Lil’ Duck is pretty good about eating things before about 4pm or so, but a lot of parents are having great troubles getting their toddlers to stop playing and EAT already! Here are some ideas from their mommies…

• I finally resorted to saying I was going to give her dinner to the dogs, which she absolutely will not tolerate.
• Bribery!! You can have a candy if you eat all of your ______.
• I make him sit (usually on a regular chair) until the adults at the table have finished their first course. That creates the habit of sitting for dinner. After that he can get down if he needs to. As he sits, however, he often gets more interested in eating as there’s nothing else to do.
• When she does say that she’s finished, I’ll ask her “Can I put this in the garbage then?” She’ll either say yes and go off to play or say no and come back and finish eating…it’s just my way of knowing that she’s truly done. We’re now starting to get her to scrape her own plate into the garbage, so if she’s says she’s done, I tell her to go scrape and she’ll either do so or sit down again for more.
• Sitting at the table makes her focus on food instead of the TV/toys/etc.
• I’d also clear the table and not leave the food out for hours if she doesn’t choose to eat. With 3 meals and 2-3 snacks in a day, skipping a meal won’t hurt a toddler And if skipping a meal means you make the next snack a little bigger (or add a bedtime snack when you usually don’t) that’s an easy way to make up the nutrition difference.
• Sit all the kids down to eat at the same time, and if they don’t eat then they don’t eat. I suppose I should do more of that at home, but I tend to let her eat when she’s hungry, or when we’re about to go somewhere, except for dinner time.

Be sure to visit the rest of the Works For Me Wednesday tips for other great ideas as well.

Linked to Third World County, Stuck on Stupid, The Random Yak & The Bullwinkle Blog.