Another successful toddler feeding tip I have learnt is to not watch our child too much during a meal. For some reason our daughter will not eat when she is being overly watched and I can’t blame her. I don’t really like it either.
I try to make sure that I am preparing the family meal or doing other jobs in the kitchen while I am feeding her. That way she does not feel as if all the attention is on her and what she is eating and it also means that I am close in case she needs some assistance in the use of her knife and fork (or to scrape the food off the ceiling!).
Generally I will drop a small portion on her plate and then go back to what I was doing without checking to see if she will eat it. I am trying to give the impression that I don’t care if she eats it or not.
It might take a few minutes but eventually the food will casually be eaten whereby another piece will magically appear on the plate.
It does take a decent amount of time to get her to eat a full meal this way but as I am working in the kitchen anyway it is not as if I am wasting time.
She can take as long as she wants and as I am busy myself and not hanging over her head waiting for her to finish she doesn’t feel any pressure.
The only disadvantage I can see is that I don’t ever actually see the food get eaten but as I don’t find it on the floor or in her pockets and she seems to be growing well then there is only one place it could be going.
Can I watch you eat…?