My preschooler (4 years old) eats breakfast sooooo slow in the mornings. Sometimes she will purposely eat slow by having food in her mouth but she doesn't chew and swallow. It gets really frustrating and sometimes it becomes a battle. I nag, she's defiant, I yell, she cries and we're both upset. I need a new approach. I know some would say well, if she doesn't eat then just let her go hungry and she will learn. I get that but I guess I've always felt guilty letting her go to school hungry. What would you do? Have you ever let your child go to school without eating breakfast? How hard would you try to make them eat? Is it challenging at your house in the mornings?
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We just don't have time in the morning as my little guy eats impossibly slow too but he is allowed to eat his breakfast at school so that is what we do. Is that a possibility for you? He eats faster there because he wants to go play.
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I try not to stress too much. She gets a snack, lunch and another snack at school. She isn't going to starve. Mine is so distracted in the morning plus she's more of a grazer anyway. I just try to get something in her before she leaves. Mornings are hard!
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@dolphin: can she finish in the car?
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Is she hungry? If there is a time in the day for a morning snack, I do allow my son to decide how much he eats for breakfast. I am glad if he eats half of a bagel or a bowl of cheerios for example.
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My son does exactly the same thing. If he doesn't eat/finish, he just goes to school. They have snack in the morning though, so I don't stress too much about it. I've seen him wolf food down when he's hungry, so I just figure he's not too hungry if he's eating that slow.
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Mine just finishes in the car if she is being slow. She usually has just a waffle and a couple glasses of milk anyway and then second breakfast at school if she is still hungry.
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We've dealt with this and usually just let him go to school without eating. He'll get a snack soon after getting there anyway.
Another idea is to get her completely dressed and ready first, then she can eat with whatever time is left, and whatever she doesn't eat you pack up and bring to school.
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Same as others. Our preschool offers a morning snack, so if the kid doesn't eat breakfast before we leave, I know he won't starve.
We usually give them waffles for breakfast, so that's something he can finish in the car if he wants to as well, but we don't stress about it.
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We set a timer. If he is just playing around, the timer usually motivates him to get eating. Otherwise, I don't worry about it. There is lots of food available to him at school.
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@travellingbee: They don't do breakfast at school but she does get a snack later in the day that she usually does not eat either because she's so picky!
@Mamaof2: Our car ride is only 2 minutes. Her school is just down the street! And we still need an hour in the morning to get ready because she eats so slow!
@looch: Maybe not. I guess I'm just too worried that she would be hungry and cranky at school. I would be happy if she eats a mini bagel or half a bowl of cereal too but even just that takes her forever! She does always drink a glass of milk though (she loves milk) so maybe I should just be happy with that.
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I would probably set a timer and explain that we only have X minutes to eat and then we need to leave. It's not going to do any harm if she's hungry at school for a few days while she figures out that if she doesn't eat breakfast, she'll be hungry.
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I agree with PP's that besides natural consequences, there isn't much you can do to get a kid to eat faster. I wanted to add that it might help to have a "reset" day where you talk about the expectation and consequence instead of just carting her off to school one day without finishing. And then once you've explained that things will be a little different, try to give no attention to the slow eating. My son is a slow eater too, so I know it's hard, but just like your LO, my son will purposefully eat slower when I pay attention to it and then it becomes a power struggle.
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@kiddosc: I've thought about using a timer but haven't actually tried it. Do you think it usually motivates them to eat faster? I'll give it a try!
@Chuckles: You're totally right about the power struggle. DD has always been very strong willed and I swear, the more I tell her to eat faster, the slower she eats! I need to learn to just let it go.
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@dolphin: I think timers work well because it removes the power struggle. This is the amount of time you have to eat and I'm not going to bother you about it. It will take a little bit of time for her to figure out the consequences of not eating, and to figure out if she wants to eat more or not, but this puts the ball in her court while you still maintain a bit of control over the schedule.
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I use a visual timer app. "Here you go. You have 20 minutes. When the app turns yellow you have to finish up and red means you have to take your last bites." Then I literally walk away. When the timer goes off I whisk the plate away and announce it's time to do whatever the next thing is. "Hope you chose to make your tummy full. Time to put on shoes."
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@MrsSRS: Oh I think a visual timer is a great idea! I'll look for a free one at the app store I can download.
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If your kid has issues with telling the time on the timer, you can set it to music. For instance, you can say "Mommy thought it would be fun to make breakfast time special with breakfast music. Doesn't that sound fun? But when it's over, we are leaving for school and breakfast will be done, okay?" Then pick enough songs to get you 10-15 minutes. Fifteen minutes should be plenty for breakfast. If you want she can pick her breakfast songs, which may give her some control and get her to eat. Then you can give her the last song warning (pick a song that's like 2 minutes long at least to end the playlist) and say "Okay, this is the last song. After this is over we have to go okay?" And then just be done and move on.
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@dolphin: yep I just found a free one. I set my phone where it can be seen but not touched and they watch it slowly fill the circle and when the time is up it makes a bubble sound.
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@dolphin: if she'll drink milk could you either do a smoothie or fortify the milk in some way?
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@Kemma: That's a good idea. I use to make her smoothies when she was younger but never tried it as breakfast. Do you have any yummy breakfast smoothie recipes to share?
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