How I tackled my fussy eaters!

As I sit across them,watching them eat, I thank God for how good they are at the table. But there was a time, a time from what feels like a long ago, when I almost cried at every meal time. When eating food seemed like a chore more than anything. Every meal would take an hour and sometimes more. And then one day it all just flipped over....
Well not really- that would be a fairy tale. But as I look back on our long lunch and long dinners, I realized that there were several things that helped the kids become better eaters. Being small built, I do not expect them to gobble down a whole lot. But the only thing I want for my almost four and six year old is a healthy appetite with plenty of variety and a good serving of everything from the food triangle.
When I hear parents complain about how their kids do not eat or are slow eaters I am so tempted to advise. But every child is different and here is how I tackled my fussy eaters

Eat on their own
At about 2 years, my second one, Z was a very poor eater. She was way below her weight on the pediatrician weight curve. In addition feeding her was a pain! Its not like she spat her food, which is something I see a lot of kids do, but she just took it in and pushed it to one side of her mouth, let it settle in the cheek and waited at least an hour before she swallowed it. I realised soon that yelling at a 2 year old only made me hoarse. Trying to force more food only made the process longer and more annoying. I tried to make the food watery/ soupy so that she would just drink it up from the spoon. But that was really not the solution.
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