You are here

Is she doing this on purpose??

overwhelmed_underappreciated's picture

Submitted by overwhelmed_und... on Thu, 06/23/2011 - 12:34pm

Forums: 
Parenting Issues

How does it take SD3 2 freaking hours to eat a sandwich and an orange while her 17 mo sister can eat 2x as much food in less than half the time... make that more like 30 min. And when I tell her she needs to take big girl bites and eat faster she starts crying and screaming??

This is really beyond frustrating... I have to plan meal times around how long it takes her to eat... I dont know what to do and taking the food away/no snacks/no sweets thing doesnt seem to work at all. Someone please tell me they have been through this and have some advice!!!

overwhelmed_underappreciated's picture

Submitted by overwhelmed_und... on Thu, 06/23/2011 - 1:58pm

The problem is if she sits there until she is done lunch will never be finished and she will then be irritable and refuse to take a nap and dinner will go on forever. I have tried taking her food away after a certain amount of time-then I worry that she isn't eating enough...

I dont back down. She either stops the screaming and crying or she gets a time-out till she can calm down. If she does not calm herself down in a reasonable amount of time (ie 15 min of crying/screaming fit) she has to go lay in her bed and can cry herself to sleep for all I care.

I just get frustrated because it puts everyone else at an inconvenience for things that we may like to do. We cant feed the kids and then go out and play or whatever because SD will not finish her food. And she eats like a darn bird... putting one mac n chz noodle on her fork at a time and then brags to me and DH that she is "taking big girl bites." And its not just me but DH also gets very frustrated with this behavior. We sometimes resort to spoon feeding her to make sure she is eating and she has to chew eat bite till its liquified before she will swallow. I dont understand how SD1 1/2 can eat twice as much food in half the time with no problem but she just wont freaking eat.

Idk, maybe it is just a kid thing but we are really struggling with maintaining our sanity at all mealtimes with this kid. We have tried no tv, time limits, no snacks, no sweets, just the basic meat and veggies thing and I sometimes feel like a bad parent when SD1 1/2 gets cookies, etc while SD3 has to watch her eat them and I wonder if she gets why it is this way...

briarmommy's picture

Submitted by briarmommy on Thu, 06/23/2011 - 2:02pm

I just posted about this yesterday. One of the people said I should set a time limit and if they don't eat it they don't eat till the next meal, no snacks, no nothing. I tried it for dinner last night and threatened him with it and he ate no problem in the time.

stepmasochist's picture

Submitted by stepmasochist on Thu, 06/23/2011 - 3:38pm

Toddlers have tiny tummies and do usually eat like birds. My SS was this way. I'd take up his lunch and save it for him, if he got hungry that's what he had to eat, no snacks or sweets 'til his lunch was gone. Same with dinner, no dessert if he didn't eat most of it. He could sit for a while after everyone else was done with theirs and if he didn't finish the meal, it'd go in the fridge and he'd finish it when he got hungry later.

Also make sure you're not giving them too much. And some kids don't have the appetite that others do. When SS was 3, he'd get a foldover sandwich about 6 chips and maybe a pickle spear. That'd be lunch.

Also, watch that you're not filling them up on sweetened beverages, like juice. Maybe 4 ounces every 6 hours is more than plenty. My skids drink primarily water - all day long.