Good eating habits for kids, tips for parents!
It’s almost dinner time… and your heart starts to sink as you call your 3-year-old child to the table.
Why? Because you know he’s going to take a minimum of 1 hour and a maximum of perhaps 2 hours (or longer!) to finish his meal. This is definitely something that does not fall under good eating habits for kids.
Good eating habits for kids: Is your child a slow eater?
Photo by Vanessa Loring
Introducing the “slow eater” – the child who takes forever to eat! According to experts, a child’s slow eating habit is a form of picky eating that, if not addressed, could pose a problem for the child’s overall nutrition intake.
For example, if your child takes a few hours to eat her lunch, the meal may not be completed or she may not be hungry enough by dinner time. And so the slow-eating cycle continues.
Your child’s slow eating habit could also result in a strained parent-child relationship as a result of the stress (for both of you) involved during mealtimes.
Characteristics of a slow eater
The characteristics of a slow eater include:
- Taking more than 30-45 minutes to finish a meal;
- Leaving his meal mostly untouched even after 30-45 minutes of ‘eating’;
- Playing with food;
- Holding food in the mouth for a long time without chewing;
- Chewing food without swallowing for a long time;
- Needing constant reminders to chew and swallow;
- Needing to drink water or juice with each mouthful of food.
It’s very easy to get annoyed and/or angry with your slow-eating child and to lose your temper. However, experts say that there may be reasons for your child’s slow eating habits.
These include:
- get easily distracted;
- They like experimenting with their food;
- too full from snacking throughout the day;
- They are exercising independence in eating.
Also, most children will go through a phase of slow eating, especially when they come to an age where they find playing much more interesting than eating.
Slow eating could also occur when your child’s rate of growth starts to taper and slow down, which is usually when he is around 2 years old.
Teaching good eating habits for kids
Whatever the reason for your child’s slow eating habit, don’t be disheartened.
According to Karin G. Reiter, medical nutritionist, certified fitness instructor, and lifestyle coach, the more we fret and fuss about our kids eating habits, promise and punish them with foods, the more we will get upset… and the fewer results we will see as parents.
1. Be realistic
Plan enough time for your kid’s meal and be realistic about how long it takes a child to eat.
Sure, we’ve all watched in amazement how certain kids would wolf down a meal in 10 minutes. But 30-45 minutes is actually a reasonable amount of time for a young child to finish his meal.
If you find yourself rushing your child to eat any faster than this, adjusting your expectations may help both of you to relax, which in turn, will make mealtimes less stressful.
2. Good eating habits for kids: Minimize snacks
Most kids love snacking and, if they had their way, would graze on tiny portions of food all day. But constant snacking could actually ruin your child’s appetite for his larger meals and make him eat these meals at a snail’s pace.
So keep the snacks to once a day and try to ensure that the snack is not too filling — in this regard, fruit is ideal (and healthier too).
Also, try to set a fixed feeding schedule with 3 main meals, set 3-4 hours apart.
3. Spend time with your child aside from meals
While some kids are slow eaters by nature, others may purposely take their time to eat in order to get attention from you. So do try and set aside time outside of mealtime to interact with your child.
Try to eat meals and snacks as a family at the same time every day, if at all possible. Family meals are advantageous for social, emotional, and developmental reasons, claims Dr. Christina Fink, a pediatric cardiologist.
Additionally, meals offer a chance to teach kids about portion control. For instance, you may show children that the majority of our plates should be made up of non-starchy vegetables and some fruit.
Teaching children proper table manners and wholesome eating habits at this age is also advantageous.
4. Set a time limit on meal time for kids
Set a reasonable time limit for your child to eat (30-45 minutes) and once this time is up, as difficult as it might be to do, remove his plate and calmly tell your child that mealtime is over.
If your child can tell the time, tell him before the meal starts how much time he has. If he can’t tell the time yet, try using an egg timer.
