Hi,

I have a question regarding my girlfriend's 10yr old daughter (one of twins). Normal build for her age, though it is noticeable that she is slightly smaller than her twin, who eats normally. Meal times is becoming a struggle!

The crux of the problem is she eats very slowly and it has been noticed that she still continues to put food into her mouth, though having not yet swallowed the previous mouthful, she does eventually swallow some but her cheeks resemble that of a hamster's!! But just chews and chews, whilst has said contine to fill her mouth with food.

This behaviour occurs to a variety of foods but predominately at evening meal time. The other 5 members of the family all eat at a moderate speed and finish their meals normally, yet X will eat her's slowly (which is her prerogative) but we could all be waiting an extra 30mins sometimes, this is also on top of her amounts that are on her plate have been reduced.

However put something nice and tasty delicious before her (such as ice cream or sweets) and there is no evidence of the fore mentioned behaviour.

When quizzed on this eating habit, she has no answers though did once approach about not liking to swallow stuff ...and it has come to light very recently that her Dad said he was tubby when a child!! I should mention that this has happened before but the problem seem to have disappeared or so we thought.

So is this some sort of real food disorder or maybe a psychological problem, any advice or previous experience on this issue would be greatly appreciated.