How long are mealtimes?

[melonribena]

My 12 mth old ds seems to spend ages in his high chair! Today it took him 45 mins to eat sweet and sour chicken, veg and rice with pudding of grapes and fruit loaf.

Is this normal? He eats mainly with his hands, but will let me spoon feed a bit and is also practising spoon feeding himself - with limited success!

Sometimes I need to check its still the same day as when I put the plates on the table.

Ds2 is on an hour and five minutes so far right now. This time has included the tiniest lick of one piece of pasta, followed by twenty minutes of crocodile tears, protestations of how much he hates the food, attempted negotiations of how much he has to eat, 'time to rest' before he contemplates eating any and increasingly stern "You have two choices- eat the food or go to bed hungry" statements from me.

He's 5.6 and used to be such a good eater- maybe it'll work the opposite for you- bad now, but great later on!?

I read somewhere that after about half an hour they're probably not going to eat much more, so I usually clear it away at that point and offer pudding.

I try not to make a fuss, with either child, just quietly take the leftovers away and get pudding out. If ds (2.5) messes about though or refuses to eat, then I say, "Dinner in bin, no pudding." and leave it there.

Oh I'm glad it's not just me! 30 mins is a good cut off time though! Between napping and eating we don't seem to do much else!

Yep, we average out between 30-45mins for lunch and tea too.

at TSSDN. So know that feeling...

DD (22 months) is normally pretty good, averaging about 20-30 mins incl pudding. However, last 2 weeks have been food battle central and today's dinner lasted 1hr 15 mins (that's for main course only). I would normally clear food away after 30 mins as well, but she didn't eat a big breakfast, didn't even try lunch, so got the same for dinner and told she had to eat it. It's something I know she would normally like! She definitely takes after her mother in stubbornness. Luckily, I have my phone to give me smth to do while I sit there making sure the plate doesn't get thrown at me/floor yet again!