Slow Eater

Studies show that people who eat slower often eat less and are less likely to be overweight. So, I guess my question is, why do you want her to speed up? If you know it takes her longer to eat, then allow for enough time in the schedule to eat (maybe start her before her other siblings). Personally, I think eating in 20 minutes is fast - maybe you could encourage your other kids to eat slower by spreading out the parts of the meal or by having more family conversation about what the kids are interested in. When she gets to school, she'll most likely be forced to eat faster because school lunch periods seem to get shorter and shorter (which is one of the many things wrong with today's education system... but that's an issue for another thread)

I have a 2 year old (one of a set of twins) that is the same way. It would almost be humorous the way he stores food in his cheek like a chipmunk, except it's no fun digging out that food later, since he can hardly just walk around with a big wad of food in his mouth; fingers get bit when they enter boys' mouths...Anyway, I also have a 5 yr old (one of a set of twins) with the same issue of taking forever to eat. You might consider setting the timer as you suggested, but if you are concerned about her nutrition, think about supplementing with pedialyte. But be careful with timing so she does not just wait and fill up with the liquid instead of eating more at the next meal. let her be hungry and see if she doesn't eat better the next meal; consider the pedialyte mixed with milk after dinner; or half in the mid afternoon and half at night. If you don't do something about the timing, you will be really miserable when it's time to get twins dressed and off to school....speaking from experience. good luck.

My son is just a few months older and has the same eating habits. Very slow, tend to store in the mouth. After a visit to our peditrician, just to be sure he was gaining weight, we were referred to Baylor House in Allen for an evaluation. It turns out his jaw is not as strong as it should be and his tongue isnt as developed. Appearently you need your tongue to help move the food to the back of your mouth and then down. So, we have been going for "feeding therapy" for seven weeks now. We have exercise we do with our son to help strengthen the jaw and improve his tongue's flexibility. We are making some progress. My son also refuses to try a lot of new foods (but that could be more indictative of his age), so we are working on that too. We are taking him to the dentist tomorrow to see if there is anything that a dentist would recommend we do. What is interesting is our son goes to pre-school (MDO) program and when he is there he does finish his lunch within the 30 minute time they have for lunch. I do make sure though that I pack his favorite foods. I hope this helps. I found it helpful to start with the peditrician who gave me the referral.

You should consult a speech pathologist who specializes in oral motor/feeding issues. She may have some trouble coordinating her muscles to chew and swallow. A speech pathologist can help with this.

I would get a timer.

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If you don't nip this habit now, it will get worse when she goes to school. She's also going to have eating time limits at school for lunch, so she needs to learn now. Good luck!

EDIT: I do have to agree with Sarah W. She has a really good point. It's not about how much you eat...it's about what you eat. You could still give her a time limit that's a bit longer, and then supplement with vitamins & such.

My son has this problem too where he takes forever to eat. When he is eating I just keep reminding him to take bites and I let him finish. (Even though it annoys me that he takes so long) When he is at preschool there is limited time so the teachers always start him first and then when meal time is over he has to stop with the class.
Sometimes they save his food in his lunchbox (if that is possible without spoiling) and he will eat it after school.
Maybe try to give her smaller portions more frequently. That might help her??? I feel your pain though lol. It is especially annoying at restaurants. :)

My son did the same thing, and it drove me crazy...He seemed to have problems swallowing early on. He choked on Cheerios almost every time because he'd over stuff his mouth because he was so hungry. I'd try to feed him more often and to remind him to not over stuff his mouth with food. That helped a little. As he got older, I noticed that if he didn't like the food he would chew it until it was too gross to swallow. Then I made him spit it out in the trash, which I hated doing. I tried the timer, and it seemed to make it worse. I gave him his favorite drink to wash it down, but it didn't seem to help. He ended up filling up on his drink instead of his food. He was on Pediasure drinks a lot when he was younger (btween ages 1 and 3yrs. old) because I worried he didn't eat enough. He ate more when I stopped giving him that. I tried giving him food alternatives, but I hating making separate meals for him. I think it became a control issue when he got older, and I let it go. He eventually out grew it. He's age 6 now. He rarely does it anymore unless he doesn't like it. I discourage him by not allowing a dessert afterwards. I have to say it sure was interesting to see the responses to this. He might have had problems with chewing, and I didn't really understand that. I thought it was a bad habit or a control issue. He's better at trying new foods because he finds that he likes them usually and I call it something fun (like logs for carrots). He eats pretty well now as long as it's food he likes. Good luck!

Hi B.,

As a pediatric occupational therapist who works with kids with feeding problems I can tell you that it could be a number of things. One may be behavior, but least likely. It sounds as though she is having oral motor difficulties. This is when the tongue, jaw, lips, cheeks, etc are not working together well to get food down which can be caused by weakness in any or all of the above or can be a motor processing issue. You can start by getting an evaluation by a speech or occupational therapist that specialize in feeding. You may have to eventually get a swallow study. If for some reason a child is having difficulty swallowing and it doesn't feel good going down, no matter how hungry they might be they may be very reluctant to swallow and therefore, hold their food in their cheeks. Good luck and let me know if you have any questions!!!

My Mom use to tell a story about my sister who ate so slow she only finished one half of a sandwich during lunch at school. Mom was very concerned because my sis was tiny. Mom took my sister to have blood work done to find out if she was absorbing adequate nutrition and no bugs. The Dr told her to give her half a sandwich and to stop fretting that when she is hungry she will eat more and pick up the pace. The only other change my Mom made was to be sure the food options in our lunch were very nutritious as well as our dinners and a daily vitamin that tasted like a sweetart. Eating slow isn't a bad thing, I had to teach my child that while at home (vs school lunchtime) there was time for him to chew his food and relax. A girlfriend started supplementing with the Pediasure type drinks and that became a problem for her slow eater because that was all the child would eat. She was told to do the timer but to teach her to pace herself to finish right as the timer goes off. That kept all the kids from creating a competition of eating too fast. Eventually they used the clock on the wall and used the opportunity to teach time, ex: you need to be finished in 30 minutes when the big hand is on the 6. Then she would ask the kids, How much time do you have left, 10 minutes etc. Hope you find a way to make this work for you and your daughter. Some people just function slower than other but I would find a way to clear the food from the jaws after leaving the table by gargling with water or something. Dental problems are no fun no matter the age. Best of life to you.

I would have her evaluated to see if any problems such as development of the required for chewing and swallowing. Also for sensitivity issues. If all is well let her eat at her own pace if you are at home. Other times at school or out to eat let her know that she has so much time to eat and then supply her with snacks to make sure that she is getting enough. learn to pick your battles but let go when it comes to food and sleep.