DD turned 4 last month. She has never been a big eater, but things have become unbearable (for me and her nanny) in the past month or so. She has a fairly limited repertoire of foods that she will eat, though we have slowly expanded the list. She refuses to eat any vegetables, though is completely aware that we "hide" carrots in her bolognese. On the plus side, she is a very good fruit eater, drinks alot of milk, and I hope that we fill the other gaps in her diet by giving her a daily multivitamin.
Here's the problem - she takes FOREVER to eat each meal. She will take a few bites, and then dawdle, procrastinate and delay. We have endless sips of water, requests for tissues (to blow nose), chattering, requests for cuddles, etc. Sometimes I sit and literally say "take another bite" for every mouthfull until she's finished. Sometimes I feel so frustrated that I resort to shovelling the food into her mouth bite by bite. Left to her own devices, she'll often take a bite, and then sit with the food in her mouth without chewing or swallowing. She usually will not eat anything when she goes for a playdate, or when we're invited over to someone's house.
I feel I have tried everything. There is no tv on. She doesn't snack between meals. She knows that if she doesn't eat, she doesn't get pudding (and the only thing she eats with gusto and without hesitation is sweets). I am not trying to get her to eat big quantities or to eat things she doesn't like. She's even slow to eat the things she's requested!
Part of me thinks these tactics are attention seeking - but fgs, she's an only child, and when I'm not with her, she has a nanny - so she gets alot of one-on-one time. I have hesitated to make mealtimes an issue, because I haven't wanted to sow the seeds of an eating disorder....if that's even how they start.
Anyway - our new strategy is that when she sits down to eat, I will set the timer. If she finishes in 20 minutes she will get a pudding/sweet. If she hasn't finished, I will leave the room and she will sit alone until she has eaten her food. I'm not sure that this is the way to proceed, but I have to try something as we can't go on as we have been.
Any thoughts/suggestions would be most welcome. Help! Anyone else been here and found a solution?
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Behaviour/development
Eating Problems - I Dread Mealtimes
15 replies
Earlybird · 18/03/2005 21:04
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18/03/2005 21:11
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