My son is 15 months old. He is small, right at 1st percentile on the charts and has been since he was tiny. He's never been that into eating (I watch other babies his age piling into their food) but he just loses interest really fast and wants to get down ('det da') from his high chair after a few mouthfuls, or starts pointing at everything else in the room. I have taken on loads of tips, like lay out only a few small bits of finger food at a time, etc, keep calm and don't stress, and so on. He's so skinny I can see his ribs. Health visitor says it's ok but it just breaks my heart to see him so thin. What shall I do? The only thing he will eat and finish is yoghurt and Weetabix. Othewise, he's well. Hares around, starting to walk, won't stop chattering, sociable...
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How can I get my 15 month old boy to eat more?
Gemmona · 04/07/2011 12:03
I don't think the weight centime means much without correlating it to height etc. As Rita says, if he's always been at that level ...
My DS dropped from just over 50th to below 25th at 9 months which got the HV really excited, especially as he is on the 90th height wise. I think basically it was because he got a lot more active.
A child who is not having enough to eat would not be as active as OP says her son is.
Have you tried including him in the preparation process? My son is enthralled by cooking, even just putting cheese on toast under the grill and if he's been a bit uninterested in his lunch I get him to help with tea. Obviously given the age of your son he'd be mainly observing, but you can get him to put the cut up veg on his plate etc.
My son is going through a phase of not liking to use his spoon and fork (just into the challenging 2s) and so we're trying to stick with foods he can dunk in ketchup or yoghurt dip, which always makes food more interesting doesn't it 
Doesn't "failure to thrive" mean crossing two centile lines and displaying other signs of being unwell? It's a worrying term that shouldn't be banded about oldmum. 
As rita says someone has to be on the 1st centile. That's how averages work. In this instance one in a hundred babies will be on or below it. Doesn't mean there is anything wrong with them. Especially if they are happy and active like the op's ds.
Gemmona to my non expert opinion your ds sounds fine. But i can understand your concern.
My ds (16m) goes through phases of waking up hungry in the night, despite bf on tap, so we try and encourage him to stock up in the evening. I have a light touch with this iyswim, as i don't want him to eat beyond his appetite, but he just gets bored of being in the high chair.
When he gets bored we let him down and he wonders around. When he comes near us we offer him forkfulls from our plates. Then he goes off for a bath. We make him a plate full of little snackets. Stuff like cheese on toast, bits of left over spanish omlete or whatever he likes at the time. We just leave it where he can get at it. Cutting it up small means he can just pop a small bit in, rather than drag it round the room. Though it's still a bit messy!
It's suprising how much he'll eat like that over the course of an evening. And when he doesn't at least i know he had plenty of opportunity and just wasn't bothered. Maybe something like this could work for you (if you're not doing it already that is). Even if your ds doesn't eat more at least you can rest assured he was full, not bored. I do know someone who even as an adult can't be bothered with food and would rather have a pill to do the job. Bet he was on the 1st centile and he is, of course, fine. 
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