Children who cannot feed themselves

clairec79

To be fair to Polish he wasn't saying that a 5 year was having help cutting the food (which IMHO is fair enough for a 5 year old depending on type of food) but that the child was having it forked into his mouth- there is a big difference

Buttonmoons

I sometimes feed my 4 year old, don't care what people have to say about it either :rotfl: She's a bit barmy with food, and doesn't really like eating, more so "new things" or "saucy" things. So I tell her to close her eyes, and put a bit of everything on her fork and let her eat it without having to "SEE" the bits she doesn't like, and you know what it works, because now she will eat pasta/spanish chicken/curry etc, where as before, she would start hyperventalting and workin herself up into a right state.
She eats those meals by herself now :rotfl: but as she is one of those people who are zero interested in "meals" she will easily eat 2 bites, and leave it, and eat nothing till the next day, so sometimes I have to jolly her on and fork it into her mouth.

I do agree eating with your mouth open is foul, hate when people slurp tea too though

newidentity

clairec79 wrote: »

To be fair to Polish he wasn't saying that a 5 year was having help cutting the food (which IMHO is fair enough for a 5 year old depending on type of food) but that the child was having it forked into his mouth- there is a big difference

and to be fair to anyone else, PBS does not know the circumstances with this child. My daughters pins (from surgery) came out through her elbow making it very difficult to bend to get food towards her mouth, PBS would not have been able to tell and would be judging us - nice ....

niklepic

Shock horror.... I sometimes feed my 5 year old son. He looks "normal" but has DMD and tires very easily. He sometimes doesn't have the strength in his arms to lift the fork up to his mouth! He also eats with his mouth open as he has co-ordination problems and a large tongue and can't physically eat with his mouth closed. He's also about to go back into a pushchair :eek:

My 12 year old however eats perfectly well (with her mouth closed)and has been out of a pushchair for many years!!!

Just_Plain_Jane

My seven-year-old is a very slow eater. She can use a knife and fork perfectly well, but I have been known to put food in her mouth whilst in a restaurant just so that we can get out a bit quicker! She is often there ages after everyone else has finished, chatting away and procrastinating.

It's not really any of the OP's business if a mother wants to feed her child for whatever reason.

PolishBigSpender

newidentity wrote: »

and to be fair to anyone else, PBS does not know the circumstances with this child. My daughters pins (from surgery) came out through her elbow making it very difficult to bend to get food towards her mouth, PBS would not have been able to tell and would be judging us - nice ....

Sorry, but the child was perfectly able to place other things near his mouth. I'm still wondering what this mysterious illness is that prevents people from using a fork, but not using all sorts of other things. As I said - I watched him make the full range of movements with his arm, including even sucking his thumb at one point - so there was no "hypermobility" problems there.

It's interesting how people are making excuses about the behaviour of a British child though - including the assumption that "Something must be wrong with him". I'd say it's rather nasty to assume that someone has an unseen disability just because they can't do certain things.

The only "problem" was that he was either not taught or was so spoiled - one of the two. And I'd like to know if this is normal in the UK, not having seen it anywhere else.

Cutting up meat - that's fine. Some meat can be tricky to cut, so it's really no issue.

There's something that I wanted to ask - are there really healthy children over the age of 3 using pushchairs in the UK? I saw this for myself, but - is it common?

andrealm

I don't think anyone has assumed anything, we're just keeping an open mind and pointing out that there may be other reasons that you haven't considered. Or he may have been spoilt and his parents haven't taught him to use a knife and fork, there is just no way of knowing.

I would have thought most parents would rather their children were able to feed themselves, as it makes their lives easier.

My daughter used a buggy until she turned 4, as I don't drive and we do quite a bit of walking. She didn't use it all the time, so probably still did more walking than some children who are driven everywhere. Is there a reason why children over 3 should never use a buggy? Quite honestly, when you are 25, will anyone actually care what age you stopped using a buggy at, or could use a knife and fork?

Bruja_2

Is it 'normal' for 5 year olds to be fed? - No
Is it 'common' for over 3s to be in pushchairs? - No
A small percentage of the british population act abnormally, it's the same in all countries.
You say you lived in Britain for a couple of years, if this is the most abnormal behaviour you've seen you didn't get out much.

Indie_Kid

PolishBigSpender wrote: »

I can tell you for a fact that there was nothing "special needs" about this child except laziness. It looked like he didn't know how to use a fork and knife - which is shocking!

How do you know he doesn't have special needs? I have a movement disorder, which amongst other things, causes extreme pain and limited movement in my upper limbs. I am also partially sighted. I'm 21 and still struggle to cut up steak and pizza using a pizza cutter and I can't do up my own laces. I look normal. (or drunk, depending on how temperamental my body decides it's going to be)

I'm still wondering what this mysterious illness is that prevents people from using a fork, but not using all sorts of other things.

A fork is much harder to use than a bottle of juice.

I'd say it's rather nasty to assume that someone has an unseen disability just because they can't do certain things.

I'd say it's rather nasty to assume that because someone looks fine and can't do certain things, that they're lazy.

Bruja_2

Is it 'normal' for 5 year olds to be fed? - No
Is it 'common' for over 3s to be in pushchairs? - No
A small percentage of the british population act abnormally, it's the same in all countries.
You say you lived in Britain for a couple of years, if this is the most abnormal behaviour you've seen you didn't get out much.