Anyone got any tips on how to speed up a slow eater?

[MonkeyJungleConga]

DD2 is such a slow eater. She fusses and mucks around despite me being there to stop her. It is taking her an hour or more to eat each meal and quite frankly I've had enough of it.

Any tips?

She's 5.5yrs

Tell her how long she has, put a timer on the table so she can see how long she has, then take the meal away at the end of the time no matter how much she has/hasn't eaten. No cajoling/ telling off etc - no talk about food at all. She's old enough to understand a timelimit imo

I was a slow eater. I still am, it takes me around 45minutes to eat my dinner. I can't really eat any faster. There are benefits though, slow eaters are less likely to suffer from obesity.

I had one of these! :) She's still slow now (7 1/2) but much better than she was at that age.

I reduced her portion sizes (she wasn't a really big eater and I think sometimes she was over faced - that's dh for you). I tried to ignore some of the 'conversations' she tried to engage me in - maybe a bit of an avoidance strategy on her part - and other times told her I would speak to her when she'd finished eating. I confess I did take to loading her fork up for her as a means of trying to keep her moving in the right direction!

Some children are just slower than others but it is damn annoying, especially if you all try to sit an eat together. I have to confess, on occasions, she was left at the table to finish off on her own because everyone else had got sick of waiting for her - bad mother that I am!

is your dd a fussy eater? Mine would always come to the table and before she'd even tasted the food would tell me she didn't like it. Having said that, even when it was something she did like she was still slower than everyone else!

My DS2 is very slow/easily distracted, I have done sticker charts/timers for eating and when we have a timer plus sticker chart it does get better BUT afterwards he does just revert to slowness.

I do give him smaller portion sizes and make no comment about the food. But if he pushes it away when I know it's something he likes, I will half the portion size again and say he has to eat it, because then at least he ahs eaten something.

Well we've started a timer thing. But I'm convinced that she just eats the stuff she wants in that time and deliberately leaves the less appealing (and of course healthier) items on the plate.

Similarly I sometimes don't engage with her whilst she's eating. But if anything she tries harder to get my attention.

She's not a particularly fussy eater but has always had a low level dislike of protein in any form, except fish and sausages.

This is probably bad advice, from again another bad mother, but I read a book to DS. It really speeds him up.

Playing lively music may help. The restaurants do this at busy times so the tables can be turned more quickly.