Luckily our computer is in the kitchen. It has been 45 minutes, so dinner is officially over. My children, however have yet to finish their food.
So you ask me, "Why do you make them eat all their food?"
I answer, "All of their food? I would just like for them to eat enough of their food. I make things they think taste good, but they are so darn slow at eating that their brains think they're full even though they haven't eaten enough t o really be full. Bedtime is in thirty minutes. Exactly after reading their books (45 minutes from now) they say, and it never fails, that they are 'hungry to the floor'". They won't fall asleep until they've eaten something. So, we drudgingly come back out to the kitchen and eat something. It makes me mad that they just nibble nibble nibble and then they're hungry again.
Now, I have absolutely no problem with a bedtime snack, in fact, right after scriptures and prayer it is on the menu to have some yogurt and toast. If I take that away, they really don't fall asleep.
So, if you have a better solution for me, then by all means comment some suggestions.
Home, Family, and Fun!
13 comments:
By the way, I am serious about suggestions. My mom died in 1993, so my whole adult life I've been w/o a mom. I am the youngest, so I have no prior experience to qualify me for motherhood. So, suggest away. I need some good nagging, too. :-)
My kids don't like a lot of the stuff I cook. I know...surprise, surprise...:) Anyway, I learned that no matter what, I have to have some sort of bread (rolls, anything) on the table. They always eat the bread, no matter what else we serve.
Sometime, I use bribery too. I know, it's not the best, but as long as they take at least a few bites out of one food served, they get something (like 5 extra minutes of staying up or something like that). I hope this helps a little. Good luck!
ps: I did not know about your Mom. I am so sorry!
I usually try to have a grain at the table. I just try to vary it..rice one night, pasta the next, bread or couscous. My kids love that part, too. Last night with the stir fry, we had "magic noodles"-(Bean Threads) and rice, too, which I forgot to take off the heat when the buzzer rang, so it steamed some smoke in there...whoops, so that was not a favorite. It wasn't disgusting, so I served it anyways, minus the bottom layer that browned....I did not make anyone eat it, but they all did.
Last night, I told them that after the end of dinner, every 10minutes they took to eat, they lost one of their books...by the last book, they mysteriously ate it all in 5 minutes. And guess what? They slept all night without waking from hunger.
I tried to tell H., because he's 5, that I really need him to do that at the beginning of dinner instead of at the end of our rope.
I gave them 4 stars on their "I finished my dinner chart" last night.
We'll see how it goes tonight.
Thank you Ioana for the suggestions!! I really appreciate it.
Hello- I came across your blog from a friend's and thought I'd leave my 2 cents. We used to have the same trouble with our 6 year old. We found that if we let him help plan the menu and even help make part of the meal, even if it just means stirring or getting out ingredients, it seems to make him more interested in eating dinner. When he says he's done, I tell him 5 more bites and then remind him that this is dinner, the last meal of the day. If I know he hasn't eaten enough, I will let him have a quick snack before bed, but I make sure it's healthy and it is my choice. It seems to help steer him the next day to eating dinner. Also, with dinner, give choices. Have a least a few different things, such as sides, etc, and at least one of those that you know the kids like. At least then, they'll eat that one thing. (Better than nothing!) My pediatrician keeps telling me they won't starve themselves. There are days our son eats a ton and others I'm lucky to get his 5 bites in! Hope that helps a bit! Good luck!
Thank you Jill for the tips. This week, I had our children help in the menu and they always help when we are making something desserty, but I need to remember to allow for more help on the mail meals, too. It is so much easier to send them out of the kitchen to play while I'm cooking, but I should have them grind the spices and stuff like that. They love that stuff. :-)
It sounds like you have a nice routine on the 5 bite rule, so we need to come up with something like that that stays the same at every meal, too. Thank you!
MAIN meals, not mail meals. hehe
I guess I can't talk as from experience as a mom but when we were little mom would tell us she was curious who could finish faster, my brother or I. So we ate fast to see who wins. Also we couldn't have desert before we finished so I remember always eating my food faster to get to the desert. Now, I am told eating fast might not be the best thing, also a desert every day might not be the best either so you don't need to take my advice. So there. :)
Maddy you are awesome! I still want to write your name Madi, but oh well.
Okay that is fun that your mom made a contest out of it.
There are so many studies about so many different things that it is hard to tell which ones are viable (is that how you spell that?) :-)
Before my Grandma passed away last year, I had asked her about this problem in at our dinner table...yes, it has been going on for some time now. She told me that my Aunt used to be a stinker about eating, too. She used to let her act like a puppy for dinner. She would put her plate on the floor and she could lap up her food like a dog. Isn't that funny???
I never followed that advice (sorry Gma). I'm a big stick-in-the-mud, I guess.
We turn everything into a contest here too and it is the only thing that works sometimes. "Who can finish their vegetables first?" "Who can get buckled into the car seat the fastest?" "Who can get ready for bed the fastest?" You get the picture...
Hi R. Auntie L here. I'm sorry you're having trouble with that. I don't remember my kids not eating. Our only problem was that they were starving by 4:00pm so I always had to feed them earlier. I know super nanny has dealt with that on her show. ps. Who was the aunt that ate like a puppy? That had to have been J or E. :-)
I'm pretty sure that it was Aunt E. We love to eat together as a family, so we always wait for T. to come home before we eat (5:30), but I think that that may be a problem that they are too hungry by dinner sometimes. I need to make sure to give them a snack by 2 pm so they aren't asking for a snack at 3 or 4. Thank you for the reminder.
Carla, we make contests, too, but with a girl and a boy, sometimes, for us anyways, they get overly sensitive if they are losing...so, at dinner we sometimes can do that and sometimes we can't.
I don't know if it is a girl-boy thing or if it is just our kids, but sometimes they can handle it and sometimes it makes it worse. :-S
Hi R! This is Aunt J. This is a fun blog! By the way, it WAS Aunt E - not me :o) I don't remember my kids ever not eating either, except for J. I remember my pediatrician telling me not to worry - he would eat when he got hungry enough. But, I always had a hard time with the waiting, because he was autistic and had very different taste buds. I usually made sure I had something I knew he liked just in case. It got better as he got older. I do remember having my kids help with cooking and they always seemed to like it. :o) I can't remember if it made them want to eat better though. :o) That was ages ago!
Post a Comment