Toddler on hunger strike

[justanothermummy2b]

My 19-month-old has suddenly decided he won't eat anything other than breakfast (usually a combination of either cereal, porridge and toast, crumpets or wholewheat muffins)

He has always had a good appetite and eaten or tried most things I put infront of him and usually eats at least two decent-sized meals a day. But over the past week he has become a nightmare. He is keen enough to eat breakfast but when we get to lunch and dinner, he throws a massive tantrum as soon as I put food infront of him.

It doesn't matter what it is - fruit, veg, meat, pasta - he is refusing to eat anything new or any previous favourites. He just starts screaming and throwing it all over the floor. He is not sick and he has no teeth coming through so it isn't that.

He is not a big snacker, so we don't really do inbetween-meal snacks and I don't let him eat cake or sweets or anything unhealthy.

I usually give him a small variety of things to choose from at each meal and I don't mind if he doesn't eat all of it, as long as he eats something and up until now this has worked really well.

I've now had a week of screaming tantrums at meal times and for the past two days all he has eaten has been breakfast. He's always been a good weight and isn't exactly fading away but I'm at the end of my patience with this behaviour, especially as up until now he has always been so mild-mannered and calm. Anyone have any suggestions?

[JiltedJohnsJulie]

Does sound pretty normal, if a little stressful. Have you tried giving him a dose of calpol about 30 mins before his mealtime, just to rule out pain or discomfort?

What do you do when he behaves like this?

Do you all eat together and how much milk does he have a day?

[SerendipityDooDah]

Will he eat breakfast foods again at lunch or dinner time? If you try giving him more cereal or toast and he eats it, it would seem likely he just going through a super fussy stage in terms of food choices. Mine went through periods where he would only have breakfasty foods for all 3 meals. If he refuses more of what he's happy to eat at breakfast, then perhaps there is some discomfort going on.