So, I have this little peanut who just turned 3 in May. She's been with me since March and has fit in wonderfully. She has come so far with her self sufficiency skills, potty training, and feeding (literally could do NOTHING on her own due to extreme coddling at home).
I don't know if you remember me mentionaing before that I had a horrible eater who would literally go the enitre day without eating a single bite because all she is fed at home is McDonalds and dry sugary cereals. She was not impressed with my healthy menu and no amount of positive reinforcement ("when your plates are clean we can have a cookie"), or "when you are finished, you can go play", etc even phased her so I stopped trying. If she didn't eat, she didn't eat.

Well, recently, she's started eating!! She still won't eat for Mom at home, but she's eating fruits and veggies and healthy foods of all sorts here now. She seems to have real sensory isses with foods and will gag at least once at every meal.

So, here's my dilemma. Since she's started eating, lunch takes FOREVER. It takes the other kids max 20 min to eat their lunch, and her at LEAST 45 minutes (I've taken it away at 1 hour) Under normal circumstances, I would put a time limit on her lunch, and take it away at that time saying "lunch is over!". However, I'm just so happy that she's finally eating a balanced diet that I don't want to put a hinder on that either. She doesn't complain when the other children get down and go play, she just sits there and continues to eat taking little wee bites but still constantly eating. It seems strange that at age 3 she is still getting the hang of eating, but that's exactly what it looks like from my perspective.

I've considered just letting her do her thing and be more patient for a few months until she's comfortable food-wise, and I've considered trying to nip it in the bud now and giving her a time limit.

Thoughts? Suggestions? (sorry so long!)