PreschoolRock.com Forum

any ideas? It's like she has ants in her pants.. takes two bites and is up and preoccupied. Drives me nuts. She finally finishes eating after I warn her with a timeout.. (kind of like 1-2-3 magic)

SunshineMom

Preschool kids as a rule don't sit still (but, hey, at least she's eating!)

:-)

Seriously, I would keep bits of food within reach of your child and let her body continue to do its job -- telling her when she needs to eat and how much. If she's on target with size and development, she's actually doing a job most of us wish we could do better: listening to her body!

Hi SunshineMom,

How old is your daughter again?

I think this is very common for preschoolers. My oldest son couldn't sit for meal very long until he was 4 or so. Here are some thoughts:

- Is she hungry? Make sure snack/juice time isn't too close to the meal.
- Try to set a time when eating is done. So you could let her graze for a while then say- "OK, it's 7 o'clock (or whatever you choose) so it's your last chance to eat before bedtime."
- Continue to tell her "it's time to eat, not play." She needs to hear what is expected but without getting into too much of a battle.

Know that she will most likely grow out of the habit. I know it's hard to wait but just know that it will change. Good luck!

Kati - Preschool Nutrition

My son gets like this sometimes. I try and be firm about the rules. We don't allow him to leave the table until he is done eating. What worked for him a few times was I told him that if he left the table it told me he was done eating so I would take his food away. That usually set him off screaming that he wasn't done and he would come back to the table.

Good Luck!

We still keep our son in a buckled booster seat to keep him from hopping down from the table and running around.  We also have just started a rule that he must take at least two bites of each of the foods on his plate before he can get down.  He knows that if he sits too long without eating, I will set the timer for two minutes and he has that time to finish up or he will have a two minute time out and then another two minutes.  We've only had to use the timeout like two or three times and then he got it and we rarely have any problems with him trying even new foods - he even brags to us when he eats his required two bites at a friend's house!  The key is picking a way and being consistent with it - if you don't expect him to sit still every time, he won't sit still every time!  Good luck!

That's a great point SAHMiAM! Consistency is so important with preschoolers. They always seem to know when they can get away with something.