Slow eating - I’m losing my mind.

[RoseCuntedGlasses]

Over the last couple of months, my 4 year old DD’s eating has slowed to a crawl. You could give her a plate of chips with a side of chocolate and a bowl of ice cream and it would still take her over an hour to eat it. She says she’s hungry and she doesn’t have snacks so it’s not like she’s too full to eat. It’s just such a bloody chore for her.

It’s absolutely doing my head in. I don’t know what to do for the best and I’m really conscious of trying not to give her issues around food, but for fuck’s sake DD, just eat your bloody tea (and breakfast, and lunch). I wouldn’t say that to her, of course. I’ve had to come away from the table and leave her to it because it’s making me cross. Every. Single. Meal.

She starts school in September and I can just picture her sitting in the school hall for the entire lunchtime working through a single sandwich.

So AIBU to want to try and do something about this, or should I ignore it and hope it passes? Have you had a slow eater and how did you change it?

she just get bored of eating and wants to go off and play leaving half her meal

Just let her. If she hasn't eaten enough, she'll have a really good appetite for the next meal and will probably eat more quickly.

Have you had a quick look at her tonsils? If a child has giant tonsils it can make it difficult and hard work to eat.

Don't worry about school, she'll soon realise that if she wants to play then she needs to eat at the same speed as the rest. I would make sure you've got a week when you can be with her at all meals and use the timer 30 mins to eat then its taken away. Nothing between meals. But please, please don't make her clear her plate it gives many kids eating disorders. Try to make it fun like something good will happen once she's eaten it within the 30 mins. She'll soon get the hang of it, she sounds like my daughter attention span of a goldfish and wants to be doing something else.

If seen children take and hour to eat half a sandwich.. That is beyound silly .. there's a difference between being a slow eater and licking your food till it dissolves.

Timer is a good option, but dont make a big thing of it just a time to pack away.

My DD2 has always been like this. As a baby she would just keep the food on her tongue and sit there not chewing. I’d give her desert to try to make her finish her savoury but she’d somehow eat the yoghurt around it. I remember once giving up and taking her for a bath and scooping the unchewed food out of her mouth. At a children’s party she kept one piece of pizza in her mouth for 45 minutes. I kid you not. She is 12 now and still a slow eater and hates anything that needs to be chewed (like beef). She does have extremely large tonsils but has never complained she can’t swallow. School never mentioned any issue with being a slow eater and she’s not super skinny. I just leave her to it now.

Problem with a slow eater at school is they won’t eat enough. Once you get to yr 1 you can leave food and go to play. Maybe try a couple of techniques to practice eating a bit faster.

Yes I did bin perfectly good food after a set time. Dsd (age 12 at the time) was using the slow eating as attention-seeking behaviour (did with support of her dad and wider family as it was ruining all mealtimes - at home and out with family, every time it became everyone focussing on her as she was taking so long - and she lapped it up!). It worked very quickly. Had a long talk to her about it beforehand, explaining why it wasn't acceptable for her to be purposefully dragging mealtimes out up to 2 hours. We'd seen her practically inhale various foods when she thought nobody was watching so knew there wasn't a physical problem.