Your lo's mealtimes

[PeachBaby]

Mealtimes seem to last forever... so I finally got around to timing it and measuring it. DS (20 months) took one hour to eat 9 Tablespoons of food. At another meal, he took one hour 15 minutes to eat 13 Tablespoons of food. Yet another meal took about 55 minutes to eat 6 1/2 Tablespoons of food.

Things he ate throughout these 3 meals I timed: chicken drumstick, veggie puree, cooked apple, banana, homemade "bread," peach, sweet potato, cooked zucchini and asparagus, canned fish, and pineapple.

Did you ever time your lo's mealtimes and measure how much they eat? I know it will vary greatly, but was curious to know anyway. Seems like a huge portion of the day is just eating, eating, eating!

[haurelia]

How interesting! I'd never thought of timing or measuring the food our kid eats. He's more of a chow-hound though, and eats pretty quickly. He's usually finished with his meal before I am!

Maybe your son enjoys the textures of food and playing with that while he eats and that's what's taking so much time?

[MountainMamaGC]

My DD is a pretty good eater. In general I give her what we eat and I give her 15 min longer than us to eat it. I ask her if she is done and I clean her off. If she says she is not done but seems to be playing with her food I still clean her off. If she doesnt eat I dont really bother her about it.

So on average she takes about 15 min longer than we do. Somedays she asks for seconds and takes longer.

[crunchy_mommy]

Usually DS sits at the table for 5-10 minutes & eats a few bites (1-3 at breakfast/lunch & 5-10 at dinner). He's 18mos but doesn't eat a lot of solids, he prefers breastmilk still... probably eats about 1/2 cup of food a day total, though occasionally more. When he's done he gets down to play (or scream at my feet while I hurriedly finish MY food!) and sometimes he'll eat another bite or two. He eats snacks often too but they rarely last more than a couple minutes.

[baglady]

I have a big eater. Some of the time he's finished with his first plate before I sit down. He's still on the same height/weight proportions as he's always been (much taller than heavy) even with all of the eating.

Some days I think he eats more than me.

[JessieBird]

Sounds about like my guy! He is the slowest eater EVER and barely eats a thing - average would be 7-10 tbs for lunch and dinner with a miniscule breakfast and rarely is he interested in snacks. Somehow he is still at about the 80th percentile for weight and height.

I swore that mealtimes would always be family interaction time but DH and I often end up reading books while we wait for DS to finish, we get so bored and run out of things to say! He also loves being turned to face the window which looks out onto a forest and birds, and then it can take him an eternity to eat the smallest plate ever. He goes to day care now and his care providers told me that he and another little girl are tied for slowest eaters, they take well over an hour at lunch and all the other kids are down for naps before they are done. Too funny!

I don't let it bother or worry me - they say eating slowly is healthiest for all of us.

[Summersquash]

DD is a slow eater too! Especially when she's hungry, it takes her forever to finish. I've never timed it or anything, but it might be around 45 minutes by the time she is done eating. I usually start cleaning things up when she begins playing, but she will seriously sit with me and be in the eating process for 45 minutes sometimes.

[Mal85]

13 tablespoons in one meal? That seems like a lot to me for a little one. I read somewhere that a serving portion for young ages would be 1 tablespoon per year of age. DD is 1.5 years old, so I try to measure her portions by about 1.5 tablespoons. So, if we have a casserole, veggie and a fruit, she'd end up with about 5.5 tablespoons for the meal plus her drink (milk for meals and water in between).

I can't imagine having mealtime last over an hour. I guess it would vary, I've seen some pretty slow eaters. I tend to eat pretty slow too, but the only time it'd take me that long to eat would be if we're at a restaurant and I'm talking/visiting with other people.

[lisavark]

My DD is a REALLY slow eater too. I just never clean up. Recently I set up a mini-fridge for her with food in it for her, and I'm working on getting some shelves for her snacks. Of course, that's just for snacks, but it's nice that she can help herself...and she cleans it up herself, too. She puts the food back in the fridge and washes her plate in a little bowl I keep there for her with some soapy water and a little sponge.

For mealtimes, of course I serve her food, but I usually don't clean it up till later because it takes her so long to eat. Breakfast is the only exception since we are usually going somewhere, playgroup or storytime if not preschool. Even that sometimes I'll just let her keep playing with it/eating/picking at it until we leave, and then I clean it up before I serve her lunch after we get home. Lunch I clean up after nap (or rest time, more likely, since she hardly ever naps), and dinner I just leave there till after she goes to bed. She'll keep going back and eating more if the food is still out.

She's 2.5, but I've been kinda leaving food out for her all the time for at least the past six months, I think. Generally by the time she's finished a meal it's almost time for snack, so she just eats on the go a lot. I *always* have a *lot* of snacks in my bag for her! Every time she's in the car or the stroller, she's eating.