Feeding herself

[gingerbabe]

My dd is 2 and a half, and is still reluctant to feed herself the whole meal. I know I am partly to blame in this, because she has always been a skinny little thing and I worry that she's not eating enough, so when she gets bored of feeding herself I take over and then she will eat the rest of the meal.

Any tips on how to encourage her to eat it all by herself? If I say to her "if you don't feed yourself you're not having anymore" she seems to just be quite happy with that, and then I get all concerned that she's not eating enough.

Does she ever eat with other children? I have found that dd (16 months) has become much better since she has been at nursery and obviously sees the others feeding themselves. Even if she doesn't go to nursery, maybe you could arrange to have other children around at lunchtime to help encourage her.

I thinks that is really good advice lisaj. Also do you have family meals? Could you make them longer a kind of social occasion so that the food stays in front of her?

What about when she says she wants you to feed her say "Okay but mummy has to just go and.... you carry on and I'll help you in a minute"

What about a little table and chair of her own and tell her she is such a big girl now she can eat all her dinner at her special table

I would say definately don't make it an issue, she will have you wrapped around her little finger, try and manipulate her without drawing attention to "the issue"

Hope this helps, just the thoughts of a rambling mad woman!

I don't know very much as I only have one DD and she's only 18 months old, but have learnt that when she's with my childminder and their kids she'll eat stuff she's never eaten at home, I suppose because she's busy watching them and not on what she's eating and is less bored at the table than when she's on her own with me.