Rascal #2 is the most ‘lau hei’ girl (dilly dally) I have ever known. She is as cool as a cucumber all the time and has no urgency to hurry up to do anything – drink her milk in the morning, wash up and brush her teeth, dress up, do her homework and eat her food. She will only get kan cheong (panic) and start to get ready when we are just about to leave the house, else she will dilly dally with just about everything and this is absolutely driving me nuts. No amount of coaxing, threats and reminders will make her move her butt. Sometimes I felt like recording my reminders and play them on the stereo player over and over again!! Sometimes she will cry when we threaten her that we will leave the house and she is not prepared yet.
Remember I had mentioned many times that rascal #2 always takes 2-3 hours to finish her meals? Well, I have decided that enough is enough, period. If everyone else has finished their meal and she’s the only one left at the dining table, I will bring out the alarm clock and tell her this “when the long hand points to X number, I want to see your food finished, else I will throw the food away” Sometimes she tries hard to quickly eat but this fler just can’t chew her food and swallow them quickly. I guess I made a mistake right from the very start by blending her food until she’s around 3 years old. She was even fed baby cereal until she was around 3 years old coz she liked baby cereal very much and did not really fancy eating rice with dishes. Up until now, she still finds eating rice with dishes a chore!
My advice here to new moms – don’t blend your toddler’s food. Let her/him learn to chew and let her learn to eat on her own. Yes, it’s going to be super duper messy and lots of cleaning up / floor moping to do but ultimately, she will learn to eat on her own very quickly and don’t even want you to feed her. I have never blended Baby’s food and now, she can eat on her own independently. I also let her eat on her own during most meals.
A common scene in the evening. We normally start eating dinner at 6:30pm. See the clock pointing to 7:45? She had been sitting at the dining table for over an hour and still, she had half a plate full of food *shake head*
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Thanks for the good advice I will def do like you said do not blend their food. My eldest gal can eat like snails drive me nuts every meal time.If you did not ask her to eat she can just daydream there.
So I will try this method ‘no blending’ when baby ready for solids.
Have a great CNY!!!
Wow.. blend till 3? Shireen u r really a very very patient mom.. Manfred is a “slow” eater, some how he picked up at age2.. already he’s driving my limit.. So with Jude, I pretty much let him eats anything moderately… 🙂 thanks for sharing this Shireen@
hahahahaa…this is really funny but frustrating for mommy 🙂 you know, i had been feeding porridge to ashley up till she was 2 years old. this is also one of the reasons why she dislike chewing her food and eating is such a big chore to her 🙁
I start giving my kids lumpy food once they grow teeth. A little bit below 1 year old, they were already having rice with dishes. My 3 yo sometimes has a big appetite, but sometimes also eating like snail. My younger 18 months also have food preference, she can just stuff a big chunks into her mouth, so I have to feed her until now.
It’ll depends on their favourite food, I guess she will eat faster if you cooked her pasta… 🙂
My boy also eat very slowly. I used the reward method to make him eat faster. When he eats fast and on time, he will get a reward. It helps at times but not all the time.
Yes I totally agree with you on non-blended food for toddlers. They have to learn to chew and swallow, because that also helps with their speech development (I read somewhere lar). My Vic hates to chew her pork and chicken… and I gather it’s because she’s sooo used to the minced up food that we pamper her with. But thank God, she’s a rice person and also a pasta girl. Just not a meat person. 🙁 Btw, I give Vic timeline too, after we all finish our meals, I may just sit with her for a while (depends on time) and then give her until X o’clock that she MUST finish her meal. Throwing food away will just send the wrong message to the kid, that it’s ok to waste food, and she will be hungry later and ask for snacks which will be wrong. I tell Vic, NO MATTER WHAT< she must finish her food, if really cannot, at least jst finish the vege and dishes not the rice.