15 month old not eating well suddenly

[Bubbagirl]

My Dd2 is just over 15 months and for the last two weeks has been eating really badly. Generally breakfast is good, lunch is ok but dinner time she has become really picky.
She's basically surviving on tomato pasta. If I serve her something like fish cakes, rice and veg then she'll just eat the fish cake. I gave her sausage casserole the other day and she refused to touch any of it (something she's previously devoured). Yesterday she had crispy chicken, new potatoes and peas and she ate the chicken, wouldn't touch the potato and picked at a few peas.
I'm not offering any alternatives and trying not to make it an issue but please tell me this is a normal stage? and she will grow out of it? as I dread every dinner time waiting to see if she'll eat any of what I put in front of her and worrying about her having a balanced diet. Any advice or words of wisdom would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks

[HoustonBess]

Normal. They go through phases, she won't fade away or never eat a vegetable again.

I read it's natural for kids to be fussy at the point they're able to crawl around a bit more and stray further from their mother. Sticking to safe known foods makes sense from an evolutionary perspective. Imagine you're a hunter gatherer, you don't want your baby to eat something harmful when they go exploring.

Don't sweat it, just make sure you keep the fluids up and it'll pass.

[Signhereplease]

My DC wouldnt eat when teething. Every time.

[BertieBotts]

This is totally normal. They eat everything from about 8-9 months until about now, then they massively scale back both in quantity and variety leading parents to panic and worry. But it's totally fine :) Her growth will have slowed down a lot, which means that her caloric requirements have hugely dropped. It's really common for one year olds to suddenly be eating about a third of what they would have eaten before.

She probably will grow out of it but we are talking on average years, not weeks - sorry. Reduce the portions that you offer her (you can give more if she asks for more), keep offering healthy food (don't get sucked into trying to entice her to eat with junk food), water only to drink (juice fills them up with empty calories) and in general trust her to take what she will need. A child who is healthy and developmentally normal (meeting milestones, not lethargic, no special dietary needs) is not going to starve themselves. There are a couple of different schools of thought on snacking - one approach is just stick to mealtimes and don't do snacks at all, the other is more of a whole day grazing approach where you don't worry too much about mealtimes but separate the food of three "meals" out into little snack type portions to be eaten as and when. It doesn't really matter which you do (or if you choose to do normal meals and snacks) just pick an approach which feels right to you.

They are quite clever - they do need more protein, fats, animal products, a small amount of fruit or vegetables and very little in the way of carbs.

If you feel anxious about it I can highly recommend the book My Child Won't Eat by Carlos Gonzales.

[Bubbagirl]

Thanks for all your replies. So it's been going on for over a month now. But she has now also stopped eating other meals well. She's basically just surviving on breakfast alone (which is weetabix and occasionally toast). So not covering her nutritionally at all really.
Thanks for the book suggestion @BertieBotts, I've bought it, just trying to find the time to read it 😂
I'm just starting to dread and hate mealtimes. She basically just cries and whinges through the whole thing. She might pick at a couple of bits she's like (fruit mainly) and then she pushes the plate away and cries.
Just finding it so so hard. How long does this "stage" usually last?!! I vaguely remember my first getting a bit picking around this age but she was still eating 3 meals just being a bit picky about which bits or how much she ate. But with dd2 she's just not even trying stuff or even interested ☹️.
At what point do I say enough is enough and take her to docs (not that I think they'll help much). She's not tiny or anything so weight not an issue yet but it will be if this carries on much longer.
Thanks again

[Bubbagirl]

...sorry I should've said. The one and only dinner she will eat is pasta (tomato based). So I know I can hide lots in the sauce and she will eat it so doing that a couple of times a week but don't want to only serve that as obviously then that will be the only thing she'll eat. 🤦‍♀️

[missanony]

Is she having too much milk? Does she want to feed herself?

I think it’d be unusual for a ‘no’ phase to last long at her age, maybe expect it when they’re closer to 2.

Mine knows what she likes & doesn’t like a bit more now but is still hungry

[Bubbagirl]

She only has one bottle at bedtime and it's only 5oz so don't think milk is the issue. Yes she feeds herself. She'll occasionally ask for help by offering up spoon to me but if I try to help her otherwise she gets cross 😂