Thread: Meal Time WWYD
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Lissa Kristine 07:27 AM 10-21-2017
I know this was for slightly older kids (18 months on up), but when I worked at a daycare where students had a school lunch that included milk, I never served milk when I initially served the food.

Say lunch was chicken nuggets, brown rice, green beans, and milk. I would, first, serve the green beans and wait a few minutes. That way, if the kids were REALLY hungry, they'd take a few bites (otherwise, they would often fill up on the meat and grain). Afterwards, I'd serve the rest of the food (in reverse order of how the kids would eat them if they had them on their own).

I allowed water cups at the table from the start, but milk was not served until near the end of the meal. If I served it at the beginning, the kids often drank their milk and did not eat.

Maybe you can try something like that. No milk/bottles for any of the children until after 15-20 minutes of eating. At 11.5 months, DCG should be ok with drinking her bottle in the same way an older child would drink milk- sitting at the table.

I do agree that she's probably still full. Switching meal and bottle times would probably help. Another option would be to extend the gap between meals and bottle time in addition to switching. (ie: Lunch at 11, Bottle at 12- or keep Lunch at 11:30 and offer the bottle at 12:30). I would probably go with having a larger gap between meals and bottle. If she knows she's getting a bottle right after lunch, she may decide to keep refusing food and just hold out for her bottle, but if she doesn't have a bottle immediately after meals, she might give in.
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