You could also set a clock or phone alarm, having it go off 5 or 10 minutes before the expected meal completion time so he knows he needs to finish up fast.
5. Teaching good eating habits for kids: Discuss the issue with your child
Photo by August de Richelieu
Talk to your child about the issue of slow eating, but at a time other than mealtime when your temper may flare, especially if he’s taking extra long to eat on that particular day!
Also discuss with your child calmly the need to put away food after a certain time to keep it fresh, as well as the need to move on to other activities other than eating.
Try to explain that if he eats faster, he has more time to engage in fun activities that he likes.
Moreover, include your child in meal planning. Allow the kids to pick the vegetable they want for supper on occasion. The sense of accomplishment they get from helping to prepare the vegetable, says pediatric dietitian Diana Schnee, “may increase their readiness to eat it.”
6. Cut out distractions during meal time for kids
Turn off the TV and ban mobile phone use and other gadgets during mealtimes.
Young kids are very easily distracted by technology and if you have the TV on during mealtimes, this may actually be contributing to your child’s slow eating behavior — by moving his attention off his meal.
7. Be mindful of serving portion size
Seeing a plate piled sky-high with food can be overwhelming even for a fast eater. So do be mindful of your child’s food portion size and keep it age appropriate, making it more achievable for him to complete the meal.
8. Use positive reinforcement
When your child does complete a meal within the allotted time, be generous with your praise and encourage him to keep at it. There’s nothing more a young kid likes than to see you pleased with him and be told he’s doing a good job!
9. Be creative with food
Try and make mealtimes fun and interesting for your slow eater. There are some really creative things you could do with your kid’s meal to make it more interesting.
For example, with basic cookie cutter shapes, you could make heart-shaped pancakes or eggs. Sandwiches could be cut into interesting shapes and veggies arranged into colorful patterns.
Meal time for kids? Karin Reiter shares these tips that might also help your child get excited by food:
- Cut veggies and fruits into stars and shapes.
- Serve your children’s food on plates that have their favorite animated creatures on them.
- Give veggies funny names: powder broccoli, silly billy green beans, x-ray carrots.
- Have your kids participate in food preparation.
10. Prepare a healthy breakfast
A healthy lunch encourages growth and development and offers your child the energy they need to go through the day.
Dr. Fink suggests that breakfast should not be substantial or complex in order to get their bodies going and feed their metabolism for the day. It should be something nourishing instead.
Don’t stress about needing to make a nice breakfast from scratch every morning. Instead, pick straightforward, kid-friendly breakfast options like toast with peanut butter or plain Greek yogurt with a few pieces of fruit.
11. Don’t forget about water
If your child only has a brief opportunity to use the water fountain throughout the school day, they can be thirsty or even dehydrated when they get home. Even worse, they might not even be conscious of it.
Dr. Fink recommends parents tell their kids to drink water when they get home from school instead of going straight for a snack. If they do not drink enough water, kids may wrongly think they are hungry when they are actually thirsty, according to experts.
Better yet, have your child bring their own water bottle to school!
Address good eating habits for kids early
Photo by Vanessa Loring
Parents, as stressful as it may be dealing with your slow eater (and I know because I have one at home myself!), things will get better with patience and perseverance. More often than not, your child’s slow eating habit is just a phase and really nothing to be worried about.
To encourage exploration and exposure, continue serving a variety of foods at mealtime. Schnee contends that letting kids choose from what’s on their plate is advantageous, especially for fussy toddlers, and that it’s okay if they just choose one or two items. But stay away from making special dishes for picky eaters.
But sometimes, according to medical experts, kids may eat slowly due to other reasons, such as food allergies, reflux, oral motor developmental delays, or sensory issues.
If your child’s slow eating habit is really worrying you and you think it may be compromising his physical/mental development, do consult your child’s doctor for assessment and advice.
Article originally published on theAsianparent Singapore
Updates by Margaux Dolores
