be great,too. You just need a balance. and i think taking a plate away shows that if they are hungry they will eat and if they aren't hungry they can eat at the next meal.

take away their food after 30 minutes. they will get the hint in a few days. count it down for them, "i am going to take your food in 10 min. ok, now it is 5 min." and so on. i am not saying rush them, but an hour is way way too long.

We went through this with our 2 older children. This actually sounds cruel, but it worked. We in no way wanted to rush the kids for fear that they wouldn't learn to enjoy the food, but we started using a timer on them. They hated it! But, they knew that if they didn't finish by the time it went off, no more food. Also, if they failed to finish the food, nothing after wards, like before bedtime snacks. We make popcorn a lot in the evening and they wouldn't get any if they didn't finish. It's all about consistency and standing behind what you said. It worked and they now eat with in a reasonable amount of time. Every once in a while we have to remind them to eat and stop talking or playing, but it's only occasionally now - also, it's the middle child and a younger sibling at this point, the oldest now eats us out of house and home. Good luck!

set a goal, make it a contest, set a timer. Just make sure you give them PLENTY of time to eat. You don't want them growing up trying to rush at eating either. are they playing while eating, just stalling or why is it taking so long? If they are truly just chewing longer, then let them take their time but if they are goofing off, set a new rule and stick with it.

I've always been a slow eater, and eat smaller portions. Ya know what? A few years ago I heard about some diet that involved eating slowly & eating smaller portions.... darn I should have patented that! LOL I thought, hmm, I've been doing that since I was, what, 2? haha

If I try to eat any faster, I'll get sick.

My daughter goes through days where she will eat fast, and days she will eat slower. Some days she hungrier than others.

If your kids are playing instead of eating, then I guess that's a different story! haha