Proper Food Bite Sizes

"Rule number two: don't stuff your mouth when you're eating. It's really important that kids learn to take small bites, and I know that this is a rule of thumb that most parents follow when they're teaching their children how to eat food. With toddlers and infants, you really want to be sure that you're giving them very small bites of food because you want to avoid any sort of choking hazards. But there is also the gross factor. Nobody wants to look at a big, open mouth of food and you should explain that to your child, and explain to them why that the old "seafood" joke isn't particularly funny when you're sitting at a table with a bunch of people for dinner. So, just teach them to be respectful, to take very small bites so that they don't choke, and to chew with their mouths closed. Now this can be very hard to remember for a young child, and if your kids are having a really hard time remembering to chew with their mouths closed, you might want to create a little game for them to play at the table. If you have more than one child, you can give them each a little cup, and then put a cup of marbles in the middle of the table. And every time that somebody gets caught chewing with their mouths open, you can take a marble and put it in their cup. And then you can either decide whether you do it by the day or by the week. At the end of the day or the week, whoever has the least amount of marbles in their cup gets a prize. And that's sort of a positive reinforcement thing to do. If you don't have more than one child and you only have one, then you can still play the game and just maybe guess the first night how many marbles they get and then sort of set a limit of how many they can get throughout the week before they can get their prize. These are just some tips. Positive reinforcement is really, really important. You want to make sure that your time at the table with your children is enjoyable, so go ahead and teach them the manners, but do it in a fun way and in a way that they will be open and appreciative and really receptive to learning the rules."