Imagine my frustration at Little Prince for being the world's slowest eater (and I am not exaggerating). I thought my best friend was the world's slowest eater. She used to pick small pieces from her plate and chew them extra carefully. Whenever we would have diner, I would be done an hour before her. It used to drive me nuts.
But it is nothing compared to my son. He takes all his time to eat his food. He slowly picks up his spoon or fork, takes the food, puts it in his mouth all the while looking up and down, left or right, asking silly questions, watching TV. And he takes forever to chew and swallow. Eating is more like a ritual, than a necessity for him.
It gets particularly annoying in the morning because we have a schedule. Little Prince needs to be dropped off at daycare by 9 AM. Therefore, with all the he has going on in the morning, we still need him to eat at a reasonable pace.
Before, we used to wake him up at 7 AM, feed him, make him sit on the potty, shower and dress him and send him to school. It took forever because he would be still sleepy.The fact that the TV was on did not help as well. Both my husband and I were growing more and more impatient at his eating habit. Therefore we decided to switch the schedule a bit. Now, we wake him up at 6:30 AM, shower and dress him and send him to eat his breakfast. After a nice shower, he is feeling more awake and alert to face the morning. This new strategy showed a little bit of improvement. Sometimes when I turn the TV off, he is even more focused.
Nevertheless, Little Prince is still a slow eater. It drives me crazy when he is set on choosing what piece of food he will eat first even if it is all the same like cereals. And I just want to scream when he stops and asks me 101 questions. It appears that he is the same at school. His teacher says that he socializes with his friends instead of concentrating on eating. I think it is a great quality to be friendly at a diner table but only when you are an adult, spending time with other adults. When you are a child, you just need to eat your food as fast as you can and be quiet. At least that was how I was raised.
When we were kids, my mother taught us to eat properly (meaning without spilling food and such) and in silence particularly when we ate with the entire family. We would not eat on nice plates at a dining table (it was only for special occasions like Christmas during which my mother would put out her best china). It was a habit (and a tradition) to eat around a big plate. Everyone would dig in the plate almost at the same time.
How most families eat in Senegal:
picture borrowed from off-the-beaten-track.net
Everyone eats relatively at a fast pace. We- children- also had to be fast if we wanted to eat enough of all the delicacies that were served. My brothers and I used to "fight" over french fries. It was a race to get as much as we each wanted before anyone else. This taught me to be a fast eater.
Little Prince is only 4 years old. Therefore I understand that he is still not rounded enough to be able to eat fast. However, I always tell him that because he eats on a single plate (and that his other sibling is still too young to eat with him), he does not understand the need to eat fast. If he was to share his food with other children his age, he would figure that he needs to be fast if he wants to get certain goodies before the others. I often dream of him surrounded by other siblings, fighting over food. I consider it to be a pure picture of happiness. (even though, that means I will probably need to drop more babies)
I am worried about Little Prince. I wish there was something I could do to make him eat his food faster. I tried several things: cutting his food in tiny pieces, mashing it, even feeding him. But nothing. It went up to a point when he expected me to feed him like a baby. He was becoming lazy. What I do not understand is that he used to be a very good eater. He was fast enough, and not messy at all. It started to change after his baby brother was born. I guess seeing the baby getting all this attention is affecting him more than we would like to admit.
Nevertheless, I think I just need to be more patient with him and encourage him to do better. Because after all he is just 4. In time, his eating skills will be more developped. At least, that is what I am hoping for.
