THE ONLY REASON YOUR BABY IS A SLOW EATER
WHY DOES YOUR BABY EAT SLOWLY AND WHAT TO DO ABOUT IT?
Here are common reasons your little one is a slow eater.
1. JUST LEARNING HOW TO CHEW.
If you just introduced solids or changed the texture to a thicker one, your baby is learning to chew, swallow, eat with a spoon, etc. The child develops these new skills gradually, it is difficult and unusual for him, and so the feeding process can be delayed.
WHAT TO DO?
- Be patient, give your child time to learn, help, and assist. Do not rush and do not scold, otherwise, you can scare the child and provoke refusal to eat or discourage the desire to learn a new skill.
- If the problem is that the consistency is not suitable for your baby (he hardly eats literally a spoon), then you simply adapt the consistency to a more suitable one at the moment (smaller pieces, softer, etc.)
2. BABY IS USED TO STRETCHING MEALS.
Your child always eats 30-40 minutes. This is a habit that the mother creates: she keeps the child at the table, waits for the baby to eat the last spoon, allows her child to play with food and does not eat at the same time, etc. Your child knows that he is not limited in time, that the meal will not end until he wants it to.
WHAT TO DO?
- Gradually reduce the meal time (5 minutes each): 30 minutes - 25 minutes - and so on. That is, you finish the meal, regardless of whether the child has eaten enough or not, so that your baby understands that the food is limited both in quantity and in time.
- Do not hold your baby at the table with words like “you will not leave the table until you finish it,” “you have not eaten yet, eat up and let's go,” and so on. Finish the meal as soon as your child makes it clear that HIS meal is over.
3. NOT GETTING ENOUGH OF MOMMY'S ATTENTION.
When a mother works, studies or for other reasons cannot give enough time to her child during the day, the baby can consciously stretch the meal, because, as a rule, it is during the feeding process that the mother is fully focused on the child, she watches, participates, listens.
WHAT TO DO?
- Give enough attention to your child throughout the day. Or, for 0.5-1 hour before a meal, drop everything you are doing and play, communicate with your baby so much that he “gets bored”, and so that by the beginning of the meal he would be interested not in his mother, but in his food.
4. BABY IS FULL.
The child has eaten some amount of food, and then begins to be distracted, fidget, plays with his fingers, waits for the food to be taken away, etc.
WHAT TO DO?
- Be aware that your child has had enough and in no case should you keep him at the table, he will not eat any more, and he will get negative associations for the rest of his life (everyone remembers a phrase from childhood: "you will not get up from the table until you finish your meal!" )
5. CANNOT CONCENTRATE ON ONE ACTIVITY FOR A LONG TIME.
Children under 6-7 years cannot concentrate on anything for a long time, and the younger a child is, the less time he can devote to one type of activity. Many mothers who are engaged in developmental activities know that only a small amount of time of about 10 minutes is allotted to one "developmental" activity, then the baby will no longer be interested.
WHAT TO DO?
- Limit the meal to a small portion of food (the one that is necessary for the child and is eaten by them in those same 10 minutes) and do not form the habit of stretching the meal, if it is not in the tradition of the family. Do not hold your child at the table, even if you eat longer.
Thus, faced with a problem of when a child slowly eats, first of all you should try to understand the cause, do not push, do not rush the baby, also do not hold your child forcibly at the table, do not form the habit of stretching the meal and make sure that food intake is always limited (optimal time - 10-15 minutes).
Here are common reasons your little one is a slow eater.
1. JUST LEARNING HOW TO CHEW.
If you just introduced solids or changed the texture to a thicker one, your baby is learning to chew, swallow, eat with a spoon, etc. The child develops these new skills gradually, it is difficult and unusual for him, and so the feeding process can be delayed.
WHAT TO DO?
- Be patient, give your child time to learn, help, and assist. Do not rush and do not scold, otherwise, you can scare the child and provoke refusal to eat or discourage the desire to learn a new skill.
- If the problem is that the consistency is not suitable for your baby (he hardly eats literally a spoon), then you simply adapt the consistency to a more suitable one at the moment (smaller pieces, softer, etc.)
2. BABY IS USED TO STRETCHING MEALS.
Your child always eats 30-40 minutes. This is a habit that the mother creates: she keeps the child at the table, waits for the baby to eat the last spoon, allows her child to play with food and does not eat at the same time, etc. Your child knows that he is not limited in time, that the meal will not end until he wants it to.
WHAT TO DO?
- Gradually reduce the meal time (5 minutes each): 30 minutes - 25 minutes - and so on. That is, you finish the meal, regardless of whether the child has eaten enough or not, so that your baby understands that the food is limited both in quantity and in time.
- Do not hold your baby at the table with words like “you will not leave the table until you finish it,” “you have not eaten yet, eat up and let's go,” and so on. Finish the meal as soon as your child makes it clear that HIS meal is over.
3. NOT GETTING ENOUGH OF MOMMY'S ATTENTION.
When a mother works, studies or for other reasons cannot give enough time to her child during the day, the baby can consciously stretch the meal, because, as a rule, it is during the feeding process that the mother is fully focused on the child, she watches, participates, listens.
WHAT TO DO?
- Give enough attention to your child throughout the day. Or, for 0.5-1 hour before a meal, drop everything you are doing and play, communicate with your baby so much that he “gets bored”, and so that by the beginning of the meal he would be interested not in his mother, but in his food.
4. BABY IS FULL.
The child has eaten some amount of food, and then begins to be distracted, fidget, plays with his fingers, waits for the food to be taken away, etc.
WHAT TO DO?
- Be aware that your child has had enough and in no case should you keep him at the table, he will not eat any more, and he will get negative associations for the rest of his life (everyone remembers a phrase from childhood: "you will not get up from the table until you finish your meal!" )
5. CANNOT CONCENTRATE ON ONE ACTIVITY FOR A LONG TIME.
Children under 6-7 years cannot concentrate on anything for a long time, and the younger a child is, the less time he can devote to one type of activity. Many mothers who are engaged in developmental activities know that only a small amount of time of about 10 minutes is allotted to one "developmental" activity, then the baby will no longer be interested.
WHAT TO DO?
- Limit the meal to a small portion of food (the one that is necessary for the child and is eaten by them in those same 10 minutes) and do not form the habit of stretching the meal, if it is not in the tradition of the family. Do not hold your child at the table, even if you eat longer.
Thus, faced with a problem of when a child slowly eats, first of all you should try to understand the cause, do not push, do not rush the baby, also do not hold your child forcibly at the table, do not form the habit of stretching the meal and make sure that food intake is always limited (optimal time - 10-15 minutes).
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