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Eating together?

Kady is 16 months now and our mealtimes are still separate! I keep trying to make them the same time but the problem is, is he takes tons of distraction to get him to eat.
If I make a meal which he can feed himself with, he will generally just play with it before tossing it on the floor. If it is 'sloppy type' food, I will feed him but have to take his mind off eating by using various distractions. This is usually the only way to get a decent meal into him!
This is why we don't end up eating together as my meal has gone stone cold by the time I get a chance to eat it.

Was ok with eating separately but was round at my friends the other day and she was saying how important she thought it was to all eat together as a family at mealtimes. Would love to do this but whilst he needs my full attention don't see how we can?
Just got me wondering how you girls do it?

Replies

  • Hi
    I started eating with my son when he was a baby as I found he eats better when someone else is eating at the same time.
    Now I have 2 kiddies I eat with them at 5ish and Hubby eats his dinner when he gets in later and then we eat together at weekends and we sit and have breakfast together aswell if possible.
    I do find sometimes that I can be up and down at the table and not be able to sit and enjoy my meal.But a lot of the time its ok and I too believe that its better to eat together and I find if I ever give Eve her dinner on her own she doesn't eat so well.
  • Zachariah is coming up to 14 mth and we try to always eat together as we tend to eat the same things, it's not stress free and be doesnt feed himself yet so it tends to be 1 mouthful for him then 1 for me. Hubby however tends to eat on his own as he comes home late and doesn't care so much for family meal times at the table. When Zachariah is older though I will be trying to enforce eating together though as it really is a great bit of quality time together just chatting about each others days and showing interest in each other
  • We still have ours separate and Kara is the same age as Kade. I find it easier that way and maybe when she feeds herself properly I will end up having them together. She loves feeding herself but I have to watch her carefully so it doesn't land on the floor. I have to be extra careful as well as her being diabetic I have to make sure I know what she eats so she gets her proper carbohydrates at mealtimes so her blood sugars are ok. This makes it a bit more difficult to eat with her.
  • Chloe is 16 1/2 mnths and we have just nicely started eating our t at the same time. wen hubby gets in at 4 we all sit down and eat,chloe loves feeding herself and has just got to grips with her folk but cant use a spoon yet so if its messy we usually juggle feeding her and eating our t. me an chloe always have dinner to gether too x
  • Hi we all eat together, you night find that Kade will eat better when you are all together at a table anyway. Isaac is hit and miss, sometimes he will eat really well and othertimes he throws the food around becuase he wants me to do it for him. It is nice to eat together though, I found it freed up more time as I wasnt cooking separate meals. Good luck xx
  • Hiya I find Max eats better when I'm sitting with him as well.
    When he started on solid food I would give him loadsd of attention if he didn't eat and I was panicking about him not eating enough and I think he learned that if he didn't eat anything he would get lots of attention, so I had to stop that!
    Now he sits in his highchair at the table and has his plate of food, while I'm eating mine. I don't make a fuss I just leave him to get on with it. If he's not eating anything, I'll pick something up and put it in his hand and he'll then start to eat.
    I know he's had enough when he picks up his entire plate and starts emptying it onto the highchair tray.

    Also, sometimes we have the tv on at teatime and when its on he doesn't really pay much attention to anything else! :\)
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