My 6YO takes over an hour to eat meals!

[emmak86]

Ive been having problems for over a year now with my son at mealtimes...

He always says hes full and doesnt want anymore, he takes forever to chew and overchew a mouthful! He takes over an hour most nights to eat.

Ive tried telling him hell go straight to bed if he doesnt eat but he just started to say 'im goin to bed' to get out of it!
If i stay at the table with him i just get very frustrated and tell him to hurry up, but if i leve the table and go back in to check on him hell just be sitting there!

Ive tried telling him hell have no snacks or anything if he doesnt eat but it doesnt work either :/

HELP!

Does he need smaller portions? He's old enough to serve himself from serving dishes so that he can decide for himself how much he can eat.

Why are you insisting he eats food he clearly doesn't want to eat? If he'd rather go to bed than continue eating I would let him go. In fact I would simply let him get down from the table.

Does he fill up on snacks between meals? Depending on the time of your evening meal he probably needs some fruit or a biscuit at the end of school but nothing else so I would cut out all other snacks and then allow him to decide how much to eat at mealtimes. If he really needs snacks make the healthy things you would be happy to offer as part of a meal. Then you can worry less about what he eats later on.

I can't imagine how awful it must be for him to sit for all that time trying to swallow food he really doesn't want to eat. I would be gagging.

It isn't your job to make him eat his meals. It is your job to offer him a balanced diet and allow him to take from it what he chooses to eat. You need to let him take the lead and decide for himself how much to eat at each meal.

If you keep making him sit and finish he could develop serious issues about food which cause him big problems in the future.

I had a friend whose son was exactly the same. She by chance checked his throat and saw he had a big growth on his tonsil. Wasn't anything nasty but obviously affected him, he had to have his tonsils out in the end but was a much better eater after that.

If he isnt hungry, take his food away and dropbthe subject. Forcing a child to eat is pointless, time consuming, and control freaky, please stop for your sanity and yyour son's.

Could he be tongue tied? ds1 used to swallow a lot of air when chewing and would say he was full after a few mouthfuls. He would also be visibly bloated.

He also wouldn't eat anything that required much chewing. If the tongue is restricted, moving the food about the mouth to chew properly is very difficult and swallowing can be difficult too. DS1 improved dramatically after his tongue tie was released (it wans't done properly, but it was done enough to make a difference)

Please don't punish him, it really could be something physical rather than him doing it to annoy you.

My ds aged six is the same. We think it's funny that he can take ten mins to chew mashed potato, he can keep food in his mouth sucking it to death for ages.

Tbh I just give up. He eats at the table with me and then when I've finished I'll normally say eat a few extra mouthfuls but then let him get down.

However he has now started the habit of leaving some food and then later asking for a snack. I asked him why he does this because if your hungry you eat your dinner not leave it. He told me its because he gets bored eating!

he gets half an hour and if he is hungry later then tough

providing you have ruled out physical causes as above

chances are if he isn't eating meals he is either snacking or filling up on liquids

yes some children have food issues, but some see it as a perfect way to get parents attention

if you feel bad about the no snacks then offer fruit/carrott sticks etc -if he rejects these then he isn't actually hungry

Let him get down from the table if he says he's had enough, end of story. Keeping him at the table and trying to make him eat more is counter-productive - I have seen some shocking food issues created within my extended family through a mother creating a big deal over mealtimes. If he says he's done, he's done. He's a big boy and old enough to know when he's hungry and when he's not. Break this cycle now.

I would let him down too if he's saying he's had sufficient.

I would be giving him his dinner at about 4.30 and maybe an apple at 7 before bed and then no other snacks at all at any other times. If he says he's hungry say, 'I'll start dinner/breakfast/lunch or 'lunch will be in a couple of hours' or whatever is appropriate.

Perhaps you could write down everything he eats over a period of a couple of days. So you know where you are.

wow so the overall consensus is to let him get down when hes done...got that loud and clear!!

today after looking online ive limited him mealtimes to half an hour..and said if hes not had his dinner by then he has to leave it, and no snacks tomorrow...so far he has eaten both lunch and dinner in the time limit and hes eaten it all!

see, I'm good me

lets hope it continues :)

My 6 yr old takes over an hour too but it is more a case of her chatting as well as eating.