We never really back up and say ‘did you REALLY get that part, because you’re going to NEED it for the next 14 years?’. I can remember I was sick for multiple weeks when we were learning division. I came back, and we were already onto the next topic, and it was just assumed I knew it. Now, I was super-lucky, in that I understood multiplication well enough to puzzle it out. Not every student cares, especially when they are like 8 years old. Just want to learn it enough to pass and be done with Math. ‘What do you mean I have more Math next year too???’
As soon as you miss a single step in the mathematics education train, well, you’re going to be hating math for the rest of your schooling. It’s a series of incremental building blocks, but we never double check that each student really has each piece.
I have an unhealthy relationship with food. Oddly, the thing that really finally made it click was playing the Sims, and I noticed my Sim would get up & grab a snack from the fridge every single time they were bored.