Since we changed helpers, dinner time has become super stressful for both the kids and me. Previous helper used to either feed or poke them to keep feeding themselves, generally coaxing them to finish their food and quickly.
The kids still don't like this helper as much. Yu doesn't even want her to feed him unless I went to the toilet or shower. So I had to feed when Yu doesn't feel like feeding himself.
I'd much prefer to just watch them eat and chat with them or read books to them, and let someone else poke them to eat :(
Finally, this week, I decided to make a change to dinner.
We used to put all the meat and egg/tofu and vege onto individual bowls of rice for them. From Monday, I told A to put all the side dishes on a tray plate and told the kids to take side dishes for themselves.
Rules:
1) They must try everything.
2) They decide how much or little of each dish they want.
3) One boy can't have all of one side dish; they must share unless the others decide they don't want any more of it.
First two days went better than expected. They helped themselves to the side dishes but of course, they didn't eat much vege - 20% of vege were taken at best. But I was already happy that they actually took a bit of vege!
We had fried rice yesterday and resumed the common side dishes today. For the first time, Yu didn't want any side dishes! I had him try some egg and fish, and he wanted them - yeah! No luck with the vege and tofu though...
Yang and Yu sat together on Tuesday
Feeding themselves very well!
There are still other woes at dinner time. Kai usually starts and finishes his dinner first. Then he would keep talking to his brothers, especially Yang. I had to stop him from asking Yang to play chess else Yang could not finish his food!
And of course, they continue to be slow. Have to work on that separately. For now, I'll focus on giving them some power over their dinner and introduce more varieties to them through A's cooking!
Yang was still eating; why can't Kai play quietly like Yu??
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